From Mount Velha it's little more than a mile along the desolate, moonlike landscape of the Cha das Caldeiras crater to the villages of Bangaeira and Portela, located at the base of the volcano's main cone. These two villages were evacuated at the time of the eruption, but they were spared total destruction when the lava stopped within 1,000 feet of Portela.
Bangaeira and Portela have only a few hundred inhabitants, but early in April the population exploded as they played host to a lively and drunken three-day annual festival marking the anniversary of the eruption. For a nominal fee you can rent a room in either town with a family before continuing on to the top of the volcano.
It's best to get an early start to the volcano, say about 5 a.m., in order to avoid the heat. Remember, this is a volcano, so there's an abundance of black rocks absorbing the rays of the sun and a lack of vegetation to offer shade for the tired and weary.
Hiking up the cone can be a bit frustrating; with all the loose volcanic rocks along the path, it seems like for every five steps you take forward it's another two steps back. Allow anywhere from two and a half to four hours to scramble up to the cone's edge, depending on your footwear and level of conditioning. Once at the top you can enjoy your breakfast while overlooking the mouth of the volcano, complete with the stench of sulfur and in some places traces of vents smoke.
On a clear day you can also get a great 360-degree panoramic view of the entire island and the volcano's five-mile crater below.
Descending the volcano is, without a doubt, the best part of the hike. Rather than walk down the same path, you can slide down the western slope in 25 minutes on finely crushed lava rocks. It's like sliding through a mountain chute of breakfast cereal, light and airy and a lot of fun.
Mount Pica is still very much an active volcano. The last major eruption before 1995 was in 1951 and, the experts predict, it will most likely blow again in the near future. To monitor the situation, the Cape Verdean government, with the help of the Portuguese Cooperation Institute, recently installed an early-warning system to detect the next major eruption.
According to a young Portuguese doctoral student from the Technical Institute of Lisbon, who is doing her thesis on the geophysical history of the volcano, "There probably won't be another major explosion for a while, but you never know."
So, if you are interested in hiking a volcano somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, you better get to Fogo and do it quickly.
Information about accommodations in San Filipe and excursions to the volcano can be obtained from EcoTour at (238) 81 22 55.
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