Ponta Delgado

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5.14.2007 Ponta Delgada, (Azores Islands), Portugal

Last night the West’s and the Wallace’s had dinner with Carl Vlaeminck, the Cruise Consultant who obviously is interested in our committing to a future cruise. Carl is from Belgium, 42 years old with 15 years experience on cruise ships, is and considers himself quite attractive. He speaks five languages fluently. He is also full of himself. During dinner we found out a few things about some fellow passengers including the fact that one couple we had met the first night aboard, Joseph and Suzy Sadot from Israel, were forced to leave the ship in Mumbai as the ship was told we could not go to Dubai with an Israeli in the group. Another sad story we were aware of concerned a widow traveling along who obviously to all of us had a drinking problem finally reached the point where she had to be put off the ship and hospitalized. Such is life in a tight community.

It seems that I continually and writing about wonderful surprises and today we had another one. Our stop in the Azores at Ponta Delgada was a delight. The Azores are located about 930 miles from Lisbon and 2422 miles from the U.S. They consist of a group of nine islands (archipelago) that are actually mountain tops of a mountain range in the Atlantic and consists of many volcanic cones and craters resulting from serious volcanic eruptions many, many years ago. Settled in the 15^th century by pioneers from Portugal, the 16^th and 17^th centuries made the archipelago one of the anchors of trade between Europe, America and India. The Azores enjoy the status as an autonomous region of the Portuguese Republic.

Sao Miguel is the largest of the nine islands and our port, Ponta Delgado, has been it’s capital since 1546. The fertility of the soil and the island’s geographic position contributed to its rapid economic expansion based on the production of wheat, sugar cane, wine and dairy products. While its population is 140,000 it has 100,000 dairy cows which due to the temperature year around here remain outdoors all their life and are even milked outdoors.

Its prosperity led to the building of palaces and churches in Ponta Delgada in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The town is charming but we found the main attraction of the island to be the charm of its landscape, lush vegetation, quaint villages and amazing volcano craters. We took a ride through the city before visiting a pineapple plantation. Amazingly the pineapples are grown in hothouses making production rather labor intensive but they remain competitive due to lower shipping costs and time to major markets in Europe. We were given a tour and explanation before sampling some pineapple liquor. We then visited the remarkable and famous Antonio Borges Botanical Garden noted for its unusual number and variety of trees. It was special and it’s due to the fact that almost any species of trees can thrive in this climate. The real treat was a 25 mile through the countryside up to the Sete Cidades Crater Lakes. The scenery reminded us of a ride in Maui. From the edge of the crater eight miles in circumference we enjoyed a view of the two lakes at the bottom. The main crater of this extinct volcano is 1,090 feet above sea level. Both during the ride up and the ride down, though picturesque villages, our heads kept turning all the time to take in the beautiful scenery.

After returning to the ship for lunch, I decided to go back for a walk through the city to take some pictures and I was glad I did. The city is in the process of redoing a portion of the port to house a cruise ship terminal and two marinas. It’s going to be beautiful and I hope to get back to see it. I went into two churches that were very nice. One had the entire front of the church decorated with beautiful fresh flowers in commemoration of a major holiday festival held the day before. The people on the street all seemed happy and pleased to see me and I predict that the tourist business here is going to steadily increase. One passenger on the ship from Bermuda was born here and left as a young boy but remembered his mother’s and father’s homes and obviously was pleased to see these old homes again.

We leave here happy for the experience and looking forward to our next four days at sea before arriving on Saturday in Bermuda.