Our first day was spent riding the Hop-On Hop-Off bus to get our bearings in Funchal. When we arrived at the Old Town, people from church parishes were building carpets of flowers in the road along the procession route in celebration of a religious holiday. We got off at small coastal town, Camara de Lobos. While sitting at an outside bar having a drink, we overheard people talking about the first plane arriving from NY to land after the storm. We told them we were on that flight, and the server said “You are famous! The landing was on the TV that night!” Oh geez….
Our first tour was to the west side of the island. The weather was sunny but cool, so we skipped swimming in the volcanic pools, but did step our feet in. That counts, right? A really fun part was off-roading with the Jeep 4x4 our guide must have really pushed it because when we got to the end, the Jeep would not move out of first gear. We drove all the way back to town that way, ugh!
Before our food tour the next afternoon through the Old Town, “us” girls went for a spa treatment. It was so great, but we walked out of there looking like someone from “Something about Mary”! The food tour walking to restaurants in the Old Town was interesting. You can’t go to Madeira without drinking their traditional “poncha” cocktail, a few of those, good luck! In one of the stores we saw the wooden tool they mixed “poncha” with and asked what it was called. “I don’t think I should tell you that, it has a sexual connotation”, was the answer. We couldn’t miss all the painted doors along the cobblestone streets. There was a “Painted Door Project” years ago to bring some color and life back to the streets. They have become a public art gallery, for all to see! We really enjoyed Funchal.
Our next full day tour took us to the east side of the island, heading up to the highest point of Madeira, Pico do Areeiro. The views were incredible, but it sure was cold up there! Another off-roading experience for us, tons of fun, and no broken Jeep this time. Of course we had to stop and see the traditional triangular thatched houses in Santana.
It was super windy for our catamaran cruise the next day, and to top it off, we had to deal with a super entitled millennial, who took up six seats for herself and her “bebe”. How dare we say anything to her about sharing the extra seats. Quite the heated argument ensued, but we thought better to continue as we did not want to be arrested in a foreign country.
The last tour we took we say was to go visit the nuns, actually it was The Nuns Valley, a small village situated in the crater of an extinct volcano in the middle part of Madeira island. The clouds were low when we arrived, but as we climbed the stairs to the viewing point, they were moving out. We were way high up, the village looked like tiny blocks down in the valley.
Madeira is a beautiful island, full of flowers and scenery, kinda made us think of Kauai. Stay tuned for our next adventure in July!
