Fun in Funchal
We knew nothing about Madeira other than it was an island off the coast of Morocco, and it was a Portuguese territory. MSC offered a complementary tour of the port city, Funchal, which we gladly accepted. It took us to the highest cliff on the island, to a fishing village, and around the capital Funchal.
Since we didn’t expect anything from this island we were pleasantly surprised by its beauty. It’s known for its botanical diversity, and we saw so many unique flowers and plants. We’d never seen wild poinsettias before, but they grow abundantly in Madeira. We also saw birds of paradise, giant succulents, and orange trumpet vine. The island is named for the fennel plant that grows there. It also used to be the only place where sugar cane grew until the Spanish brought it to the Americas. It’s a fertile island because it was once a volcano, and it continues to have very rich soil. Next to tourism, agriculture is their biggest industry. They mainly grow bananas, sugar cane, coffee, and grapes for a sweet wine.
The local drink that we sampled, poncha, packs quite a punch. It’s made with local dark rum, sugar, and lemon. Our guide told us drinking poncha is the best medicine, the best way to stay warm in winter, and the best way to learn a foreign language. We decided it was the best way to sit behind chatty French tourists on a bus.
We weren’t looking for adventure in Funchal, but it found us anyway. We ended up taking “one of the world’s 7 best commutes,” which is a two person wicker toboggan that is dragged down the steep streets of Funchal. I’d wager that no locals actually commute this way, but it was a thrilling ride that took us two kilometers down the hills of Funchal. We are dying to know what are considered the other 6 best commutes around the world.
Unaware that you could ride a basket down a hill, we were wandering around town aiming to ride the gondola up to a lookout point. We bumped into some people from our ship who were looking for this toboggan, and we ended up joining them on this quest to find the so called best commute. We managed to find a local bus that took us up the winding narrow streets and into the hills of Funchal. After about 20 minutes of our bus dodging stray dogs, reversing for other buses to come through narrow roads, and driving uncomfortably close to walls and cliff edges, we decided to double check with the driver that we were indeed headed to the right place. After asking the Portuguese driver about the location of the toboggans and giving a futile hand gesture of something gliding downhill - how would you mime a sled? - the driver took one of his hands off the wheel to give us an “OK” sign and a wink. We took that as a “I’ll get you to where you want to go.” For me there is something thrilling about not knowing exactly where I’m going. It’s the feeling that I’m on a bus, and I don’t know what awaits me when I get off, but hopefully it’s good, and it’s not murder. Sure enough, the bus did deliver us to the right place.
We walked up to the toboggans, read the sign that said how much it cost, and a man quickly ushered us into a sleigh basket. There was zero explanation about what we were about to do, how far we would go, or where we would be dropped off. We paid the man, and he said, “Sit. Hold on.” We sat, and without wasting a second, two men began pushing us down a very steep road. They ran and jumped on the back of the sleigh and used their feet to slow us down at certain points and skid into turns. Car traffic was passing us in both directions. I can only imagine the locals must hate these pesky little tourist filled toboggans skidding down their streets. We eventually came to a place that had a traffic cop stopping cross traffic so our little sleighs could whiz by unscathed. Along the way a man snapped our photo and we thought he was just a random guy taking our picture. By the time we got to the end of our ride he was there with a printed photo of us flying down the road in the toboggan, eyes wide, apprehension on our faces. We decided, no thank you, we did not need photographic evidence of that startling moment. While we did have a lot of fun, the experience brought a whole new meaning to “going to hell in a hand basket”
We talk a lot about high expectations being the root cause of disappointment - see Barcelona Blog for an expansion of this idea. Some of the places we’ve been that we know very little about and have no expectations about have been some of the most fun days we’ve had. We found Madeira very charming, and enjoyed learning about the unique island. Without knowing what was in store for us in Funchal, we had a wonderful day, and we would highly recommend a visit.
