" A man's culture is the sum of his memories."
----- José Manuel Melim Mendes in Memories of Porto Santo and Madeira
Madeira is an oddly unique geographical and cultural blip—a rich little universe of rough mountains and lush slopes slapped by Atlantic breakers owned by the Portuguese, but off the coast of Africa. It's also the place that Paul and I are spending our 12th wedding anniversary. It's "his turn" this year and he made an excellent choice!
We found out (too late) that there are direct flights from New York City, but we took a more circuitous route on December 25th via Atlanta, Boston, Lisboa, and then the main city of Funchal. We were en route to a hiking trip amongst the levadas and natural beauty of the island, and skipped Funchal completely (except for the airport), but will circle back to Funchal for the finish.
The island of Madeira is about three times the size of Nantucket, twice the area of the British Isle of Wight and slightly larger than Singapore. Together with the islands of Porto Santo and Desertas and the Selvagens—Madeira forms an autonomous region of the country of Portugal. It sits 550 miles west of the Moroccan city of Casablanca—the same distance as from Sacramento to San Diego, or from Geneva to Berlin. The climate is semi-tropical.
The Portuguese word madeira means wood, because forests coated the island when navigators first settled its shores in the 15th century. Safe, beautiful and with a balmy climate, this mountainous island is a joy to visit.
Until recently, exploring the island was arduous. This mountainous land with rugged coasts had unsafe roads and few ports. Residents hiked over heinously steep and rocky mountain trails to visit neighbors in adjacent valleys. With significant influx of funding and safety standards from the EU, today the nation’s road network resembles that of Switzerland—with ample tunnels and elevated highways. This engineering allows rapid travel through—instead of over—peaks, and moving from the southern to the northern coast is now facile. The two longest road tunnels are each over 1.9 miles long. Our guide said the thiry-minute journey we took today across the northwest coast was once a 3-4 hour journey along narrow winding one-lane roads. Despite recent transportation engineering, mountain roads still criss-cross Madeira. Many such steep and twisted routes pass through lush landscapes with terraced agriculture—including sugar cane and sweet potato fields. Vistas include tropical greenery, blue skies and jagged coastal cliffs. Some hillside homes still lack driveways due to steepness of land on which they are sited. Irrigation channels known as levadas—originally dug to transport water from the rainy northwest to the drier southeast—are still used, and their banks serve as pathways for hikers. Created five million years ago from volcanic explosions, the island remained uninhabited by humans until Portuguese navigators started visiting in 1419. This was during the country’s era of exploration, when sea captains such as Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan sailed the world.
The island has few sandy beaches and ample laurel forests called laurisilva, which are protected from cutting down of trees. Flat regions are rare; when the Funchal airport runway was expanded, part of it had to be placed on elevated piers . Such topography, however, provides vistas—hence there are seven scenic cable cars on the island’s mountainsides. Typical views include misty serrated ridges cloaked in vegetation.
Most visitors to Madeira are from the U.K., Germany and Scandinavia. Americans will increasingly be targeted now that a weekly eight-hour direct international flight from New York’s JFK airport to Funchal is scheduled.
Our compadres from Explore Worldwide are mostly UK with a smattering of Americans and one Russian national who is living in London. Our guide, Beni, was born of Portuguese Madeiran parents living in South Africa but moved back when he was 10 years old. He is definitely pro-Madeira and has a lot of firsthand knowledge.
Our very first afternoon was spent in the Northern mountain village of Santana which is known for its unique thatched roof A-frame homes. We were in a hotel, so we didn't get to stay in one but we did visit the historical park and flower garden in Santana where they had examples to visit...and nice flowers.
Early settlers began cultivating the lower slopes in the south of the island, cutting out terraces (poios in Portuguese). They built the first small water channels, which carried water from springs higher up the mountainsides to irrigate their lands. These narrow watercourses plummet downhill, rushing and frothing with energy; their banks are often festooned with wild flowers. We still see flowers today, although in the winter they are less plentiful.
By the early 1900s there were about 200 water channels meandering over 620 miles. Many were private and the undisciplined appropriation of water meant that the island's most valuable asset was often unfairly distributed. In fact, by the mid-1930s only two-thirds of the island's arable land was under cultivation - and just half of that was irrigated. Only the State had the money to implement a major building programme and the authority to enforce a more equitable system of distribution.
This was a lovely hike in great cool weather conditions and in addition to the natural beauty, you couldn't help marveling at the engineering feat these levadas are and how they provide drinking water and irrigation for the people of Madeira.
Cheers, y'all!
We arrived at our hotel and surprise surprise----So far, no hotel has had climate control. In fact, we were somewhat cold in Santana. The town we are in tonight, Porto Moriz, seems a bit more temperate or at least we can hope. Nearly every small village we pass is decorated for Christmas, a holiday they appear to take very seriously.
