Pico Island, Azores

The Island East of the Pico Mountain


Monument to Balaieiro
Whaler statue in front of the museum dedicated to the activity of São Roque do Pico.
Captain's Lagoon
Clouds cover the top of Pico, beyond the Capitão lagoon.
Church above Lajes do Pico
Church of Lajes do Pico, prominent above the village.
Ponta Lighthouse
The Ponta da Ilha Lighthouse, which illuminates and signals the southeast of Pico to navigation.
View of the Church of Lajes
The square and street in front of the church of Lajes do Pico.
Lajes do Pico, from afar
The village of Lajes do Pico, seen from the south slope of the island.
Path overlooking Pico
Resident walks along the Lajes do Pico waterfront.
Mass in Slabs
Believers gathered at a mass in the church of Lajes do Pico.
Moorish Mill
One of the many traditional mills on the island of Pico.
The Whaling Industry Museum
The current Whaling Industry Museum, in the former processing factory.
Captain's Lagoon Trail
Hikers follow a trail in the vicinity of Lagoa do Capitão.
Balaieiro Statue
Statue of a Balaieiro in front of the Whaling Industry Museum.
Sao Roque do Pico
The houses of São Roque do Pico at the bottom of the northwestern slope of Pico Island.
San Roque Sea
Wave breaks against a pier in São Roque do Pico.
Livestock & Fog
Traffic sign next to the detour to Lagoa do Capitão.
cattle in the fog
Cow in a meadow in the west of Pico island.
cows in fog
Cows bar the way to traffic in the fog from the top of the island.
Steep Pasture
Grazing cattle balanced on a steep slope of the island.
Calheta Vineyard and Bananal
Walls, vineyards and banana plantations near Calheta de Nesquim.
Lajes do Pico and the volcano
Casario de Lajes do Pico, with the mountain in the background.
As a rule, whoever arrives at Pico disembarks on its western side, with the volcano (2351m) blocking the view on the opposite side. Behind Pico Mountain, there is a whole long and dazzling “east” of the island that takes time to unravel.

It was the second time we were dedicated to Pico Island. As in the first one, we made the ferry crossing from the Horta city, across the channel.

The first time, subject to just two days, we focused our efforts on priorities: conquering the summit of the volcano peak.

With the time and energy to spare, we would unravel the island's peculiar vineyards, the ones spread between the western foothills of the mountain and the channel.

We sacrificed a few hours of sleep and recovery from the effort of climbing the roof of Portugal. We still managed to descend into the lava depths of the Tower Cave and take another quick jump or two to places absent from the initial plans.

Two days was not enough. We left with a frustrating sense of how much we left undiscovered that we embarked back to Faial.

Four years later, we return. With the priorities of conquering the volcano and the vineyards on the western tip of the island already resolved, favored by a well-situated stay, we took the opportunity to explore the “over there” side of Portugal's supreme mountain.

Slope of Pico Mountain Above, in Search of the Captain's Lagoon

According to the new itinerary, as soon as we found our rental car resolved, we pointed to Lagoa do Capitão, a natural stronghold as emblematic as it is unavoidable in Pico.

The road makes us ascend a good part of the western slope of the volcano and then go around it to the north.

At a certain height, with the top of the mountain on the right, the EN 3 flattens out. It undergoes a long straight, spaced, semi-sunken in meadows that the rain and the humidity brought by the north-east soak and make them lush.

Summer had left the Azores almost a month ago. In the even more unpredictable autumn of the archipelago, meteorology fulfilled its precepts. We were wet in a light rain.

A thick gray mist that made the path a mystery gave us goosebumps.

We traverse it, like this, in slow motion.

Sometimes held back by a couple of cows, too lazy or arrogant to let us pass.

After almost five minutes, in a section where the side of the road lowered, their bovine excellencies finally deign to deviate.

A few hundred meters ahead, we detect the exit to the lagoon.

The narrow perpendicular way. It furrows a vast meadow filled with humps, a bed of streams, corgas, puddles and sponge moss.

From a thousand forms of water that quench thirst, to the resident forest of twisted cedars and cattle that mottle the endless green.

