To swim or not to swim

Tiny lake with a water fall, great for swimming. when you’re already wet from the rain (again) it doesn’t matter getting a little more wet.

Water, a lot of water, salt water, fresh water, cold water, warm water, hot water. From the sky, in pools, lakes, oceans. Not every water in the Azores is suitable for swimming.

Lagoa de Fogo, crater lake, looks good for swimming, but noooo touchy. This is a natural reserve. No swimming, skinny dipping, boating, paddling, no nothing.

Vulcanic hot springs in Caldeira Velha, very good for swimming, the water is nice and warm (and good for my hair). After one and a half hours your timeslot is up and you have to get out.. Too bad, I could float here all day

Also Caldeira Velha, very hot hotsprings, between 60 and 100 degrees C. Don’t think about swimming here.

Santa Barbara beach, sometimes swimming, but not today. May and June with onshore winds bring visitors of a certain kind.

Portugese man-o-wars, alien like siphonophores (multimple organisms living together pretending to be one animal) it hurts when they sting, it really hurts, or you can die.
Don’t do in the water, got it.
In case tourists want to be stupid, they closed the beach for swimming, just to be sure.