So this past week, Leah and I went to the Portuguese island of Madeira for a short escape. We stayed at a hotel high up in the mountains and away from the major city of Funchal. Although at a glance, you’d think this is a great formula for peaceful nights, but I haven’t yet mentioned the civil war going on across the valley between random dogs competing for supremacy nor the roosters who refused to be outdone by one another and thus collectively decided to start “Cock-a-Doodle-Do” recitals at 4AM instead of 7. A few nights we were happy to scrounge together 5 hours of sleep.
Madeira itself is an absolutely beautiful place. The island is sparsely populated, most of the terrain and natural features are very much preserved, and everything seemed very undisturbed. (if that makes any sense) The mountains were gorgeous. My command of the English language isn’t even close enough to a level that will do them justice with words. The indigenous folk grow grapes for wine (including a sweet variety that tasted like a port), bananas, and sugar. All the young adults drank something called Poncha, which basically tastes like Malibu albeit a little stronger. Not my favorite.
We only had three days to explore the island, so for our first day, we climbed up another 400m from our hotel and walked west along a gently upward sloping levada (water way) for what was probably a few miles. We had to stop when the levada stopped and we realized we were in some pretty raw terrain. We’re rookies, so we turned back. Although there are a few photos of our little walk, they do a poor job of capturing the awe and jaw-dropping scenery that surrounded us. There is nothing like looking up and seeing clouds misting about – only a stone’s throw from where you’re standing.
For day two, we took what was supposed to be a 30 minute bus ride (actual time was like 90 mins) to the central city of Funchal on the Southeast coast. I was again bothered (Malaga) with someone’s decision to trade beach coastline for a huge ugly shipping marina, but I’m sure there’s more convenience and profit in having the marina right there. Oh well… Funchal was a great city though. It seemed to be a very exciting, very relaxing, very livable place, and Leah definitely agreed. We got to see a few markets, a few landmarks, and soak in some of the scenery. Other than being a *bit* expensive, and the entire city crawling with tourists (us included I suppose), it was a perfect little city.
While we were in Funchal, we booked a Jeep Safari for the following day. We got picked up at our hotel in the morning of day three for a full day off-road excursion around the island. (thankfully, it was just us and the tour guide) We climbed to over 1800m up on several occasions, and actually were driving among the clouds – passing through a few of them on occasion. That was just amazing. Some of the other highlights included seeing cows grazing on the edges of 1200m cliffs, seeing the turbulent ocean from a ledge 1000m up, and manning the guns of an old Russian tank as we leveled trees driving through the woods whilst taking out several enemy command posts and bunkers. (can’t remember if tank story was dream or reality…)
By the way, all of the altitudes came from the tour guide (hence the meters), but for reference: 1800m ~6000ft.
The photo feature with blogspot is broken or something. I may have been flagged as a terrorist....I'll get some posted just as soon as its working again
Next we’re on to Wales and then the much anticipated trip to Italy in April. Take care!
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