The road ends at the edge of the lake. Confront us with a flock of black ducks in obvious bathing delight.

From there, with an intense breeze eradicating any chance of a water mirror and the peak of Pico covered, we examined the clouds that surrounded it, in the hope that, soon, the caravan they were flowing in would catch us with an open one.

In the meantime, we entered a path of reddish earth.

We set off on the heels of a grassy ridge where we thought we'd get a good view of the lagoon with Pico above us.

When we got there, among the trunks and branches of the prolific cedar trees, we confirmed the desired view.

And another one, on the north of the island, the strait below and the long-lined neighbor São Jorge to shorten the horizon.

On that top threshold, punished by a much stronger wind, we unveil the itinerary of the clouds in a different range. We concluded, in three stages, that only by a miracle the summit of Pico would reveal itself.

Accordingly, we turn to São Jorge.

We follow the navigation of the ferry that connects the two islands. We appreciate the white houses of São Roque, standing out at the far end of the slope at our feet.

The former Baleeira village of São Roque

Forty minutes later, we enter the village.

The settlers who populated it after its foundation in the early XNUMXth century took advantage of the agricultural potential of São Roque as much as they could.

In such a way that, after a few decades, the county already exported wheat and pastel to the Metropolis.

Over time, whaling conquered the Azorean archipelago. In São Roque, in particular, it became central.

It marked the municipality in such a way that its people dedicated an entire Museum of the Whaling Industry to it, installed in the former Factory of Vitamins, Oils, Flour and Fertilizers.

All these products were generated from the raw material of cetaceans, processed in the large boilers and furnaces that we see on display, which make São Roque one of the most renowned whaling museums in the world.

São Roque has room for two prominent statues. One of them, offered by the Municipality of Lisbon, pays homage to D. Dinis.

The other, in brown bronze, is found in front of the museum, almost on the sea.

It shows a whaler in the bow of a small boat, holding a harpoon at the ready, in the direction of the Atlantic waters where men harpooned the main sustenance of the village.

 

From North to South of the Island, to the Discovery of Lajes do Pico

That's what those of the island's antipodean village, Lajes do Pico, did, with equal preponderance.

Lajes owns its own Whaling Museum and a Center for Arts and Sciences of the Sea, both located in the former local Whale Factory.

Coincidence or not, that's where we moved, on a monumental trip up and down.

Through a patchwork of walled minifundia, green and increasingly steep, where the Frisian cows devour grass in a kind of acrobatic traction.

Over Silveira, beyond one of these walls and a hedge of juvenile Cedros do Mato, we finally see Lajes.

As the name suggests, its houses appear organized on an unobscured surface of almost amphibious lava, part of a bay that ends at Ponta do Castelete.

Somewhere between that point and the last slope to the village, we regain the view of Pico Mountain. sharp and detached as we had never seen it, above the rounded outline that the island assumes there.

Like what happened at Lagoa do Capitão, we are once again tired of waiting for Pico to reveal its peak to us.

We noticed that, at intervals, the sun fell on the white facades and ocher roofs of the village, as dictated by Catholic precepts, crowned by the symmetrical towers of the Igreja da Santíssima Trindade, the town's parish church.

When we pass there, a mass takes place.

The concentration of worshipers in the temple contributes to the feeling that, after the summer high season, there are few outsiders visiting, just a few circling the grid of streets between the Clube Náutico and the natural swimming pool.

Over there, the cream of the Lajes businesses was installed, from whale watching companies to the most humble restaurant.

Sunlight fell on the forward terrace of one of them.

Resplendent despite the lunch hour long past.

The stimulus of this thermal comfort prevents us from getting lost in hesitations. We sat down determined to enjoy the proper meal.

“Hello, good morning, how are you? I already bring you a menu.” greets and reassures us, with a strong French accent, a young expatriate, due to the correctness of grammar in Portuguese, we would say that she has been rooted for some time.

We took the time it took to savor the soups, the grilled fish and the heat that, little by little, was toasting our skin.

Aware of how Pico was always too long for the days we dedicated to it, we wandered just a little through the streets and alleys of the town.

