We took a 45 minute plane ride from Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, to the airport in Horta on the island of Pico. The name comes from the huge volcano sitting in the middle of the island, and it can be seen from almost anywhere on the island. This island had very few people on it. We were usually the only ones roaming around. Our apartment host said it gets more traffic starting in late May through August, but not really crowded. Many people come to this island to climb the mountain, sailing, or whale watching. We did none of those. We just enjoyed the quiet ambiance.

Pico Mountain

The mountain everyone comes to climb. You can see it from almost anywhere on the island. They say it takes 3 hours up, but 4 hours down because of the unconsolidated ground. We heard from locals that the best experience is to climb up, camp there and watch the sunset, then watch the sunrise the next morning before coming down. We plan to do that next time.

more cows

The locals said most of the cows on the islands are for dairy.

lambie

I know this is a calf, but he/she was white and from far away looked like a lamb. My daughter’s favorite animal is a white lamb.

stick shift driver

I forgot to specify we’d need a car with automatic transmission. I don’t drive standard. So he was stuck driving the whole time. Oops.

just hanging out

The roads were narrow but empty, which allowed us to slow down and meet these guys!

Pico Mountain

We were only on Pico island a day or so, and the weather changes quickly. So we were lucky to be able to see so much of the mountain.

Lajes

We went to the town of Lajes to walk around. This is where the whale watchers leave from. We found this cafe with delicious sandwiches, coffee, and wine. We ended up spending a lot of time here just relaxing and planning out the rest of our trip.

walking the pier

This was actually a little scary for me, since my legs are short and feet are small.

adventurous run

I went for a quick run near our apartment. I went down the hill to this little beach area. These are amazing volcanic rocks. This was just west of the town of Silveira.

natural pools

A little hike down I found this pool area fed by the ocean water. Crisp, clear water that I’m sure is very refreshing in the summer.

ocean

The Moana song started playing in my head.

bridges & caves

See the little tunnel under the bridge right in the middle of the photo?

museo do vinho

The wine museum in the town of Madalena is self-guided and informative. To build these stone walls, they broke the volcanic rock and piled them up in sections like this. The grapes grow within the walls, and the walls protect the grape vines from the wind.

view house

path to little red view house.

more stone walls

thousand branch tree

We never figured out what these trees were called, but they seemed to have hundreds of branches that interweaved with those of the neighboring trees to provide lots of shade and somewhat shelter.

tree fingers?

What is this?