Day 11 Funchal, Madeira

We reached Funchal around 7:00 am. It was still dark but the lights of the city were beautiful. Today we are supposed to take a 4.5 hour excursion to the interior of the island. This a Portuguese island with about 300,000 total population, of which about 120,000 live in its capital, Funchal. We were the only cruise ship in port today, but there were a lot of tourists. Many speaking German. I took over 90 photos but, the good news is that, I am not posting most of them.

We never received any information regarding our shore excursion, like tickets or information where to rendezvous. We knew the ship was to dock at 0800 hours and we were to meet for the excursion at 0830 hours. We had room service bring up breakfast at 0700 and at 0800 hours we went down to the Service Lounge. Apparently they had had a computer issue and they quickly generated tickets for us. No problem. We actually spent more time trying to find the gangway to get off the ship. They loaded us onto one of four Land Rover SUVs. We were being accompanied by another guest (Paul from California). The driver's name was Paolo (Paul) who was born and raised on Madeira. As we left the port, I finally got a chance to get a photo of the ship as we drove through Funchal.

It turned out to be a very nice day. Paolo said we were lucky because yesterday it was raining and foggy all day. Madeira is a beautiful island. The highest peak is 1,862 meters (6,108 feet). The highest we reached today was 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Most of this was on paved roads, but the last several miles were on very steep mud roads and the 4x4 SUV was essential.

The island can be broken down by the crops that they raise. From sea level up to a certain point, there is nothing but banana trees, EVERYWHERE THERE ARE BANANA TREES!!! It seemed if there was soil available, there was a banana tree. Paolo said that, second only to tourism, banana export is their largest source of income. They grow these in private yards and sell them to co-ops. What they don't eat themselves are exported to Lisbon. He said the bananas are not as large as those from the Caribbean and central America, but they are sweeter.

Our first stop was at a fishing village. While several species are caught, the main fish caught is the Black Swordfish. We were allowed to walk around for awhile. The narrow cobblestone streets and narrow sidewalks reminded me of the French Quarter (although this was MUCH cleaner and better smelling).

Catholic Chapel

Back in the SUV, we started ascending the mountain. We started seeing sugar cane, ready to cut. Like the bananas, the sugar cane is processed via a co-op into white rum and "black honey". T suggested this was essentially molasses, but Paolo said it said it was similar but not the same.

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Sugar cane with leaves stripped and ready for cutting

The island goes "up" from the ocean very quickly. They do a lot of terrace farming...everywhere. Many succulents and tropical plants.

We stopped at THE tourist overlook attraction, Cabo Girão. It has a platform with a glass floor looking down 580 meters (1,902 feet) to the surf below.

If you look very closely at the photo below, you may see six circular floats in the ocean. I asked Paolo what they were and he said it was the island's goldfish farm.

Up and up we went. We passed through the cherry orchards, strawberry and onion fields. The upper regional crop was potato and some leafy greens (looked like collards). Then we encountered the forest of Eucalyptus. Paolo said they were not indigenous to the island but were introduced about 400 years ago and they have thrived. We finally reached the overlook of the Nun's Valley. Paolo said the elevation was 1,000 meters. It was raining lightly when l we got up there. The trees behind T are Eucalyptus.

On the way down, we drove through the grape (wine) region. Of course Madeira is renowned for its Madeira wines. We are still trying to determine the species of grape used in their wine. The interesting thing to me was they way they grew the vines. They come up from a stalk and form a canopy of limbs. Paolo said the grapes are harvested by hand and it is very stressful because the work is all "overhead".

The photo below is at the "Charming Hotel" where we stopped for a Poncha (Madeira's signature spirit drink), consisting of orange juice, lemon juice, white rum and honey. It had a nice "kick".

Finally, back at the pier, we thanked Paolo and boarded the ship.

We weighed anchor promptly at 1800 hours. On the seas again tonight.