Funchal felt really different from the western side of the island.  It’s a real city with lots of hotels and tour groups, and yet it is beautiful and mellow and still very tropical.  On our first night there we walked around the waterfront promenade and enjoyed the warm evening.

Another day, we rode a skyrail up to the spectacular tropical gardens at Monte Palace.

Native fauna

Of course, our primary business in Funchal was tasting Madeira, so we made sure to make plenty of time for that.  D’Oliveiras gave us free tastings, wisely knowing we’d feel obligated to buy a small bottle.

Blandy’s Wine Lodge is one of the largest Madeira producers and makes the wine we always get at home.  We went on a nice tour of their cellars and learned about the aging process.  They also had a museum with lots of old record books, winemaking equipment, and thank you letters from dignitaries.  My favorites were the wine-stained letters from Winston Churchill, who seemed to enjoy the product:

Madeira damage. We didn’t do this all by ourselves.

For those of you who are curious, our verdict is that 5 year Madeiras are the right purchase.  The price premium for 10 year and 15 year bottles doesn’t seem worth it for a small increase in flavor complexity.  Our favorites are the medium-dry madeiras from Verdelho grapes and the medium-sweet madeiras from Boal grapes.  So, in a way we went this far just to learn that the 5-year Blandy’s madeira we buy at home is our favorite.  But now we know

We rented a car from the airport in Funchal to drive across the island to Porto Moniz.  We spent most of the drive with our mouths open, in awe of the scenery around us.  Green cliffs and waterfalls would appear out of nowhere.

Sometimes we also had to yield to cows:

And even though some of the roads were the scariest we’ve ever driven on, we were still instantly smitten with Madeira.

Can’t really capture just how incredibly steep some of these roads were.

We stayed at the amazing Aqua Natura, which we can’t recommend highly enough.  The natural pools, seafront balconies, fresh breakfasts, and low rates captured our hearts and we promised we would return.

Natural pools, filled with sea water during high tide.

View from our balcony. We would have paid extra for this balcony, but every room has one exactly like it!

One day we took a hike to this beautiful place:

The trail was along the levadas, which are irrigation channels that run all over the island.  The entire hike was really lush.

Some of it also looked spooky:

We half-expected pterodactyls to appear at any moment.

We’ve moved on to the largest city, Funchal, but Madeira continues to be excellent in every way.  More updates to follow!