All my trips to São Miguel include several days in Ponta Delgada. It’s not only the city where I was born and lived in for the first nine years of my life; it’s been a place to reconnect or get acquainted with family and friends on my mother’s side.
I still remember the long list of names she gave me the first time I went back for a visit. That was in 1984. Although she was not the one going back, the thought of me visiting her friends and family brought her happiness by proxy: her son, seeing all the people she missed and had not seen since she immigrated to Canada in 1968.
I was still a shy, young man at twenty-six, that first year back, but I made the effort to connect with everyone on her list. They all remembered me and my parents and I would sit in someone’s kitchen or living room for a while and listen to their stories or their reminiscence of those good old days when my family was living on the island and their lives intersected. “When will your parents come back to see us?” they would ask, and later, after my father had died, “When will your mother come visit?”
I didn’t visit the Azores again until the year 2000, and the people I had met before were now much older or, in some cases, already dead. During the last twenty years I have returned often, each time with a smaller list of names, but I always look forward to planning my Ponta Delgada days around these social visits. Without them, I would be simply a tourist walking around the old streets taking photographs of buildings and houses, including the house I grew up in which my parents sold. I never had the courage to knock on the door and ask the new owners if they’d let me have a look inside, for old times’ sake. Perhaps it’s been best this way, to let my memories of the house remain intact.
But it’s been a gift to be able to step inside the houses of these old relatives and friends and for a while feel like I am one of them again and not the outsider that I really am, coming all the way from Canada.
The list of people include mostly women. Beautiful women who are excited to see me, who wait in expectation of my punctual visit, for my mother got into the habit of calling them ahead and booking my timed visits. When I am in Ponta Delgada, I just show up at the agreed upon time. This schedule of visitations means that I have less time to explore the city on my own, but a stay in the city without these human connections would only be a cold and impersonal touristic experience.
The women smile for my camera as I always take a photograph of each one, “Uma lembrança para a minha mãe,” a souvenir for my mother, I tell them, but in reality, I take their picture for me, for my own remembrance of them. It’s now close to four years since my last trip to the Azores and I hope that I will have another chance to see the same women before they’re eventually gone. But, if I am not given this chance, I will be content with my memory of people who always greeted me with a warmth and love I have rarely experienced elsewhere.
They are Ponta Delgada to me. The city’s cobblestone streets, the architecture, the churches, the market, the gardens, everything, will be nothing more than a geographical space of interest to me and no longer a living memory without the delight of hearing “Olá, querido Emanuel!” as a door opens and I am greeted with a smiling face and extended arms.
These are photos taken during my 1984 visit of people who, with the exception of two, are now gone but who I still remember fondly.
Emanuel Melo torontonian azorean writer 
What a delightful text, Emanuel! May you return soon and hug all your dear ones.
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Thank you, Ilda. I can only hope.
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I’m retiring and want to Island hop the Azores. I have spent time on Sao Miguel and Terceira but want to see the other islands. Maybe we could connect on a future trip. I had many great times in the Azores in the 80s and 90s and I am dying to go back !
Abrassoo !
,,,H.
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The standard way to island-hop among Faial, Pico and São Jorge is via ferry. I’ve taken it many times:
https://www.atlanticoline.pt & https://www.atlanticoline.pt/en
https://www.visitportugal.com/en/node/73822
There’s also ferry service between Flores and Corvo, although we’ve never had time to visit Corvo while on Flores:
https://www.directferries.com/ferries_from_flores_to_corvo.htm
If you’re interested in making the crossing, I’d recommend checking with the front desk at your hotel there.
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Thanks, Kathie. This is very useful information which I hope one day will come in handy for me!
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It would be a lot of fun to island hop with you, for sure. Maybe one day it will happen!
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We haven’t been to the Azores since Fall 2018, so I’ve been building a bad case of saudades ever since, too. We can only hope that the pandemic abates soon.
In the interim, we’ve been making a few of our favorite Azorean recipes at home — principally papos secos, bolos lêvedos, pastéis de nata, and a vegan(!) version of sopas.
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Well, Kathie, nothing satisfies saudade as much as the foods you mention. Bom apetite!
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As primeiras vezes que fui aos Açores, mais precisamente às Flores, fui com o meu ex-marido, cuja avó vivia na ilha. Foi nessas viagens que percebi a importância das visitas sociais e dos convites para almoçar ou jantar.
Na altura foi para mim uma surpresa e algo a que, como forasteira, tive que me adaptar.
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Onde nas Flores? Tenho raízes na Ponta da Fajã Grande e na Fajãzinha. Também uma amiga na Fazenda das Lajes, a poetisa florentina Gabriela Silva.
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Na Fazenda das Lajes. Não tenho a certeza absoluta dos parentescos pois já me separei nos início dos anos noventa e a memória já falha, mas creio que a mãe dessa senhora que refere, a Gabriela Silva, era uma das irmãs da avó materna do meu ex-marido. Chama-se Elisa e a avó materna do meu ex-marido Filomena.
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Eis, umas fotos va nossa visita nas Lajes e na Fazenda em Março de 2014, inclusive de almoçarmos na casa da Gabriela: http://www.inolongerlikechocolates.com/15-06_calendar_jun.htm
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Engraçado, pois reconheço a casa na primeira imagem (a da esquerda) e cheguei a almoçar lá, com ela e com os pais. Mas não a reconheço nestas imagens, já passou muito tempo. Contudo, creio que será o marido dela que aparece. Eu era uma jovem e agora tenho 63 anos… realmente passou muito tempo e muita vida sobre todos nós!
Obrigada pela partilha!
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Obrido, Dulce, por esta partilha. Gostei de saber sobre a vossa ligação com os Açores. Oxalá que algum dia eu possa visitar as Flores!
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Logo que possa, visite. Para mim é a ilha mais bela que conheço!
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This is wonderful, Emanuel. You are a good, kind soul, and through it all you made connections that will last a life time.
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Thanks, Caroline. Appreciate your kind words. Emanuel
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As someone who is usually travelling alone, with no contacts, and has to spend a lot of time sitting in parks, waiting for someone to speak to me, I find myself envying you for having a list of people to visit. And even a schedule!
It reminds me of medieval scholars who were travelling with letters of introduction to present at the castles or monasteries along the way.
What a beautiful way to travel!
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What a wonderful perspective! Next time I go to the Azores and visit the lovely people there I’ll think of myself as a medieval scholar or, at least, a modest medieval pilgrim on a journey.
Thanks for your kind words and for visiting my blog.
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It will probably make me seem silly, but I sometimes imagine myself exactly that way on my hikes in Germany.
But with a castle on every hill and a monastery in every valley, it’s easy to travel back in time by a millennium.
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Not silly at all! Your beautiful landscape with castles, churches, and monasteries lend themselves to the joy of the wandering pilgrim!
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