Azores – November 9, 2012
The Azores are nine volcanic islands 800 miles west of
Lisbon and belonging to Portugal. The
ship stopped at Sao Miguel, the largest of the islands, at the port of Ponta
Delgada, the largest city in the Azores.
The islands are tropical, despite their northern location, and the
climate is very mild. High temperatures
vary between 27 degrees C in the summer to around 17 degrees in the winter; it
never freezes in the Azores. With the warm, pleasant weather, the islands are
vacation islands for Europe much like Hawaii is for the U.S. The islands are deep green and look much
like Ireland, only with tropical plants, like banana trees. The population of
Sao Miguel is about 150,000, with about two-thirds of the population living in Ponta
Delgada. As the ship sailed into the
small harbor, I was surprised at the tall buildings and the modern appearance
of the city. When I went ashore, I was
struck by the similarity between this island and Madeira Island, which is also
a Portuguese island. The two are
remarkably similar islands. Most of the
buildings are white, a sharp contrast to the black volcanic rock and the
emerald green of the island. The
development of the island surprised me; it is completely modern with beautiful
streets and roads, and very modern buildings and hotels. Volcanic rock is plentiful, and it was used
in the construction of many of the streets and sidewalks. As in Madeira, the sidewalks contain black
and white patterns, each one different from the others and very elegant. White patterns were constructed into the
black streets for crosswalks.
All of the materials that I had read about this port
indicated that there was not much to see, so I had decided to walk around the
town and take a few photos. The one place
of interest on the island seemed to be a small town on the north side of the
island, Ribeira Grande. I was able to
find a taxi driver to take me there and wait for me as I walked around and took
photos – all for only 20 Euros. The
write-ups were correct; Ribeira Grande is a picturesque town with narrow lanes
of cobblestone streets, lined on both sides with low row houses. Each door was capped with a religious
tile. I walked around there and took
photos of the interesting narrow streets, the interesting houses, churches and
other interesting sites.
After my visit to Ribeira Grande, I returned to Ponta
Delgada, the town where the ship was docked, and walked there for the rest of
the day until time to return to the ship.
I really enjoyed being in Sao Miguel; it was very pretty. I was struck by the neatness of the
Portuguese. Everything was extremely
neat and clean, as it was in Madeira.
It truly was “picture perfect”.
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