2004 Europe

Horta, Faial, Azores



April 23 – At last, a day in port. Horta on Faial Island in the Azores to be exact. (The locals pronounce the name A-zor’-rays, not A’-zors like we do) It’s a beautiful volcanic island. Good news, the ATMs over here are multi-lingual. I was able to get some Euro right on the pier. It will be nice from the currency standpoint that every country we’ll be visiting except Switzerland and the UK will use the Euro. Simplifies the currency planning problems.

The entire Azores archipelago is volcanic like the Hawaiian Islands. It is a green, sub-tropical island that gets cold enough for apples but stays warm enough for citrus. The main attractions are a ‘new’ volcano that added about 1.5 sq. miles of land to the west end of the island in 1957 and the caldera of the volcano that formed the island originally.



They have about one earthquake a day. The last strong one was about 7 years ago and was a 6.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. The 1957-8 eruption was from a submarine volcano just offshore on the west end of Faial Island. Before it subsided it had grown enough to join with the island’s shoreline and destroy the lighthouse that guarded the western approach. It’s first floor is buried and the part you can still see is the second floor. In the last 40+ years half of the cladera of the new volcano has collapsed back into the ocean. We visited the area and even after all that time there are still very few plants in the area. Right next to the lighthouse sight the volcanic ash is 15 meters (50 feet) deep. A few long grasses grow in small clumps on the lunar like landscape. It doesn’t have the multicolor hues of Haleakala Crater on Maui, just the dull gray volcanic ash infrequently interspersed with the tan of limestone strata.



Our next stop was the caldera of the volcano that formed the island. You have to go through a small tunnel from the parking lot to the caldera itself. It’s about 2,600 feet high, 1.25 miles across and in contrast to the 40 year old, this caldera, home to 400 species of plants and animals, is very green and lush.



Our tour took us around the entire island in about 4 hours. Our guide was German and has lived on the island for 20 years. The island is also very green and lush. There are hedges of Hydrangeas everywhere, sometimes up to 8 feet tall and 5 feet thick. Unfortunately they don't bloom until late May. It must be spectacular because there are hedges everywhere along the roads and between the fields. We caught the last tender to the ship and were just in time for dinner. This is the last time we will be tendering into port. Not being docked creates a major bottleneck getting ashore. Being along side the pier will simplify getting on and off the ship. During dinner we weighed anchor and are off to Punta Delgada, Sao Michael, another of the 9 Azores islands.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger