Round the World

Just some quick notes for now because we are paying for internet access. You'll have to forgive my poor grammar and spelling, the spell checker is checking my Portuguese and the keyboard has a couple of extra keys (like this: ç!).

After 40 hours of travel (I'm not sure why I didn't think of that when I booked everything!), we arrived Funchal, Madeira, Portugal yesterday evening (where is Madeira?). Part of the the runway is built on stilts out into the ocean, where as the other half is cut into the mountain side. The pilot got a round of applause on landing (well deserved I might add!). Despite some problems finding a bus to Funchal (we ended up paying for a cab), we finally got to the hotel, found some Euros and checked in.

This morning after a much needed nights sleep we took a walk around Funchal, after practicing our Portuguese on the lady on who works at the hotel. My poor Spanish is of more help than I thought, the pronunciation is quite different but many of the words similar. Almost all the street in the main part are cobbled, some of them in mosaic The cars fly around the narrow streets at a worrying speed, and we are still practicing looking left first.

Once we wandered round for a bit we found a bus timetable, a bus stop and finally a bus, purchased tickets and headed for Monte, a suburb on the hillside above Funchal. Our negotiation in Portuguese (and some English from the kind people who indulged us) renew some of my confidence that I had lost in the inability to get a bus yesterday. The bus to Monte travels through narrow streets up absurdly steep hills and around tight bends, tooting constantly as it goes, it was even more nerve racking than the plane landing! 20 minutes later shaken and stirred we arrived in Babosas, and took a short walk along cobbled laneway, past the top of the cable car from Funchal (the expensive way) in to Monte. Monte, surrounded by gardens and a palace (!?) clings to the steep hillside. A large church (small cathedral) overlooks Funchal and men in white suits offer (expensive) toboggan rides back into Funchal.

From Monte we walked back to Babosas and onto Levada dos Tornos, the levadas are narrow irrigation channels that transport water around the island. They are often accompanied by narrow walking tracks, one of which we followed across some quite sheer mountainsides and though small villages until is started raining and we bailed.

Now we are back in Funchal, we will try and find something for dinner. This evening there is a festival by the waterfront, San Pedro's Saint Day. There will be fire works and a parade supposedly, so it may be late night (it doesn't get dark until about 10PM). Anyhow, adeus!