The one from Saco, the one from the Xavier family. In search of a car, Rua dos Baleeiros, once again with the port, the cove and the Pico volcano ahead.

From Lajes do Pico to Ponta Oriental da Ilha

We return to the road, then, pointing to the kind of geological arrow that encloses the island to the east.

We go around Ponta da Queimada, the southernmost point of Pico, with an emblematic whale watchtower.

We pass through Ribeiras. A few kilometers later, on the verge of Cascalheira, we cut towards the Atlantic. Always going downhill, of course, we enter the parish of Calheta de Nesquim.

Calheta de Nesquim, a village that imposed itself on gravity and lava

This village had already been praised to us as one of the most peculiar on the island.

When we admire the harmony with which its “Flemish” mills, the fearless houses on the slope and the vineyards and other plantations had adapted to the harsh lava scenario, we felt compelled to agree.

This consent reached a plenum at the entrance of the tiny port of Calheta, when we appreciated how the semi-baroque church of São Sebastião was superimposed on the dock.

How he assured a constant divine blessing to the fishermen of the village who set sail from there at the risk of their lives.

Pico Island, west of the mountain, Azores, Calheta de Nesqui,

The Church of Calheta de Nesquim blessing the boats that use the town's small port.

With the sunny day, it soon ends, we continue our journey. We pass Feteira. We progress along the south of Pico, just above the bays of Domingos Pereira and Fonte.

The Lighthouse that Signals and Illuminates the Far East of Pico

At the entrance to the latter, we take the Caminho do Farol.

A few minutes later, we detected the Ponta da Ilha Lighthouse.

It turned out to be the only building worthy of the name.

A wasteland in a sea of ​​shrubby green that emerged from the volcanic soil, until the density of the lava and the waves and salt on the seafront sabotaged its expansion, in a surrounding landscape that, due to its high “Regional Interest”, conquered the status of Protected .

Despite its emblematic location, the Manheda lighthouse was one of the last to appear on the island, only in 1946.

It was given a U-shape, with the white and red tower at the bottom-center of the letter. And, as usual in the Azores, the remaining area is granted to lighthouse families who have a home there.

We examined it. We surrender to the strangeness and photogeny of the scenery, also amazed by the abundance of rabbits hopping among the bushes.

In a flash, dusk seizes the eastern tip of Pico. While a resident retrieved clothes laid out from the sea, the lantern at the top of the tower presented itself at the service of navigation.

WHERE TO STAY ON PICO ISLAND

Aldeia da Fonte Hotel

www.aldeiadafonte.com

Tel: +351 292 679 500

Pico Island, Azores

Pico Island: the Azores Volcano with the Atlantic at its Feet

By a mere volcanic whim, the youngest Azorean patch projects itself into the rock and lava apogee of Portuguese territory. The island of Pico is home to its highest and sharpest mountain. But not only. It is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of the Azoreans who tamed this stunning island and surrounding ocean.
São Jorge, Azores

From Fajã to Fajã

In the Azores, strips of habitable land at the foot of large cliffs abound. No other island has as many fajãs as the more than 70 in the slender and elevated São Jorge. It was in them that the jorgenses settled. Their busy Atlantic lives rest on them.
São Miguel (Azores), Azores

São Miguel Island: Stunning Azores, By Nature

An immaculate biosphere that the Earth's entrails mold and soften is displayed, in São Miguel, in a panoramic format. São Miguel is the largest of the Portuguese islands. And it is a work of art of Nature and Man in the middle of the North Atlantic planted.
Santa Maria, Azores

Santa Maria: the Azores Mother Island

It was the first in the archipelago to emerge from the bottom of the sea, the first to be discovered, the first and only to receive Cristovão Colombo and a Concorde. These are some of the attributes that make Santa Maria special. When we visit it, we find many more.
Terceira Island, Azores

Terceira Island: Journey through a Unique Archipelago of the Azores

It was called the Island of Jesus Christ and has radiated, for a long time, the cult of the Holy Spirit. It houses Angra do Heroísmo, the oldest and most splendid city in the archipelago. These are just two examples. The attributes that make Terceira island unique are endless.
Flores Island, Azores

