Funchal

Funchal

After spending seven full, calm watered, days at sea, our last port being Antigua, we arrived to the welcome sight of LAND! Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira, did not disappoint.  It has a lot of quaint streets and shops and architecture and is set up for visitors to the island, but is in no way over run with tourists. The island is like a mountain that rises out of the sea.

Pictured here are roads paved with small, rounded stones.

Turning a defect into and effect: decoration on and around the historical building while preserving the effects of time.

The central market was exceptionally pretty, with many colourful stalls selling more varieties of passion fruit than I have ever seen.  You could try a small sample of several of them, which I did, and would have purchased, if not for the fact that we were on a cruise ship, and, the price was 20 euros per kilo which is just over 75 Brazilian reais per kilo.  I am accustomed to paying around 4-6 reais, so this was definitely sticker shock! There were also some nice souvenir shops in the market.

The official name is Mercado dos Lavradores.  A lavrador is someone who cultivates land.  In traditional painted Portuguese tile, you can see the farmer women wearing the characteristic funny wool felt hat that looks like the stem of a fruit. It is called a carapuça.

One of the things that pleases me most is tree lined streets.  Just look at the curve and shape of the branches.  Also note the funny vehicles along the left side of the photo, in particular.  We saw many small, rugged and cute vespas, motorcycles and 2 seater type cars which are suited for warmer climate and short, steep distances.

View of the "beach".  We saw a few places that had steps down the cliff side to a man made platform, from which people would enter the ocean, and on which people would sun bathe.

This is inside the Pereira D'Oliveira wine shop that manufactures and sells a number of different Madeira wines.  It had been many years since I had tasted this style of wine, which is not unlike some ports and sherries, and is decidedly delicious.  Free of charge, you can sit and and someone will bring you 3 glasses of different ages to sample, as well as generous chunks of a type of dense spice- nut cake to eat with it.  I truly wish we did not have to consider packing light for this voyage.  I wanted to get a case of this flavourful, woody wine!

Above and below are some examples of the lush greenery.  Everything was clean, well maintained and carefully planned out.  The atmosphere was very pleasing as a result.

There is a funny story associated with this last photo.  Very close to the cruise port is a small island outcropping on the coast and built upon it is this "castle" which is a hodge podge of miscellaneous found objects.  It is actually a separate country, or rather, the Principality of Ilheu da Pontinha, as so declared by its owner/ruler: Prince D. Renato Barros.  The quick story is, a regular guy bought the little island and had the crazy idea of declaring it a country.  You can visit the castle, Fort Sao Jose, and give a small donation which helps to care for the cats that live on the island.  Find out more www.fortesaojose.org