Peaky mountains, a lot of flowers and of course, Cristiano Ronaldo. January this year I decided to book a flight from Lisbon to the island of Madeira. 18 euro for a two way ticket is a pretty nice deal, so why not? This Portuguese island is located in the Atlantic ocean, about 1000 kilometers of the coast of Morocco. The island is quite small, about 800 km2. This does not mean that it is easy to travel from place to place. My way of travelling was by bus, which is doable, but if you travel with others I would recommend to rent a car.
Day 1, arriving and Funchal
My flight arrived around 1 p.m. so I had the time to explore the capital where I booked my hostel. Funchal has about 100 thousand residents and there are some nice things to do. First things first, I went to the official museum of Cristiano Ronaldo where you can see his amazing statue (or is it Gareth Bale?). Inside you will see everything he accomplished which is quite impressive.
Now it was time to meet my roommates and they took me to a wine tasting literally at the other side of the street. We tasted a couple of wines and they were really nice. Afterwards we decided to walk around the city on our search for a nice restaurant, it came out to be Indian. Not a good impression of the kitchen of Madeira, but I had more chances to do so...
After dinner we took a couple of drinks and I decided to go to bed early. A slow and easy start of the trip, but that was necessary.
Day 2 – Levada do Caldeirão verde
Instead of not planning anything, which I did on Sao Miguel, I decided to plan some must do hikes. The first day it was time for the PR9 hike. This trail led me to the Caldeirão verde (the green waterfall). From Funchal I had to take a bus to a village in the north of Madeira called Santana. This took me about an hour and from here I had to book a cab to Queimadas Forest where the hike started. There are two points where you will find waterfalls. The first one is the caldeirão Verde and this trail is about 6,5 kilometers long. I decided to walk 2 kilometers further and I reached caldeirão inferno. The first 6,5 kilometers is quite flat, but there is some height difference in the last 2 kilometers so you have to keep that in mind. When you reach the end, there is no possibility to take a cab or bus from here. You are right in the middle of the Madeiran jungle and you have to walk the same route back.
In total I walked about six hours and I would do it over and over again. I had the feeling that I was walking somewhere in a rainforest in Congo but no, it really is Europe. The views are amazing and I was lucky that it didn’t rain. Eventually that would not matter because there are some small waterfalls that end on the trail, you have to walk through them so if you don’t like wet feet, don’t do this hike! I really would recommend to walk the whole trail. The end is spectacular and luckily, a lot of people just walk to the first 6,5 kilometers so it is way less busy at the end of the trail.
After the hike, I grabbed a beer and asked two people if I could get a ride back to Santana where I took the bus back to Funchal. I had to wait a couple of minutes which gave me just enough time to take a look at the typical houses of Santana.
When I returned back in Funchal it was time to try real Madeiran food. I heard some good stories about fish with banana and a sauce of passion fruit. Not the most common combination, but it turned out to be really good! After dinner I had a couple of drinks in a bar and went to bed, because the next day, the Pico Ruivo will be climbed!
Day 3 – Pico do Arieiro and Pico Ruivo.
The next and last day it was time for the real deal. I heard stories about the how though this hike was, so I woke up early, grabbed some breakfast at a typical padaria and took a cab to the start of the hike. The driver confirmed the stories and warned me about how though this hike was, especially if the weather was bad. Luckily it was dry, but it was cold and really cloudy. In the beginning it was really bad and I couldn’t see anything. After a while the sight was getting better. The spooky and cloudy environment was cool, but I was lucky to get my eyes on some amazing views. The hike was though because the height difference was big, 1650 meter to be exact. The start was at the pico Arieiro (1818 meter) and you walk to the pico Ruivo (1862), the highest point of the island.
The trail is good and there are a lot of stairs and fences which makes it a safe hike. When I reached the pico Ruivo I was satisfied, there is a bar! Some employees sleep there for a few days and others do the hike everyday. Luckily for them, it is possible to take a shorter trail which take about one hour. I chose to take the same path that I took, hoping that the clouds would completely disappear. In total I walked about five hours, but I was much more exhausted then the day before. At the end of the trail I managed to get myself a ride back to Funchal.
My last evening on this beautiful island and sad enough I couldn’t stay any longer, but the next time I will plan a longer trip. I was able to get back to Funchal before sunset and the difference in temperature was so big. On top of the Pico Ruivo I witnessed ice and now I was sitting on the beach in my t-shirt. After sunset I had one last meal and went to bed, considering my flight back to Lisbon was really early.
Altogether it was a really good, but to short experience. There is so much more to see, but I am glad that I took this opportunity.
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