Madera escape

Flowers, food and relax

In May 2016 I was going through a very challenging phase.
My boss made some harassment to me in the workplace, during a meeting – he was a lot older than me, married and with two kids. I denounced it to our CEO, and he decided to change my role to avoid any possible contact with the ex-boss. Also, the CEO took some small “penalties” for him – in my opinion, a totally inadequate response. But, that is, neither the CEO or the boss are currently working for my company anymore, so I do not want to talk about this bad moment again.
As a consequence of this fact, my at-that-time boyfriend, with which I had a six-year relationship, left me, arguing that the harassment should have been in some ways caused by me. And also, in this case, I prefer not to talk about this ridiculous situation.
Anyway, I decided to leave with my sister for a resetting trip. We planned a 5 days travel in Madera, a Portuguese Island on the west northern African coast (in the Atlantic Ocean).
Madera is called “the never-ending springtime island”, and I think it is very well motivated.
In those 5 days, each day, we got the opportunity to wear a bikini, t-shirt, sweater, flip-flops, sneakers, scarf, sunglasses, umbrella, and sometimes also a waterproof jacket – in any time of the day. If you think that there are no more mid-seasons, you should go to Madera to live a real mid-season experience.
Even if Madera is the hosting place of a very famous ultra trail, and has thousands of trails and hiking paths, I wasn’t in the mood for sport and, very important thing, the concept of extreme sport for my sister is an hour of walking on the flat seaside. So you can easily understand why we dedicated our travel to relax, sunbathing, flowers and food.
So I’m going to shortly describe what we did in those days, which places stolen our hearts and what (and where) we ate to fulfill our bellies. My intention is not to write a complete guide, but just give a glance to maybe raise some curiosity and wanderlust (maybe after the quarantine…).
From Italy, there are no direct flights to Madera, so we made it through Lisbon, and the travel started in the middle morning in Malpensa, letting us reaching the hotel in the late afternoon, just in time for a shower and a light dinner in a very nice restaurant near our hotel.
Madera is a very small island (801 km2 – 309 sq mi) so it is quite easy to see all the relevant attractions also in a few days.

The first day we made a relaxing walk starting from the center of Funchal, the main town of Madera, where we stayed (and where I suggest to get the hotel because in the rest of the island there are only very small villages) and arrived at Praia Formosa, a volcanic beach, very particular because is black, made of crumbled lava – Madera is a volcanic island.
Here some photos that were taken during the walk, that is more or less 5 km back and forth (10 km – 6 miles, in total).

Then we headed to Santana, a very characteristic village where you can find their typical houses, perfectly preserved (mainly for tourist photos), and during our way, we hit some beautiful panoramic viewpoints, of which the island is rich due to its morphology.

The second day was dedicated to dolphins sighting, with a local company. The excursion lasted about three hours, and it was so exciting! To recover from the emotions, we indulged in a marina cafè to enjoy pastel de nata and fruit salad – two of my favorite food (nah, don’t trust me, I say “my favorite food” of almost anything) before heading to Camara de Lobos, an adorable super tiny fisherman village where you can see local people playing cards out of the taverns, shouting and laughing.

To close the day in a fair enough way, we went for dinner at Mercado das Tapas, a restaurant located in the wonderful market of Funchal. Here I had one of the best tuna steaks of my entire life – and a sublime mousse au chocolat, for my sweet tooth. Perfect.

The third day was dedicated to exploring the Madera botanical garden of Funchal – absolutely a don’t miss stop – and some sunbathing at Praia da Calheta. The remarkable foodie stop was the Hamburgueria do Mercado, a super cute and friendly place where you can find delicious burgers of different types.

Day 4: time to explore the mountains! We made a very adventurous drive to Pico do Areeiro, one of the highest points of the island, with a very scenic view. A little tip: rent a small car, maybe with some horsepowers, because of the streets of the island: narrow and steep. After the mountains, night out in the old town of Funchal.

And here we are to our last day on this dreamy island. We made the last walk through the alleys of old Funchal, enjoying the painted doors and the local market – Mercado dos Lavradores and other “independent” small stands placed on the traditional cobbled squares. Also, the day was dedicated to spending all the remaining budget buying very essential things like necklaces, bags, earrings, and so on.

So this is the travel diary of my Madera escape. I hope you enjoyed it and not to have bothered. Please feel free to share your comments or your questions, have a nice imaginary trip!