Madeira: outside Funchal - September 16

Today began with breakfast, grabbing our gear and boarding the bus.

Our first stop was Camara dos Lobos, a fishing village just west of Funchal. When we passed through this village yesterday on the hop on/off bus it was raining hard. Today was much better.  After being greeted by a brief rain shower, the skies cleared and a charming village appeared.   

 

Monument to Dos Lobos (sea lions) for which village is named

Although catering to tourists (or at least tourist Euros) this is a working fishing community. 

There appeared to be a lot of moorings in the harbor, but no boats on any of them. The buoys are for fishing nets which are left in the water before the boats are hauled out. 

The boats are hauled out using a cable run through one or more blocks moved to various attachment points depending on where the boat is being placed.  On the bow and stern of each boat is an attachment point for the hook at the end of the cable.  Steel bands protect the underside of the boat as it is dragged into position.

Back on the bus, we ascended to Pico dos Barcelos, a scenic vista (1000') overlooking Funchal to the east and Camara do Lobos to the west with the mountains to the north.  As we disembarked it once again began to rain. This seriously compromised the photo op.

Our next ascent was to Eira Do Serrado which overlooks the Valley of the Nuns.  The valley got its name from being the place nuns would hide when the area was under attack by pirates or corsairs. This climb took us up to 3600' on a steep road with numerous tight switchbacks bordered by sheer drops.  

 

 It was worth it.  While we were again hit by rain, it was fleeing and yielded some rainbows.  

From the top of the mountain, we looked down into several small communities nestled in the Valley of the Nuns.

 

 

We descended the mountain, returning to our hotel to conclude the half-day tour.

After leaving some gear in our room, Pam and I walked down to the shoreline, finding a nice café for lunch.  

 

 

 

 

We returned to our hotel for a leisurely latter half of the afternoon. 

We had a fun dinner with four new friends at Il Gallo d'Oro in the Cliff Bay Hotel, returning to our hotel at 11:15.  Among many interesting presentations of delicious food was the "Big Mac".  It was a macaroon delivered in a styrofoam hamburger container.  Beside the container was a conical container made of chocolate containing 'fries' which were golden colored ice cream sticks.  There were also ketchup and mustard dispensers, the former containing strawberry preserve and the latter some sort of thickened cream.  It was very clever.

Knowing that we needed to be at breakfast at 7:30, we went straight to bed.  We were on our way to being sound asleep when a power failure occurred.  When the power was restored a few minutes later, the TV came on.  I got up, shut it off and went back to bed.  Fifteen minutes later, the same sequence occurred.  Now we are awake waiting for it to happen again, which it did not, but the possibility of a good night's sleep had already been compromised.