Ponta do Pico

Where is Ponta do Pico?

Ponta do Pico is part of the Pico Island, Azores.

You will find it in: Portugal.

Summit: 38.469° N, 28.399° W

The story behind it

Pico is a young volcano built of dark basalt, and its slopes are covered with rough lava that looks like frozen porridge, sharp enough to tear a glove. At the top sits a small crater, and out of it grows a last little cone that islanders call Piquinho, so the mountain has a summit on top of its summit. Clouds often wrap the whole cone while the coast below stays sunny, and walkers who start early sometimes climb out of the mist into clear air with the neighbouring islands floating on the sea. Around the foot of the mountain, families grow vines inside small squares of black lava wall, which protect the plants from salty wind. A marked route with numbered posts leads up from a hut, and a guide is required, because fog can hide the way down within minutes.

Find it on the globe

Ponta do Pico is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.