Day one on the island of Faial was jam packed with activity starting with a visit to the Capelinhos volcano site and museum.
Cpelinhos is the site of a newly created landmass that was formed on the island between the years of 1957-58, not that long ago, relatively speaking.
In September of 1957 an underwater volcano erupted about 1km off the shore of western tip of the Island and continued to erupt over the course of 13 months, creating a new landmass that eventually connected to the main island. It started with a release of volcanic ash, steam and gasses.
Lava flows and other volcanic materials followed adding over 2 square km of landmass to the island. Interestingly, a lot of the landmass has since eroded away from the ocean.
Seismic activity was present for much of the duration of the event and ash rained down on the island destroying crops and covering homes. Lava bombs also fell and hardened and samples of them can be seen in the on site museum dedicated to the event.
The event is one of the best documented volcano eruptions in recent history and provided a significant amount of new knowledge in the study of submarine volcanoes.
Many people from the island had to be evacuated for safety and a lot ended up emmigrating to Canada and the US.
It was very easy to get to the site from the main city of Horta and parking there was free.
There was no fees associated with walking the grounds either so I would say that this is a must do activity on the island, for sure.
You can walk the area freely and hike to the top of a small foothill to get an aerial view of the ocean, the volcanic landscape and original lighthouse that now stands as a monument to the event.
The landscape was stark and barren of any vegetation or growth, and the silty earth was dry, with grey uniform sand that gave an other worldly appearance.
The area is how I would picture a barren planet or maybe the moon if the sand was a little more powdery.
We actually visited the site twice over two days. The first time we hiked the hill and just walked around a little and the second day we went into the museum.
The museum was built underground so as not to mar the natural landscape and it only cost us 10 euros per person to enter, which seemed reasonable to us.
In the museum you can view various rock formations and samples that were collected during and after the event.
There are also videos and photographs documenting the event over the course of its 13 month duration.
There is also a lot of general info about volcanoes, as well as information about the different islands within the Azores archipelago.
The museum fee also allows you access up to the top of the lighthouse tower, which was pretty cool in itself.
We walked up a long winding spiral staircase for a birds eye, 360° view of the surrounding landscape.
You can stay inside the lighthouse window or walk outside to a small gangway.
In the photo below you can see the museum built underground. Its the circular part in the middle.
Walking the area and touring the museum didn't take very long at all. We maybe spent an hour and a half to two hours doing both.
I didn't know much about volcanoes going in so I found the whole experience to be quite interesting overall.
You wouldn't have to go into the museum if that's not your thing or if you chose to do your own research but since hiking the area is free I would definitely recommend checking out the Capelinhos if you visit the island of Faial.
