The Blue Island of the Azores — the island entirely colored by hydrangeas in summer, the Caldeira volcano caldera walk, the legendary Atlantic sailors' bar Peter's Café Sport, and the 1957 Capelinhos eruption that created new land from the ocean
Faial is one of the nine Azorean islands (the Portuguese autonomous archipelago in the North Atlantic, 1,400km west of Lisbon), the fifth largest island in the group (173 sq km), with its capital Horta on the sheltered harbor facing the volcanic cone of Pico (the highest mountain in Portugal at 2,351m, directly across the 8km Faial-Pico Channel). Faial's nickname 'Ilha Azul' (the Blue Island) comes from the island's summer appearance: the endemic Azorean hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla, the same species as the cultivated garden hydrangea, growing wild and unchecked along every road and field…
Faial was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese in the 1430s (the exact date is disputed between 1427 and 1452 for the Azorean discovery generally); colonization began in 1466 under João Vaz Corte-Real. The island served as a waystation on the Portuguese Atlantic trade routes to Brazil and the Cape of Good Hope; Horta became a significant coaling station in the 19th century for Atlantic steamship traffic and then a cable station (the Horta-to-Porthcurno, Cornwall underwater telegraph cable of 1893 made Horta briefly the communications hub of the Atlantic). The 1957-1958 Capelinhos sub…