Madeira Island -- 2004
I do not think I would have gone to Madeira, if it were not for a conference that I had to attend. Madeira Island belongs to Portugal and lies on the Atlantic, North of the Canary Islands. It seems to be a popular destsinations for older tourists from Western Europe looking for a sunny and peaceful vacation spot. Still, the island is full of beautiful places and while I would not go out of my way to visit it, I did enjoy the few days I spent there.
After the conference was over, Miryoung, Andrea, Paolo and I rented a car and drove around the Western part of the island. We started from Funchal and went over the mountains to São Vincente skirting Ribeira Brava on the way. Relatively quickly we got to a mountain pass at 1007m, from where we had great views of São Vincente and the South coast. From there we quickly got to São Vincente itself. There were a number of good lunch places there and we happily plopped down at one of them.
An hour or so later, we set out toward Porto Muniz. This stretch of the road used to be really narrow and ran in only one direction: from East to West. In addition to being narrow, the road ran along the edge of a tall cliff -- a very precarious setup. Now, in most places a new, straighter (thanks to the new tunnels) road is available, with one lane in each direction. You can choose to use parts of the old road if you really trust your driving abilities or if you do not particularly care about coming out alive.
Porto Muniz is famous for its "natural" swimming pools -- currently reinforced with concrete. Given that it was January, there was nobody there and we quickly left the town for Ponta do Pargo -- the western-most point of Madeira Island. The road suddenly became extremely windy and even the toughest of us had enough of it after an hour. So we decided that instead of continouing our trip around the perimiter of the island, we would return through the mountains in the center (Paúl da Serra). It turned out to be a great idea: we ended up at one of the tallest peaks there, Bica da Cana (1620m), just a few minutes before the sunset. The views were spectacular. From there we drove back to Funchal.
The next day we took the cable car from Funchal to Monte, to see the famous "tobogans". While they were fun to watch, we chose to return to the center of Funchal by foot.
A few of our pictures are available below. Click on any of them to enter the slide show and see the larger versions.
January 17, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
São Vincente as seen from a mountain pass
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
Between São Vincente and Porto Muniz
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Paolo Viappiani
Natural swimming pools in Porto Moniz
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
Porto Muniz
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
On the way to Porta do Pargo
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
A small settlement between Porto Muniz and Porta do Pargo
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Paolo Viappiani
Me taking the previous picture
|
January 17, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
Sunset over Paúl da Serra as seen from Bica da Cana
|
January 18, 2004 picture by Paolo Viappiani
The famous "tobogans" that take tourists from Monte to the center of Funchal
|
January 18, 2004 picture by Krzysztof Gajos
Paolo and Miryoung studying our tour guides at Monte
|
||
