Just a half-hour’s boat-ride away from Horta across the Canal do Faial is the island of Pico, second largest of the Azores at 170 square miles. It’s the island whose name no one can forget, especially after seeing the tall peak for which it is called. Pico is the most mountainous island in Azores. The Mount Pico itself is the highest point in the archipelago. It is a volcano whose slopes run evenly from the ocean to the summit, sometimes topped with snow and visible from almost every island in the group. Wispy columns of white smoke bear witness to the fact that the crater is still alive. Despite the clouds which often cling to the summit of the Pico, the island climate is drier, healthier and warmer than that of the other Azores, even Faial.
Perhaps the best views of the mountain are to be had from Horta, from where its perfectly formed volcanic cone seems to support the sky. Slightly blue-hazy in the distance, often trailing wisps of cloud around the summit and snow-covered in winter, Pico looks like a delicate Japanese painting. But the island is more than a single peak, however beautiful it may be, and the traveller can find plenty to marvel at besides the mountain. There are two or three simple but very good residenciales here, so it isn’t necessary to rush in order to catch the last boat back to Horta. The crossing can sometimes become impossible when winter winds whip up the sea, the ferry is just a small open motor launch.
Although the visitor from Faial usually lands at Madalena, a small port facing Horta across the channel, this is not Pico’s principal town. That honour goes to Lajes do Pico on the south coast. After climbing unsteadily out of the small boat, the new arrival quickly has to adjust to the idea that this island is going to be the odd one out among the Azores.
The harsh black rocks that surround Madalena’s miniscule port are a taste of things to come. But before hiring a car or a taxi to rush off around the island, pause for a moment to admire the Igreja Matriz dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, hence the town’s name. Its dominant twin-towered facade, so typical of Portuguese religious architecture of the period (18th century), disguises a sumptuous interior, with a particularly gorgeous high altar, gilded and ornate. But apart from a fish market beside the gaily painted fishing boats in the harbour, a small post office almost sinking below a forest of telecommunications aerials, and a few branch offices of banks and travel agencies, that is about the sum total of Madalena.