FIND VOLCANOES, SCRIMSHAW & SAILORS' ART
ON THE AZORES ISLAND OF FAIAL
Story and photos by Barb & Ron Kroll
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Faial, one of nine Azores islands in the mid-Atlantic, is a popular stopover for yachters. Since 1817, sailors have stopped in its safe harbour on journeys between Europe and North America. Among them was Joshua Slocum, who made the first solo voyage around the world, Sir Francis Chichester and yachters from places as diverse as Sweden, Samoa, Bulgaria and Toronto.
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| Superstitious yachtsmen leave paintings on Horta's seawall to prevent accidents at sea. Faial, Azores. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
How did we know? Hundreds of colourful paintings and inscriptions line the concrete sea wall and sidewalk in Horta, the capital of Faial. Signed with names and dates, some are faded with age. Others are freshly painted. They depict puffins, whales, mermaids, logos, multilingual captions and yacht names, like Magic Turtle and Paddle Duck. No one knows how or when the superstition began, but all sailors leave works of art to prevent accidents at sea.
Driving around Faial
We drove around the 21- by 14- kilometre island in one day. It resembles a child's storybook. Black and white cows graze in neon-green pastures. Two bright red windmills overlook Faial and the neighbouring island of Pico. Hedges, which burst with blue hydrangea globes in early summer, line roads and separate fields. White homes, with red tile roofs, cluster around sapphire harbours.
We notice swimming pools, sheltered by volcanic grottos along the coast, and mistérios, black lava fields from a 1672 eruption, named by people who didn't understand volcanic phenomena. Snaking up Caldeira, we gazed in awe at a two-kilometre-wide, 400-metre-deep crater, now carpeted with heather and cedar.
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| Scrimshaw, in museum above Horta's Café Sport, depicts a whaler with a harpoon, engraved on a sperm whale tooth. Faial, Azores. |
| Photo © Barb & Ron Kroll |
The rain-filled lake at the bottom disappeared through cracks, which opened when Capelinhos Volcano erupted, one kilometre off the west coast, in 1957 and 1958. We eyed the chain of dormant volcanoes between Caldeira and Capelinhos, as we drove to the lunar-like field of charcoal ash.
Volcanic eruption
Starting with gas bubbles from a 50-metre-undersea eruption, Capelinhos spewed out so much ash and cinders that it buried the base of a lighthouse and increased the length of the island by a mountainous 2.4 square kilometres. It covered nearly 300 homes, leaving 2,000 people homeless and without farmland.
Where did they go? We found out, over dinner at Peter's Café Sport, a casual yachters hangout, across from the marina. “Many moved to Toronto,” said Sandra Dart, who lives in Horta. The Consulate General of Portugal estimates that 87 per cent of the 500,000 Portuguese immigrants and their descendents, living in Canada, are from the Azores. Others, once they got jobs, and saved enough money to re-establish their lives, returned to their beloved Azores.
Above Café Sport is a museum with one of the world's largest collections of scrimshaw. Detailed engravings on sperm whale teeth and bones depict the lives of Azorean whalers and their families.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
Portuguese Trade and Tourism Commission: www.visitportugal.com
More things to see and do in the Azores:
Pico, Azores Has Whales, Wine, Underground Walks and UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Sao Miguel, Azores Has Tea Plantations, Pineapples, Gardens and Volcano-Cooked Stew
Terceira, Azores Has UNESCO World Heritage City, Holy Spirit Houses, Wine and Cheese
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