A Bermudian delegation will fly out to the Azores today for an official visit at the invitation of Chief Minister Carlos Cesar.

The trip has been planned since the controversy over granting rights to long-term residents.

For Opposition MP Trevor Moniz the trip to the Portuguese Atlantic island group will be his first.

?It?s something I am looking forward to.?

He will be going with Music Box owner Eddie DeMello and businessman Robert Pires who are active within Bermuda?s Portuguese community.

There will be three days of official events including a dinner reception at the presidential palace.

Mr. Moniz said issues to be discussed would include the lack of a Portuguese Consul.

The post was axed last summer in an austerity move by the Portuguese Government.

The shock announcement left dozens of Portuguese residents unable to travel as they awaited new or renewed travel documents.

Since then Dr. Silvano Ribiero has come for temporary stints but Mr. Moniz said the arrangement was far from satisfactory.

?So many Portuguese here need to renew passports and have difficulties being assisted.?

He said the Americans had a full-time Consulate.

?There are as many Portuguese as there are Americans. The Portuguese are a large minority and more presence is required.?

Other issues to be discussed include updating the accord between Bermuda and Portugal.

He said the accord gave Portuguese workers some protection in their work contracts but sometimes discouraged employment.

Mr. DeMello, who came to Bermuda from the Azores at the age of ten with his family, said Mr. Pires planned to film him at the family home on the main island of San Miguel where the group will be staying.

Mr. Pires is planning to make a documentary of the occasion about the volcanic islands which he says are fascinating.

?The volcanoes are still active. You can go there and see a flat field and two years later there?s a hill in the middle of it. It?s just like a pot of jam about to bubble.?

Whole villages have been lost to volcanoes said Mr. Pires.

?A new island appeared in the sea and an English captain tried to claim it then it sunk down again so he never got his island. It was the height of Gibbs Hill Lighthouse ? 296 feet and then it disappeared.?