My Weekly Powerup | #club100 | Wine and volcanoes on Pico island, Azores | #steemexclusive / 27 photos

The Azores consist of nine islands. One of them is Pico, which is located close to a couple of other islands. It measures 15 kilometers in length and 47 kilometers in width and has an approx. 14 / 15,000 inhabitants. The island's most striking feature is the Pico volcano, which completely dominates the island. You can see this mountain from everywhere on the island, and from the nearest islands too. With its 2,351 m. it is also Portugal's highest mountain. The island of Pico is also known for growing wine and has vineyards that are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. A combination of a hike to the top of the Pico volcano, as well as learning about the island's viticulture, was what we intended to do during our visit to the island.

We stayed in the main town of Madalena. A lively harbor town with boat connections to a couple of the other islands and a good starting point for the activities we had in mind. After arrival we had two whole days at our disposal. Our first day was devoted to the history of wine cultivation.

We started with a visit to the wine museum Museu do Vinho. The building itself is an old Carmelite monastery. The monks who once lived here produced wine right up to the middle of the 19th century. Although it is a small museum, it gives good insight into the history of viticulture.

After lunch we followed one of the official walking routes on the island - Vinhas da Criacao Velha - It's an easy 6.5 kilometer walk that goes through areas of vineyards. The vineyards are surrounded by basalt fences that have been built to protect the plants against wind and wave spray. At night they release heat. This is a walk throught old wine-growing landscape .

We saw several men who were out picking grapes. When we passed these two men we asked if we could take pictures of them. They agreed to that and also gave us grapes to taste. It was a nice trip even though it was hot. On our way back to Madalena we made a stop at the cooperative where we had a wine tasting. Interesting to taste wine from Azores.

Photo: Ann-Elise H. Hjemdahl

Next day was spent hiking to the top of Montanha do Pico. We started at 07 in the morning and drove in the dark up to the starting point. Here we met the guide and the rest of the group. This route is 5 kilometers, but it took us almost 9 hours up and down the mountain. It is really a hard hike. The volcanic rocks was challening.

We started the hike before it was completely light and walked on the shadow side of the mountain. It is a tough trip in demanding terrain. It I felt that most of the time I had to constantly look dow, watching for loose stones. But we had walking poles with us, which were given to us by the guide. They were absolutely necessary for support. We stopped several times on the way up for food and drink. The fog lay quite heavily in between and we therefore did not see much. When we approached the rim of the crater we put down our poles and then spent half an hour climbing to the highest point, using both hands. The highest point is called Pequeno. It's the small peak that lies on the crater rim. It was warm here, which tells us that the volcano is still alive. Here at the top we had lunch, but the fog meant that we had no idea how big the crater really is.

Photo: Ann-Elise H.Hjemdahl

The trip down was more strenuous than the ascent. But in between, the visibility got much better and we could see across to the island of Faial. A long day soon came to an end. Even it was challenging hike with poor visibility, we agreed that it was still a nice trip.

Pico seen from the air. This is what the top looks like.

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U.J

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All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook)

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