Azores on the island of Pico, is the highest point in Portugal, at . If measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean to their peaks, which thrust high above the surface of the Atlantic, the Azores are actually some of the tallest mountains on the planet. The climate of the Azores is very mild for such a northerly location, being influenced by its distance from the continents and by the passing Gulf Stream. Due to the marine influence, temperatures remain mild year-round. Daytime temperatures normally fluctuate between and depending on season. Temperatures above or below are unknown in
Horta, Azores stopped in Horta on the first leg of his solo circumnavigation, which he chronicled in his 1899 book "Sailing Alone Around the World." In his semi-autobiographical story "The Innocents Abroad", Mark Twain was complimentary about the physical appearance of Horta: However, Twain painted a less complimentary picture of the inhabitants of Horta and Faial at the time: In works by Vitorino Nemésio ("O Corsário das Ilhas"), Raul Brandão ("As ilhas Desconhecidas"), the island is characterized as a focus of the story, while Jules Verne mentioned Horta in descriptions to his fiction tales. Horta, Azores Horta () is a single municipality