The Atlantic ends of the Azores and Portugal

Where, to the west, even on the map the Americas appear remote, the Ilha das Flores is home to the ultimate Azorean idyllic-dramatic domain and almost four thousand Florians surrendered to the dazzling end-of-the-world that welcomed them.
Horta, Azores

The City that Gives the North to the Atlantic

The world community of sailors is well aware of the relief and happiness of seeing the Pico Mountain, and then Faial and the welcoming of Horta Bay and Peter Café Sport. The rejoicing does not stop there. In and around the city, there are white houses and a green and volcanic outpouring that dazzles those who have come so far.
Capelinhos Volcano, Faial, Azores

On the trail of the Capelinhos Mistery

From one coast of the island to the opposite one, through the mists, patches of pasture and forests typical of the Azores, we discover Faial and the Mystery of its most unpredictable volcano.
Graciosa, Azores

Her Grace the Graciosa

Finally, we will disembark in Graciosa, our ninth island in the Azores. Even if less dramatic and verdant than its neighbors, Graciosa preserves an Atlantic charm that is its own. Those who have the privilege of living it, take from this island of the central group an esteem that remains forever.
Corvo, Azores

The Improbable Atlantic Shelter of Corvo Island

17 km2 of a volcano sunk in a verdant caldera. A solitary village based on a fajã. Four hundred and thirty souls snuggled by the smallness of their land and the glimpse of their neighbor Flores. Welcome to the most fearless of the Azorean islands.
Vale das Furnas, São Miguel (Azores)

The Azorean Heat of Vale das Furnas

We were surprised, on the biggest island of the Azores, with a caldera cut by small farms, massive and deep to the point of sheltering two volcanoes, a huge lagoon and almost two thousand people from São Miguel. Few places in the archipelago are, at the same time, as grand and welcoming as the green and steaming Vale das Furnas.
Pico do Arieiro - Pico Ruivo, Madeira, Portugal

Pico Arieiro to Pico Ruivo, Above a Sea of ​​Clouds

The journey begins with a resplendent dawn at 1818 m, high above the sea of ​​clouds that snuggles the Atlantic. This is followed by a winding, ups and downs walk that ends on the lush insular summit of Pico Ruivo, 1861 meters away.
Rhinoceros, PN Kaziranga, Assam, India
Safari
PN Kaziranga, India

The Indian Monoceros Stronghold

Situated in the state of Assam, south of the great Brahmaputra river, PN Kaziranga occupies a vast area of ​​alluvial swamp. Two-thirds of the rhinocerus unicornis around the world, there are around 100 tigers, 1200 elephants and many other animals. Pressured by human proximity and the inevitable poaching, this precious park has not been able to protect itself from the hyperbolic floods of the monsoons and from some controversies.
Herd in Manang, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 8th Manang, Nepal

Manang: the Last Acclimatization in Civilization

Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Architecture & Design
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Adventure
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
Newar celebration, Bhaktapur, Nepal
Ceremonies and Festivities
Bhaktapur, Nepal

The Nepalese Masks of Life

The Newar Indigenous People of the Kathmandu Valley attach great importance to the Hindu and Buddhist religiosity that unites them with each other and with the Earth. Accordingly, he blesses their rites of passage with newar dances of men masked as deities. Even if repeated long ago from birth to reincarnation, these ancestral dances do not elude modernity and begin to see an end.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
Cities
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Meal
Margilan, Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan's Breadwinner

In one of the many bakeries in Margilan, worn out by the intense heat of the tandyr oven, the baker Maruf'Jon works half-baked like the distinctive traditional breads sold throughout Uzbekistan
Islamic silhouettes
Culture

Istanbul, Turkey

Where East meets West, Turkey Seeks its Way

An emblematic and grandiose metropolis, Istanbul lives at a crossroads. As Turkey in general, divided between secularism and Islam, tradition and modernity, it still doesn't know which way to go

4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Sport
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
very coarse salt
Traveling
Salta and Jujuy, Argentina

