Church Of Mercy, Azores, Portugal

The Azores, officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores, is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal, composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the North Atlantic Ocean about 1,360 km (850 mi) west of continental Portugal, about 880 km (550 mi) northwest of Madeira, about 1,925 km (1,196 mi) southeast of Newfoundland, and about 6,392 km (3,972 mi) northeast ofBrazil. Its main industries are agriculture, dairy farming (for cheese and butter products primarily), livestock ranching,fishing, and tourism, which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition to this, the government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in many aspects of the service and tertiary sectors. The main settlement of the Azores is Ponta Delgada.