First there were the man made wonders, then there were the natural wonders… Not in this order, really… But having so many amazing places, how to select the 21 in the run?

The categories chosen ranged from protected areas to caves, passing through woods and beachs and mountains. And the nominees were areas of the main land, as well as the islands, places like the amazing landscape of the Coa Valley, Cabo Espichel, and Cabo da Roca or the breathtaking hills of Sintra, the Douro Valley or Madeira’s Laurissilva Forest, Berlengas Natural Reserve, Seven Cities Lake in Azores, Mira D’Aire Caves and so many others.

From each of the seven categories a winner should be chosen. The categories were Forests and Woods; Landscapes; Grottos, Caves and Caverns; Beaches and Cliffs; Maritime Areas; Inland Aquatic Zones; Protected Areas.

On the run were places like Carrapateira Promontory ( Beaches and Cliffs) in the Algarve, which has an coastal belt extremely important from standpoint of ecology importance and is a place of rare beauty; the Douro Valley (Inland Aquatic Zones), with its hill stumbling down to the river in a rare site of vines terraces, perfectly tidy and green and then at the end of the winter the pink-white of the almond trees covering the landscape, as if snow had been falling down on the land, on the trees, a beautiful Nordic princess dream from long, long ago (one day I shall you tell this and other tales – truth or myth? who can tell…); the Lake of Fire in Azores (Protected Areas), a lake in an ancient volcano crater, bordered by white sand beaches, filled with pristine water, surrounded by a beautiful landscape of breathtaking mountains, it was truly a worthy contestant; the Buçaco Woods in the Center of Portugal (Forests and Woods), is a preserved gem, the woods remain in its pure state, left untouched by human hand, the most precious arboretum in the country – personally I love going for a walk in this wood with some friends and good music; the Glacial Valley of the Zêzere (Lanscape), one of the biggest glacial valleys in Europe, with a U-shape, is a perfect example of how a glacial modeled the landscape; the Sulphur Cavern - again in the Azores, most specifically in Island Graciosa – (Grottos, Caves and Caverns) is a cavern of volcanic origins, it is a circular depression with 350 meters (1150 feet) deep and inside you find numerous thermal springs and solfatares; the Berlengas Archipelago (Maritime Areas), this natural reserve is a group of very small island off the coast of Peniche, in the North of Portugal. The actual reserve covers a big extension of the ocean around the island until a depth of 30 meters (110 feet).

But these were not the winners…