Day 2: Azores Sao Miguel

 Sets Cidades

Sets Cidades is a lake that has one green side and one blue side. There is a little tale about how the lakes came to be.

The Legend of Sete Cidades

The twin lakes of Sete Cidades, Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Verde, represent the tears of a legendary princess and her beloved shepherd boy. The princess, Antília, was raised by her widower father, a king and fearsome alchemist. The king, befitting all scary fathers in fairy tales, forbid his ever more lovely daughter from venturing out of the castle grounds for fear that he should lose her like he lost his wife.

One day, with the help of a nun in the castle, Antília escaped and went traveling through the countryside. There, she came across a shepherd boy playing a pan flute. As is always the case, they fell in love immediately and the boy, encouraged by the power of his love, went to the castle to demand the king’s blessing.

However, the king, being mean to begin with and also royal, objected to his daughter marrying a random poor shepherd and forbade Antília from ever seeing him again. In response, the poor princess and her love both cried so uncontrollably that their tears filled up the two lakes outside Cete Sidades, giving the lakes their color. For, you see, the princess had green eyes and the shepherd blue … because that’s how it works.

Miradouro do Rei