Touristy Stuff

We have spent the last two days doing touristy stuff. Yesterday we took the bus to Funchal and today we investigated Machico and did a bit of walking. Here are some indifferent photos of it. The weather is looking to become much brighter and we are resolved to spend longer here now. We will however be moving to Machico as it is a more "real" place than Quinto do Lorde is.

Of course, we are constitutionally incapable of not looking at the harbour facilities in a place we visit. So, not withstanding the fact that we spend nearly all our time on the water at the moment, our first thing in a new place is to rush down to the waterfront and look at the boats there and whether we could get in. Sadly, Funchal is not looking promising. There used to be an anchorage to the east of the very busy marina but that has been entirely filled in. Pictures on the fences show a marina with cruise ship dock outside of it. Goodness knows when it is likely to be finished though. Here is what it looks like at the moment.

The old part of Funchal is a lovely place with lots of squares and some quite old churches and such like. This is the Praca de Municipio.

This last is the interior of a very old Jesuit college that is now part of the University of Madeira. The students are set to work trying to recruit tourists to come in and visit for free (and buy stuff in their gift shop of course). It is an intriguing building and we even bought a t shirt in the shop so they were very happy. The architecture is typical of old Funchal where they have white washed walls with window and door frames made from some sort of very dark volcanic stone. It makes for quite a dramatic look though one that is difficult to photograph well.

Sadly, the rest of my pictures are really not very memorable so I won't clutter this blog up with them. The cloud built up and we wound up spending too much time fending off some scammers pretending to do a survey of why tourists come to the island. Needless to say, we will be going back there.

Today we first went into Machico to do some shopping and also to meet up with Eva Kullgren on Olina who we had previously met outside Cadiz. She is tied up to the wall at Machico and we are going there ourselves. The facilities here at Quinta do Lorde are very good but it is too closed in and exclusive with all non residents and berth holders kept out.

This afternoon we took a bit of a walk out along the peninsula at the eastern extremity of the island. There is an anchorage there called Bahia d'Abra. The foot path skirts round this and then out to the end of the peninsula but we walked to the top of the bay. The photography was a bit better owing to the clouds clearing away.

The Peninsula de Sao Laurenco (the c should have a cedilla on it making it a soft c) is quite dramatic as we found when sailing past it. The walking is relatively easy though you still find some steep bits where you need a good head for heights.

Before people arrived in the thirteenth century, the island was heavily wooded and very fertile. The Portuguese embarked on a programme of systematic deforestation and, in the eastern extremity introduced goats who grazed all the grass off leaving a near desert now!

Nevertheless, the bay itself does look enticing as a place to stop for a day or so. We shall see if we do make it there. This is the rocky bit right at the head of the bay.

We stopped for a rest on the remains of a dry stone wall and found these lizards moving slow enough to be captured by the camera.

Finally, another view of a barren landscape with evidence of heavy water erosion - though it was as dry as a tinder box and any stray light would have caused a serious fire. I really do need to remember that I am not a geography teacher though!