Pharmacies and the duty rota
How do I find an open pharmacy on Pico outside normal hours?
Quick answer
Portuguese pharmacies work a duty rota, the farmácia de serviço, so one is always reachable even when the rest are shut. On Pico the pharmacies are few and sit in the towns, so the duty pharmacy can be a drive away rather than round the corner.
How the rota works
Portugal runs pharmacies on a duty system. Outside normal opening hours one pharmacy in each area is the farmácia de serviço, and it takes everything until the rota moves on. The schedule is posted on the door of every pharmacy, whether that pharmacy is the one on duty or not.
So the method is always the same: go to the nearest pharmacy, read the notice on the door, and it will tell you which one is open and where.
What is different about Pico
On an island of 447 square kilometres with under 14,000 people, there are not many pharmacies, and they are in the towns. The consequence is that "the duty pharmacy" can mean a drive to another town rather than a walk to the next street, possibly across the middle of the island.
Plan for it the way you would plan for anything else here: if you take prescription medication, bring enough for the trip plus a margin, rather than relying on replacing it locally at short notice. See practical information for the wider picture, including the fact that there is no hospital on the island. For anything urgent, the emergency numbers page has 112 and the Azores nurse line, which can also tell you where to go.
Out of hours, and out of season
Two multipliers worth knowing. Evenings and Sundays put you on the rota rather than in a normal open pharmacy. Out of season, the towns are quieter still.
Neither is a problem if you have a car. Both are a problem if you do not, which is one more reason renting a car is not optional here, and one more reason to know what driving on Pico actually involves after dark.
Plan a public holiday as you would a Sunday, because that is how the law treats a national one. See public holidays on Pico, which also lists the three municipal holidays when one town is quieter than the others.
What this page does not tell you
No pharmacy names, no addresses, no phone numbers, and no duty rota. The rota changes constantly and is published locally, on the doors and by the regional health authority, whose site was unreachable from the machine this page was written on.
A rota copied into a guide is wrong within days, and wrong in a way that sends somebody to a closed door at night. Read the notice on the door instead. See fuel stations for the other service that keeps local hours.