Location: Horta, Azores
This post is a bit late, but for good reason! Yesterday morning we woke up bright and early at 6 am to catch the ferry. After a quick ten-minute walk, we got on and headed to Pico, our neighboring island. From there, we met our drivers for the day, who escorted us up the mountain. Driving up, there were incredible hills filled with bright green. It was a green that none of us had seen in weeks due to our very blue passage. The roads were also lined with hydrangeas, and cows roamed in pastures. We got out of our vans to say hi to them and continued up the mountain. Once we got decently high, our guide took us on an 11-kilometer journey down the island. Our trail was comprised of stumbling over lava rocks, tracking through beautiful rock ruins, and walking along a trail beside tall trees and bushes.
For lunch, we stopped at a wonderful park that seemed to come out of a fairy tale. The park had play sets for kids but also had a long mossy walkway, and the benches were perched to view out over Pico. After our long hike, we were driven to a small building that used to be a center for whaling. The museum held the sad history of how the island used to hunt sperm whales. Once done with the museum, we got lunch at a small restaurant and refilled for the rest of our day.
Getting back in the vans, we drove through more of town. We saw wonderful little houses that were made out of lava stones and vineyards that patched through the ruins of century-old towns. Once done with our tour of a small vineyard museum, we saw more sights of where lava rock had formed the island that we were exploring. A black jagged stone was canvased along the waterfront, which enabled incredible views to be seen and further explored.
Incredibly tired from our long day, we got back to the ferry harbor, and we were able to do some independent shopping while waiting for the ferry to bring us back. Once back across the water, we walked over to our home on Argo and got ready for dinner on shore. We ate wonderful food at a local restaurant, and we were even able to have some drinks. Overall it was a wonderful and exhausting adventure.