A Road Trip Around Faial Island

We are staying in Horta that is in the very bottom right hand corner of the island. It was a gorgeous sunny day so we spent almost the whole day driving around the island clock-wise.

First things first though. We went to the ferry terminal and bought our tickets for Thursday’s trip to the island of Pico. Actually the ferry workers are on strike so we didn’t have much choice about when we could go. We are just hoping that the weather is fine, especially when we come back, so we will be in time to catch our plane to Terceira next Monday.

So, the road trip…

The island is not very big 21km x 14 km. In the centre of the island, there is a large volcanic crater called Caldeira. You can drive to the rim of this crater (400 m deep) and walk around it (8 km) , but by the time we got to the turnoff to the crater, the clouds had rolled in.

Anyways, we started in Horta, drove past the airport and down to a small fishing harbour called Porto de Castelo Branco. There was a cute picnic area where we took photos of a distinct white cliff, the remains of an old volcano.

We drove further through some cute white villages and saw the turn off to that cliff, called Morro (castle) de Castelo Branco. We wanted to see it up closer as we had read that is it full of small caves that seabirds nest in. It is a protected area with some hiking trails with great views.

We continued north to a place called Varadouro where people have summer holiday houses around a small spa with thermal springs. There were also natural rock pools. These pools were built onto the lava rock boulders and the sea water fills them up. We had fun taking the little paths through the lava rocks to hidden spots. An elderly man told us that he went into the water every day for his daily swim. Brrrr.

Continuing up the main road, we turned left to go to the Volcao dos Capelinos. On the way, we saw more and more damaged houses, the result of devastating volcanic eruptions in 1957/58.. The volcano erupted approximately 68 years ago, creating a desolate, moonlike landscape. The entire region was leveled and only a lighthouse remained standing.

We went into the ‘futuristic’ underground visitor center that is also a museum that had a great display about volcanoes and the eruption of the Capelinhos Volcano in particular.
We climbed the narrow, circular staircase with 114 stairs up to the top of the lighthouse for views of the area.

Continuing on, we passed even more ruined houses with the roofs of the houses barely peeking out from the high layer of volcanic ashes and cinder.

We took a narrow side road to a little hamlet, Faja, to a sandy beach below steeply rising bluffs. I believe this area is known to be a good surfing spot.

The whole trip at the top of the island had magnificent views with towering cliffs and deep gorges. We stopped for a late lunch in a cute restaurant/grocery store with a great view. Fresh catch of the day was on the menu. We got a seafood skewer with octopus, fish, shrimp and vegetables with French fries and a salad and enjoyed the goings on in this small town.

The rest of the trip on the east side was more of the same but different great views.

As we neared Horta, we saw the glorious Pico volcano. But then the clouds rolled in and hid her in a matter of minutes. We’ll see lots of her when we are on Pico Island!

The last place where we stopped was at a statue high on the bluffs over Horta. We had a great view of the harbour below and could even see our little house.

It was a perfect day trip.Read more