Al Hamra is not a very touristy town. It is one of the closest town to Jebel Shams, where I'm headed next. I'm staying in a hostel for my first time during the trip and it's a great experience. I've met a few interesting characters. Some are on a similar experience to my own. I took a hike through the surrounding wilderness and found cool dried riverbed with a dam. It's a cool area with many interesting sights.

Muttrah is a town in Muscat, Oman. It is right on the coast and features a promenade, a castle, a neat souq, and a few hiking trails. I had a host that served me several wonderful meals over which we discussed history and philosophy. It was a great experience.

Dubai has the most insane urban sprawl that I've ever seen. It took one hour by train to get from the airport to my Airbnb and I was still surrounded by skyscrapers. Most of the city felt like Las Vegas with the same flat desert terrain.

I went back to the US to wrap up some tasks I couldn't complete abroad. I decided to visit a friend in California before leaving the US again.

This was a cool hike through the woods along some old stone tunnels, stairs, and archways. An interesting waterfall that seems to begin within a rock wall completes unusual nature of the hike.

I went back to Sete Cidades for a much longer hike than before. This one took me in a big circle around the crater lake group. The weather turned cloudy in the middle of the hike and visibility was bad during my return trip around the loop. The cloudy weather produced an amazing view of the setting sun at the end of a long day.

This was another hike around one of São Miguel's volcanic crater lakes. It started near the coast and wound up through the hillside to a viewpoint above the lake. The trip back down followed a levada that snaked through the hills and forest near the coast.

This was a wet trail through a river valley in eastern São Miguel island. It passed through a small village in the hills that seemingly has no road access. A narrow cobblestone footpath was all that connected it and the rest of civilization.

São Miguel island is famous for its volcanic crater lakes. The most famous lakes are those surrounding the town of Sets Cidades. This hike placed me at an amazing viewpoint that overlooks these four lakes in spectacular fashion, with the Atlantic Ocean in the background.

São Miguel island in the Azores is beautiful. It is not nearly as mountainous as Tenerife or Madeira. The landscape is very green and it seems there are more cows on this island than people. Upon arriving at my Airbnb in Ribeira Grande (where half of the studio walls are floor to ceiling windows), I witnessed one of the best sunsets of my entire trip so far.