Through the Highlands of Deep Argentina

A tour through the provinces of Salta and Jujuy takes us to discover a country with no sign of the pampas. Vanished in the Andean vastness, these ends of the Northwest of Argentina have also been lost in time.
Passage, Tanna, Vanuatu to the West, Meet the Natives
Ethnic
Tanna, Vanuatu

From where Vanuatu Conquered the Western World

The TV show “Meet the Native” took Tanna's tribal representatives to visit Britain and the USA Visiting their island, we realized why nothing excited them more than returning home.
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

life outside

Cliffs above the Valley of Desolation, near Graaf Reinet, South Africa
History
Graaf-Reinet, South Africa

A Boer Spear in South Africa

In early colonial times, Dutch explorers and settlers were terrified of the Karoo, a region of great heat, great cold, great floods and severe droughts. Until the Dutch East India Company founded Graaf-Reinet there. Since then, the fourth oldest city in the rainbow nation it thrived at a fascinating crossroads in its history.
Kayaking on Lake Sinclair, Cradle Mountain - Lake Sinclair National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Islands
Discovering tassie, Part 4 - Devonport to Strahan, Australia

Through the Tasmanian Wild West

If the almost antipode tazzie is already a australian world apart, what about its inhospitable western region. Between Devonport and Strahan, dense forests, elusive rivers and a rugged coastline beaten by an almost Antarctic Indian ocean generate enigma and respect.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Winter White
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Almada Negreiros, Roça Saudade, Sao Tome
Literature
Saudade, São Tomé, São Tomé and Principe

Almada Negreiros: From Saudade to Eternity

Almada Negreiros was born in April 1893, on a farm in the interior of São Tomé. Upon discovering his origins, we believe that the luxuriant exuberance in which he began to grow oxygenated his fruitful creativity.
Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica, Caribbean, Punta Cahuita aerial view
Nature
Cahuita, Costa Rica

Dreadlocked Costa Rica

Traveling through Central America, we explore a Costa Rican coastline as much as the Caribbean. In Cahuita, Pura Vida is inspired by an eccentric faith in Jah and a maddening devotion to cannabis.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Véu de Noiva waterfall
Natural Parks
Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil

In the Burning Heart of South America

It was only in 1909 that the South American geodesic center was established by Cândido Rondon, a Brazilian marshal. Today, it is located in the city of Cuiabá. It has the stunning but overly combustible scenery of Chapada dos Guimarães nearby.
Itamaraty Palace Staircase, Brasilia, Utopia, Brazil
UNESCO World Heritage
Brasilia, Brazil

Brasília: from Utopia to the Capital and Political Arena of Brazil

Since the days of the Marquis of Pombal, there has been talk of transferring the capital to the interior. Today, the chimera city continues to look surreal but dictates the rules of Brazilian development.
Correspondence verification
Characters
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
Bather rescue in Boucan Canot, Reunion Island
Beaches
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

Not all tropical coastlines are pleasurable and refreshing retreats. Beaten by violent surf, undermined by treacherous currents and, worse, the scene of the most frequent shark attacks on the face of the Earth, that of the Reunion Island he fails to grant his bathers the peace and delight they crave from him.
gaudy courtship
Religion
Suzdal, Russia

Thousand Years of Old Fashioned Russia

It was a lavish capital when Moscow was just a rural hamlet. Along the way, it lost political relevance but accumulated the largest concentration of churches, monasteries and convents in the country of the tsars. Today, beneath its countless domes, Suzdal is as orthodox as it is monumental.
The Toy Train story
On Rails
Siliguri a Darjeeling, India

The Himalayan Toy Train Still Running

Neither the steep slope of some stretches nor the modernity stop it. From Siliguri, in the tropical foothills of the great Asian mountain range, the Darjeeling, with its peaks in sight, the most famous of the Indian Toy Trains has ensured for 117 years, day after day, an arduous dream journey. Traveling through the area, we climb aboard and let ourselves be enchanted.
city ​​hall, capital, oslo, norway
Society
Oslo, Norway

A Overcapitalized Capital

One of Norway's problems has been deciding how to invest the billions of euros from its record-breaking sovereign wealth fund. But even immoderate resources don't save Oslo from its social inconsistencies.
Daily life
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Wildlife
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.