Faial and Pico islands in the Azores

Thanks to the temperate and moist climate of the archipelago of the Azores, his nine volcanic islands are real suspended gardens in middle of the Atlantic. There are even vineyards in Pico protected from the wind by small stone walls that Unesco registered as World Heritage of humanity and hills, mills still functioning.

As if the luxuriant vegetation might obscure the volcano underground, it regularly reminds people its presence. And, in 1957, an eruption enlarged Faial Island, adding Capelinhos a piece of black and desert land and destroying a lighthouse. In 1998 the second Faial lighthouse crumbled in an earthquake. The volcanic origin also leaves traces in the landscape such as rugged coasts. It is in this chaos that a strange rocky concrete cube transmitting a sinister roar transforms the swell into electricity.

The Azores is a legendary transatlantic call and seems to keep the memory of all sailors’ stays. You don’t leave Horta without having added your own work to the large mural painted of the quays. Over the years, superstition has been completed by tradition and it is said that the boats leaving without a trace have never been reviewed… The Cafe Sport in Horta is also an institution in the maritime world. Exchange office, general delivery, original meetings and looking for best places a visit at Peter’s became a legend.

The whaling industry, which was in the past, the second source of income, knew its great epoch in the early twentieth century. Horta had over 400 whaling ships. The gradual loss of interest for oil, and the will to protect whales, led to the cessation of whaling in 1987. Since then, the whaling ships amorously maintained, have been converted to the regatta, and cameras of tourists who come to watch whales have replaced harpoons.

Texte : Anne Jankeliowitch