Pico Mountain
We made it! We reached the summit about 1000 m from mountain station where nowadays you have to register before ascending. We got and gps and rules of conduct. Then we started to climb. Elin jumped up the mountain while we oldies had to take a pause every now and then. Mountain must have grown in 22 years? A big difference was also the amount of people climbing and there were no garbage along the path!
We made it to the summit on Pico piquinho, the extra volcano cone that rises 70 m over the large crater! It took us about 3 hours to get there. 2351 m high. Wow. We could see Sao Jorge and Graciosa but Pico and Faial were covered by clouds.
Descending was worse. Feet and muscles did hurt and you needed full concentration for every step. Lava can really form many structures and the grit could roll away under the shoes. On the lava the grip was good. The slope was almost 45 degrees or even more partly. Now we don’t want to see any more lava thanks.
When reaching the station again our taxidriver was already waiting for us! Tonight we are tired and we don’t know how to go to the restaurant.
