Madeira

Ahhh Madeira. What a perfectly lovely island. I've, officially, decided I need to retire here. You can buy a one bedroom house for $70K. Granted it's tiny. But I won't need much room when I'm retired.  

The island is relatively small - and has about 260K people who live here. Their main export is now wine, but had been sugar cane in the past.  

The climate is mostly mild. They have "microclimates" all over the island. It can be warm in the town, and then up in the mountains be raining and cold. We experienced it today in that it was about 65F when we were in Funchal and then when we headed up the mountain to 1000 ft it got cooler. Then when we headed up even more to about 3200 ft, the cloud just sat there. It didn't rain, just looked like it.  

We started today driving up to the little village of Monte (pronounced mont). A sleepy little village who's main business is the toboggan rides down the mountain. And let me tell you they make quite a pretty penny. It was part of our excursion, but the prices showed 25 EU for one and 30 for two. Which makes no sense to me, but that's what the sign said.

Janet and I were put with another young lady from the Netherlands and the three of us barely fit into this "3 person" toboggan. I think they assume 3 European butts…

The toboggan run started in the early 19th century when a wine shop owner needed to find a quicker way down the mountain to his store. He'd see a ship come in and he'd have to run down the hill. He tried a couple of different things before friend developed this toboggan. It runs on wood runners that are greased and a wicker basket to hold the victims - er ah - riders. It was the first means of "downhill" transportation on the island and is mostly for tourist these days. The toboggans are "driven" by two men (who I assume have leg muscles) that are called carreiros and dressed in white with straw hats and black rubber boots that are used as the brakes. No lie. They use ropes to get the basket going then hop on the back and steer with their legs and weight. It's the craziest thing I think I've ever seen or done. It was a 10 minute, 2K ride.

After that thrilling adventure (we only screamed a little) we had a Fanta while we waited for the rest of our bus folks to come hurtling down the mountain.

The thrills weren't over yet though. From there we drove BACK up the mountain on teeny tiny roads that the bus barely fit through to then hop on their cable car. 

Now, I'm no fan of heights and the thought of getting into a closed gondola to ride 17 minutes in the air back down to the water just didn't seem like something I should do. But I did. I couldn't not do it and not see the fantastic panorama views it offered.

Back in the bus we road on a very windy, very narrow road up the mountain to a viewpoint called Pico do Serrado - at 3592 ft. The ride was another nail biter. I laughed at Janet who was on the side facing down the steep cliff until I was the one on that side on the way down. Ugh. I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best.

Anyhow, at the viewpoint was where we could see Nun's Valley (my retirement community at the rate I'm going). In 1566, the nuns from the Santa Clara convent fled from the pirates (bloody pirates) that were attacking Funchal (which means where the fennel grows by the way). This little village is nestled between two very steep, almost perpendicular mountains and offered the nuns a perfect hiding place. They managed to sustain themselves by growing their own food and what not. Apparently Madeira has extremely fertile soil.

Janet and I had enough time to have a quick café con leche before boarding the bus back down that road. I kinda wished I had something stronger than coffee.

Back in Funchal we stopped at an old Madeira winery. The family who owns this winery has for 9 generations.  We got to sample their sweet Madeira wine, and a ticket to try one other type. I choose to try their semi-dry and My Oh My was that good. So good, in fact, I bought some. 

We're back on the boat now headed for Tenerife. Tomorrow another day of guided tours, and hopefully no more small, windy, narrow roads.