Our Saturday started early with a 4:15 reveille in order to catch a 7am flight from Porta Delgado to Pico. The flight was quick – about 45 minutes. The plane was cute but not terribly small.
Our transfer dropped us at our hotel. We were prepared to drop our bags and start hiking while we waited for our room. However, to our delight, the room was ready and we were invited to enjoy breakfast. Yes, please! After breakfast, we headed out for our 7.6 mile coastal hike. The hike started and ended at a church.
The hike took us along the beautiful coastline.
The hike hugged the coast in the beginning and gave us so many beautiful views of huge rocks and Faial Island. We will visit Faial island towards the end of our trip.
We have been hoping to see hydrangeas in bloom. And we did! So many and so many colors.
The other interesting part of the hike was all the grapevines and the creative way they have adapted to grow them. To protect the vines from wind and weather, they use the basalt rock to build half circles around them. This blocks the wind/ weather and also provides the vines with support as they grow.
We followed the trail provided by Macs Adventure and it was also well marked with horizontal red and yellow lines. There would be a yellow and red X if you went the wrong way and a red turn if you needed to turn.
One of my favorite parts of the hike took us between the grapevine and down a rocky corridor. So unique.
Along the route there were several natural swimming holes. We were tempted to jump in for a swim… but, the morning was still cool and we kept on stepping. Plus, the waves were pretty intense.
The trail took us inland a couple times and the temperature would warm and the breeze would stop. Also, we had quite a few up and downs. Eventually, we had one final uphill push to our finish line church.
We had a taxi pick us up and returned us to the hotel. Our hike was 7.67 miles and took us about 4 hours. It was a good hike to work off the jet lag and help us get acclimated. We picked a Tapas & wine bar for dinner. We ordered tuna tataki, shrimp bao bun and tempura veggies. Plus wine. And dessert. Crème brûlée and cheesecake. Absolutely, delicious.
It was a very delightful day and I was definitely ready to sleep by the end. As always, thank you for reading.