It’s hard to imagine a more relaxing island in the ocean than the Azores on Easter weekend. Saturday morning is sleepy. Stores open late and close early. Car rentals at the pier are sold out, not just because of cruise-ship business, but because the entire fleet has been booked out of the airport by Europeans who want a long-weekend vacation in the Azores.
Yes, the Azores, which when written locally looks like a typographical error to all but those who live here — Açores.
Today’s geography lesson will inform you that it’s an archipelago of nine islands 930 miles west of Portugal, its motherland. The language is Portuguese, of course, similar enough to Spanish to be partly comprehensible, yet different enough that Spanish-speaking people don’t understand it. There are almost 45,000 people living in Ponta Delgada, where cruise ships like the Celebrity Eclipse arrive, but on the Saturday of an Easter weekend most of the locals are indoors. Or away for the holiday weekend.
Even the Mini Bus, the tourist-friendly vehicle that will take you around town for 35 cents, doesn’t work Saturdays. Undaunted, we found a bus driver who spoke excellent English and who was going along the coast to Lagos — and back. Most first-time visitors head for the Crater Lakes or to see Our Lady of Fatima’s shrine. We went to Lagos — and back.
It was just to get a sense of what Ponta Delgada, and its people, were like. Here’s a sampling of what we found:
• Streets are so narrow sometimes the bus has to yield to oncoming traffic, so narrow that passengers can step out of their door and onto the bus without touching the pavement.
• The people are rather indifferent, unless you take the first step, in which case they’re friendly and accommodating. Translation: no pressure to buy anything.
• The architecture is fairly modern, and most adobe tile roofs sit on homes that are either white or pale yellow. You’ll never find any of them in Better Homes and Garden, unless you see the inside.
• Drivers are aggressive yet courteous. They’ll either run you down or stop to let you cross, but it’s a good idea to make that attempt at a pedestrian crosswalk.
• Sidewalks are two feet wide, except when they’re four feet wide, when they systematically turn into parking lots.
• Just because it’s in the middle of the ocean doesn’t mean the seafood is unbelievable. We stopped for lunch of shrimp and a fish called conch, which we’d previously had in Bahamas. The shrimp was outstanding. Not so much the conch.
• Refreshment places by the pier advertising free wireless are right about the “free” part but the “wireless” connection is inconsistent, at best. The resident technician, whose job is to take food orders and makes cappuccino, gives it his best shot but…not his station.
• There are plenty of shops in “downtown” Ponta Delgada with subdued vendors and nice products, among them the only wine made on this island, which is called Sao Miguel. The wine is a fruity red called Quinta Nova de Luz, with no vintage and a price tag less than $10…and if you can sneak it by security to have for dinner on the Eclipse, that’ll be another $25 for corkage.
• As port cities go, Ponta Delgada is very clean, very civilized, very low-key.
On a Celebrity re-positioning cruise that specializes in relaxation, it’s a perfect place to stop.