The beautiful Ponta do Castelo is situated on the Southeast coast of the wonderful Santa Maria Island, with an extension of about 8km, classified as a Special Conservation Area of Communitarian Importance, housing a large variety of important fauna and flora species.

This is one of the places with more Mediterranean characteristics in the whole Azores Archipelago, with an interesting vegetation and a curious geography, with marine grottoes submerse and semi-submerse, charming bays, cultivated fields in slopes and typical pebble beaches.
In this territory, quite frequented by divers, it is common to observe dolphins and turtles, or other species such as the Calonectris and several cetaceous species.

From the Vigia da Baleia Viewpoint one has a privileged panorama over the vast Atlantic Ocean, and was part of the wide “vigia” (watch point) network placed on strategic points of the coast and once used for whale hunting, a very important activity in the Archipelago. Nowadays it is used for the Cetaceous Observation.