LUNCH

By Beth

It looked like the town was on fire.
That might have been what early settlers thought, as Furnas, a small town on the island of Sao Miguel, in the Azores, took a little bit longer than other places to build a community. My guess is that they second they landed, they turned right back. Not only did the town look like it was about to explode, but it smelled terrible too; sulfur covered you in whiffs that cascaded into your nostrils with every touch of the lighest breeze. It was unavoidable. You felt the sulphur in your clothes; your hair. It seemed a land of bad eggs- and what killed me was that the real estate is surprisingly costly here.
Furnas is a hot tourist attraction- and I don't mean that they way Paris Hilton uses it. Its ground, in many places, is about 180 degrees Fahrenheit and warmer. The whole area is nearly plagued with small volcanic holes, entrances into the earth's extremely hot eruptive source. Yet it's not as scary as you may think: the volcano it self has been inactive for years.

Water high in iron oxidizes the rock it touches

Though this may be something known regularly by Furnas' locals, to me it seemed like the earth would explode at any minute. Pools of hot water bubbled fervently. Holes that have been dried up for years still steam hot vapor, and deep below the earth's surface you can hear a low rumbling down underneath (the story goes that when settlers arrived, little devils were all over the area. Saint Michael threw them into these deep holes, and the low rumbling that you hear when you walk by the smoky wells is actually the little devils scratching and roaring to escape). The ground itself is a multitude of color- yellow sulfur, silver and bright reds and oranges from a high iron content turn the volcanic rock into a virtual rainbow.
Yet Furnas has made the most of what it has been offered. The town and its surrounding areas have been boasting hot baths, fresh water and, my favorite,

Old-style hot bath!

naturally heated swimming pools, for years. If you make the request a day ahead of time, local restaurants will happily serve you with their favorite- steamed meat, vegetables and potatoes. And they're steamed in nothing less than the Earth's mighty furnace itself. Large pots of food are covered and placed in the holes that are waterless yet steaming. They sit there for nearly seven hours, and at 12:30 each day, restaurant workers come to the area to remove, with very long hooks, the day's “catch”. It is a direct interaction between man and nature, and to watch it is beautiful (if not slightly posed- for pictures, of course).

After the food is fished out of the volcano, you can follow your own restaurant's truck to lunch. And there it is- seasoned, steamed, delicious piles of chourico, pork, chicken, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and the Azores' best yams.

My food's been to Hell and back. Has yours?