Category: Island
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Vila Franca do Campo
São Miguel, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Vila Franca do Campo sits about midway along São Miguel’s southern coast (map). It served as the first capital city of São Miguel until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1552. Now the capital is located in Ponta Delgada. Vila Franca do Campo has a wonderfully…
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Logoa do Fogo
São Miguel, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Lagoa do Fogo, or “Lake of Fire” floods the bottom of a caldera in São Miguel’s middle interior (map). However, this isn’t some ancient formation. A volcano created this caldera within the period of human habitation. It happened in 1563 and it could happen again. A well…
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Ponta Delgada Streets
São Miguel, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Most of the Azores seemed rather quiet and sparsely populated. Typically we encountered villages set amongst rolling farmland. However, Ponta Delgada on São Miguel’s southwestern coast, came closest to be being a city (map). Its population approached nearly seventy thousand people. So it served as both the…
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Ponta Delgada Scenes
São Miguel, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Ponta Delgada is the capital of the Azores and its most populous city. It hugs São Miguel’s southwestern coast (map). These old “City Gates” or Portas da Cidade probably personifies Ponta Delgada more than any other image. They dated back to the 18th Century. Back then the…
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Whaling Industry Museum
Pico, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) The last whaling factory in the Azores operated at São Roque do Pico, from the cais (dock) along the waterfront. Whalers killed and harvested their prey in local waters. Then they delivered carcasses to the dock, where workers extracted oil and processed flesh and teeth. During its heyday,…
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São Roque do Pico
Pico, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) São Roque do Pico (map) appeared in the distance from the cross-island road. This photograph gives a good perspective of the steep descent from the interior. Then, down below, towns could be observed on the relatively flat coastal plain. Of course, this placement also offered excellent oceanfront access.…
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Porto do Cachorro
Pico, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Porto do Cachorro meets the sea on Pico’s northwestern coast (map). It is an old, traditional town with narrow streets along a rugged coastline of rapidly cooled lava flows. When people settle the island they naturally used locally available building materials. For Pico that meant charcoal-black volcanic rocks.…
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Madalena
Pico, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Madalena, on Pico’s western coast, is the principal town on the island (map). It is also a vital transportation link to the island of Faial via ferry from the nearby municipal dock [see my Pico – Faial Ferry page]. The most impressive building in Madalena is undoubtedly the…
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Horta Street Scenes
Faial, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Faial played an important historical role as a stopping point between Europe and the New World. Whaling ships paused for resupply and took men along with them when they departed, building immigrant communities in North America. Steamships rested here to take on new supplies and provide a respite…
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Horta Waterfront
Faial, The Azores (Açores), Portugal (March 2001) Wealthy transatlantic yachters adopted Horta as a convenient stopping point between Europe and North America in recent decades (map). Their graceful sailboats line the town’s marina. While there, their crews also leave colorful graffiti on the harbor barriers to commemorate their oceanic voyages. The mosaic of color on…