Leaving Flores by air (those spots are from the window – not the lens ) we made our next hop in the island chain and now are in the middle of the Azores on Faial.

You can really see how tiny and fragile these islands are… Nothing more but a rocky top in a vast blue desert

As a memory – that’s how these rocks look from the inside…

Business risk – being photographed yourself. And while concentrating you are defenceless

There is not too much to do and as our hotel room as already prepared we just checked in and were ready to roam around 11:00 – strange… So we took the chance as the weather was rather nice and drove up the caldera (what else?) which is quite high here (around 1000 m).

Clouds were streaming in all the time and it was rather chilly, but you had some view and this made it all good for a walk. So, off we went to circle the caldera which is only 8 km and quite easy going (+/- 120 m).

You walk on the edge all the time

And mostly it’s really nice

Again you are immersed in hydrangeas

Getting up quite early that day we had a very relaxed attire…

Looks more like a band of minerals than flowers

Don’t loose your way…

Sunny outbreaks in between

Here lava is used as road building material

The newest part of the island of Faial – created during the 1958 / 1959 eruption which made all that can be seen in the background within some 4 months. In the end it covered 2.4 km² – now due to erosion it’s back to 1 km² which shows how fast these processes can be – growth… decline…

As a side effect the old caldera lake disappeared during the eruption as well as cracks formed in the bottom and the water just oozed away leaving the swamp which can be seen today.

The old lighthouse – covered to the first floor in basalt.

Within each tidal pool new life starts to grow very soon

Tiny mosses, ferns, algae, whatever

The whole area was shattered during the eruption and approx. 2 m of volcanic ash were disposed

So the houses were covered to the brim and you can see some rooftop lurking through from time to time

Water and wind form these magnificent landscapes