Back to Horta

I'm back in Port Horta on Faial after a few days exploring Sao Jorge. I eventually got to the coordinates they sent me, but it was a pretty tough hike. And climb, for that matter. There were some volcanic caves in both locations, and one of them was big enough to explore.

In the historical library before I left Horta, I found some of the oldest records they have, showing that people were here as early as the 1500s. But I guess there was somebody here long before that, because there were some prehistoric paintings in the cave on Sao Jorge. They asked me not to post my photos of the cave paintings, but I can tell you about them. Usually cave paintings show animals, but these only showed people. I found three separate paintings that showed people facing each other -- either two people two groups of people. It looked to me like they were in two different tribes or something.

In each picture the tribe shown on the left was taller, and one of the taller figures was always reaching out to the figures on the right. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a fight or a bargain or what, but the taller figure was holding something shown as a kind of stylized "x". I thought it might be a weapon or something; couldn't really tell. In one there might the painter might have been trying to show that the "x" thing was important with dabs of lighter color pigment around it. Like we would use lines to show a light bulb when it's lit up.

It was cool to be the first person in probably centuries to see the paintings. I guess my parents are going to send a real research team here soon to find out more, but I'm still the one who found them! I know, they told me exactly where to look, but at least I was the one doing the looking. I'll have to ask how they knew there were caves there.