Our next two stops in the Azores were the less touristy islands of Faial and Pico. Faial has a long history as a favored, safe port for boats sailing from North America to Europe that continues to this day. As a result this tiny island has a lot of interesting history. Pico is known for its wine region that was literally carved out of lava rock and succeeds despite the inhospitable conditions of the North Atlantic.
We flew at sunset past Pico to Faial and got this great view of Mt Pico.
Faial: Maritime History
Portugal discovered the Azores in the 1400s. When trade began to grow with the Americas, the harbor at Horta, Faial became a regular, safe stopping point on the route from America to Europe because it is well sheltered from the Atlantic. This is still the case today, and now when sailors are crossing the Atlantic they stop in Horta to resupply and paint a mural to commemorate their journey. There are thousands of them lining the harbor and they are fun to look at. Given our recent sailing adventures in the BVI and San Francisco Bay, we got caught up in the vibe in Horta.
There is a bar called Peter Café Sport where sailors leave their burgee (flag) and have the “world famous” gin and tonic. We didn’t have a burgee to leave behind but we did try the G&T (yummy).
Scrimshaw Museum
Whalers had long periods of boredom between whale hunts. The captains knew that if they let them off the boats they would not return, so they stayed at sea for many months. Many whalers carved pictures into whale teeth to pass the time. The owners of Peter Café Sport have been acquiring scrimshaw for years and have a very interesting collection. They were kind enough to give us a private, English tour since the one before us was in Portuguese.
Volcanic Activity
On the westside of Faial a volcano call Capelinho erupted during 1957-1958 and added 2.5km² of land to the island. It was very disruptive to the people and economy of the Azores, leading the USA to ease the immigration restrictions from the Azores to help reduce the impact. It is an interesting place to visit with a very good museum. The lighthouse still stands where the keeper witnessed the boiling sea and recorded the events of the eruption. A new inland lighthouse has replaced this one as its entire first story is now underground, covered in ash. We climbed to the top of the lighthouse, but we found the best views as we hiked up the impressive ridge created by the volcano.
Natural Beauty
Faial has a large volcanic crater in the center of the island (Caldeira do Cabeço Gordo) along with many remote, and not so remote beaches to visit. We had fun exploring the island.
From Faial we took the ferry over to Pico
Pico: Wine Making in a Challenging Climate
Being so remote from Europe, the Azoreans had to be self reliant. They created a wine growing region on Pico that is unlike any we have ever seen. They used black volcanic rock to build many walls (enough to go around the equator twice) to protect the vines from the wind and salt spray from the ocean. They also had to chip holes in the volcanic rock and fill them with dirt imported from Faial to plant the vines. The vines grow low to the ground so as to be below the top of the walls. There are only 1-4 vines per walled in area, resulting in vineyards that look like mazes!
They have a wine museum and tasting options at various wineries, so of course we had to visit.
We also took a hike around some of the vineyards.
Caves
The most common lava tube to visit was closed while we there, so we found one that was off a short hiking trail (Furna do Frei Matias). It has three different caves off a central opening and was fun to explore.
More Driving fun
Pico was the first island (but not the last) where we came across a heard of cows using the road. It is difficult to pass them if you are heading the same direction; they don’t like to give way.
Dining
Ahead of leaving the US we made dinner reservations as we had heard they can be challenging to get in tourist season. As a result we had many great dining experiences. On Faial we really enjoyed the grilled fish at Restaurant Atletico. On Pico we had great dinners at the Azores Wine Company and Pico Stones. At Stones you grill your own meat on an incredibly hot lava rock. It felt very unsafe but the result was tasty!
More Islands to Explore
We had investigated ahead of our visits what there was to do, but both Faial and Pico surprised us with many interesting adventures beyond our expectations. As an example, one evening on Faial we wandered into a town fair with traditional cloths, folk music and dancing.
We next took the ferry to Sao Jorge from Pico knowing that many more adventures were awaiting.