The Whale Culture Route is a circular route that starts and ends in the heart of the village of Lajes do Pico, providing a unique experience in which you can contact the cultural, natural, built and ethnographic heritage, associated with whaling and the whale culture.
The walking trail, heading in a counterclockwise direction, begins in the Penedo Negro area, near the Saint Peter’s Chapel, where the old entrance and exit stone pathway from the village to the eastern side of the island is located, a place where you can see some “relheiras” (ox cart grooves).
On the road, at the end of the slope, don't miss the opportunity to photograph the Village of Lajes with the imposing mountain in the background. Walk a few meters and you will find a fork with the Caminho da Queimada on the right, which you should follow. This is an area of garages and warehouses located next to Castelete, the chimney of a very eroded underwater volcanic cone that, together with a section of cliff that is adjacent to it, constitutes an important nesting area for Cory’s Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea borealis), very common on these cliffs. After 900 meters on this path, where the asphalt gives way to the dirt, you will find on your left a stone staircase, which gives access to an easement path that will take you to the Estrada Regional. On the way up, at a high point, you will find the Queimada Lookout Tower, the only 2-storey whale watch tower in the Azores. You reach the Estrada Regional and, on the other side, continue the narrow path that leads to the Caminho das Terras, a secondary paved road. Turn left and go down. This is the old passage between Lajes and Terras. The rural landscape that you can see is formed by pasture and farming fields, paths and agricultural infrastructures where the farm storage buildings predominate, threshing floors and ancient stone houses of the 17th – 18th centuries, used to keep the farming equipment and the ox carts.
You reach a fork, next to a water reservoir. Turn right and go up the road facing the Volcano of Topo, which formed the oldest geological complex on the island. The impressive mountain faces you when a new fork appears. Don’t go up any further and turn left along the road Acima da Canada. Go forward until you find, next to a stream, the Serviços Florestais sign with the indication: Almagreira / Transversal e Cabeço do Geraldo / Terras e Lajes. Descend on the left, down an old stony path on the banks of the Fernão Álvares Stream (known as Ribeira da Burra), the first settler and founder of this village and probably the first to land on this island.
It is a stream with many specimens of Picconia azorica and Pittosporum undulatum. Suddenly, the footpath is the rocky bed of the stream, but only for a few meters. Reenter the well-defined path, on your right, to find a steep staircase just ahead, along the stream that leads to the houses, pastures and cornfields of Ribeira do Meio.
After descending, you can see amongst the houses on your left 2 large chimneys, one in stone and the other in brick. Exit the road at Estrada Regional, next to a bridge with the registration: OP1878. On the other side, go down 15 steps to the old street. Just below, turn left, walk about 50 steps and go down Grota do Alqueve on your right.
You reach the old public wash house, where it is possible to see an octagonal tidal well, with the inscription CM1942, from which the water was withdrawn and placed in a receptacle that fed a “levada” (a kind of opened pipe) that supplied the 10 sinks that are there. Continue along the coast, towards the center of Lajes. In a pebble bay, where Azorina vidalii flourishes, a ramp was once built through which the large whales were towed to the old Whale Factory - SIBIL, right in front of it, where the Center for the Arts and Marine Sciences is currently located. Visit this museum, whose theme is the whaling industry: whale fishing (sperm whale), the production of its derivatives, oils and flour, and their respective commercialization. In 150 meters on your right you will find the Fort of Santa Catarina, an old fortification from the 18th century, used for the defense of Lajes do Pico. Here, you can enjoy a place-of-arms, a garden area and a viewpoint where, in a privileged way, you can appreciate a stunning landscape where sea and mountain merge into one.
After this visit, exit Rua do Castelo, approaching the village through the Estrada Regional. You will pass by the Saint Francis Convent and the Church of Our Lady of Conception, which is attached to it. These buildings, from the 17th - 18th centuries, currently house the City Hall, the Police, the Finance Department and the newspaper “O Dever”.
