Porta Delgada: Last Port

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October 2008

We arrived in Ponta Delgada as the last European port on our Mediterranean cruise aboard the Princess ship Emerald Princess. Ponta Delgada is a city on the island of Sao Miguel, an archipelago of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal.

Our destination was Crater Lakes. When we boarded our bus there was heavy fog in the mountains. We made our way out of town toward the western part of the island. The countryside we drove through was primarily pasture land. By the time we reached the mountaintop and got off the bus for our view of Crater Lakes, the fog had lifted. The view was spectacular! Locals had also set up small tables along the side of the road for our shopping benefit.

Our drive continued to the small village located on the banks of the two lakes. One blue...the other green. We saw only about a half dozen villagers as we meandered around and visited the local church which had its doors open. When asked where everyone was, we were told they were at work in the mountains, in the town of Ponta Delgada, or in the case of children, at school. Actually, it was kind of strange for two busloads of tourists to be walking around a village with all the inhabitants of that village not at home. Trust me, if I lived there, my "occupation" would be catering to all those tourists!

From the village we returned to Ponta Delgada where our tour ended with a wine and cheese tasting. By this time in our cruise we knew we really didn't care for wine, even though we had sipped our way through a number of Italian lunches. However, the cheese was great, and we had more than our share. We enjoyed the garlic cheese so much that we brought back a small wheel as a souvenir.

Ponta Delgada was a beautiful island. A fitting end to the whirlwind Mediterranean portion of our cruise. Time to relax now as we begin our five day transatlantic leg that will end in Fort Lauderdale.

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Comments

[soulman]

review of portA DELGADO
Thanks for an interesting review.