Further on, next to the Lagoa bathing area sign, you will find a staircase that leads to Rua Engenheiro Falcão. These stairs are known as the “whalers staircases” and, at the sound of the firecracker, the ancient whalers used to descend them at fast pace, coming from Ribeira do Meio, Silveira and other places, looking for a whaling boat that would take them to meet the giants of the sea. A large white sperm whale in cobblestone on the sidewalk takes you to the whaleboats’ houses, close to the access ramp to the sea. It is a set of 18th century buildings, intended to store the whaleboats and its equipment. These whaleboats and equipments were built on the island and were used in whale hunting. Currently, these buildings are the headquarters of Clube Náutico das Lajes do Pico, an institution that promotes maritime activities and helps to preserve the whale culture.
The sea in front of you was once called Lagoa de Cima, a sheltered marine system with unique characteristics in the Azores, with a rich and abundant fauna, an important nursery of fish species of high commercial and conservation interest, particularly for dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus) whose juveniles here appear in unusually high densities, but also of red mullet (Mullus surmuletus), common seabream (Pagrus pagrus) and groupers (Mycteroperca fusca). At high tide, white seabream (Diplodus sargus), Salema porgy (Sarpa salpa), grey mullet (Chelon labrosus), silverfish (Trachinotus ovatus), yellowtail (Seriola spp.) and juvenile white trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex) find food in the seaweed carpet that covers the rocks at the bottom, and are joined by octopus (Octopus vulgaris) that also roam here.
Follow through Rua Engenheiro Falcão and you will find the Whalers Museum Square. In this square it is possible to visit the Tourism Office of Lajes do Pico, which offers different tourist information about the island and the region, as well as a gift shop with several local and regional products. Next to the Tourism Office, you can enjoy a visit to the Whalers Museum, installed in a set of three 19th century whaleboats’ houses, a reference in Azorean museology and the only one in Portugal specialized in artisanal, seasonal and coastal whaling.
It was also in Lajes do Pico that the first whale watching company was founded. Even if a trip to the sea is not part of your plans, be sure to visit the companies that are in the area.
About 50 meters ahead you can access the port area, known as Caneiro. Follow the detour and, at the end, you will find the Whaling Monument and a Trywork. The Trywork is a sperm whale transformation structure, used before the existence of the whale factories, consisting of a ramp, a cutting platform in stone, and try-pots, a small unit for melting blubber into oil in large open-air cauldrons under direct fire. When returning, do not continue along the coastal avenue, but follow the route along the seafront promenade where you can see the Protected Area for the Management of Habitats or Species of Lajes do Pico on the right. Further on, you will find the detour to the Wild Bird Observation Post of the Lajes do Pico Coastal Platform, an excellent place for bird watching as well as for contemplating the stunning landscape with mountain and sea views. Follow the trail and you will encounter the detour to the Maré bathing area, a natural swimming pool of excellence in terms of the quality of its waters, where you can bathe, benefiting from a magnificent view over the mountain and Castelete. It is worth noting the rarity of the lagoon system that can be found on the opposite side of the bathing area, an important refuge and nesting place for many of the resident birds and for some migratory ones, especially for marine ones.
Continue the route and, a little further on, there is a monument on the left. It was in the vicinity of this place, in Penedo Negro, even before the year 1460 that navigators, anchored off Castelete, launched a small boat and sent the first settlers of Pico Island to land, founding the first nucleus of the primitive Village of Lajes. Just ahead, on the left is the Saint Peter’s Chapel, the first religious building on the Island of Pico, which served exclusively until about 1535, when the Main Church of Lajes was inaugurated, a predecessor of the current one, expanded and built in the same place. It was in this chapel that Friar Pedro Gigante baptized the first child born on Pico Island.
Finally, about 30 meters ahead, you reach Penedo Negro, the place where you started the route and where your walk now ends.
The Village of Lajes do Pico is a very interesting county seat to discover and explore. You won’t have any difficulty finding a place to have a nice meal. If you have the opportunity, walk through the streets of the historical center of Lajes. Throughout the village, well-preserved residential buildings from the 16th to the 19th centuries can be seen, with the characteristic “turrets”, influenced by the American architecture from the whaling period.