Madeira!
People who know me know I love the various tastes of liquor, liqueur, wine, beer, doesn’t matter. Therefore, imagine my joy to discover that Madeira was on the itinerary during a 2025 springtime journey across the island groups of Macaronesia. But there is much more to Madeira than its famous wine.
Walking with park rangers on Las Desertas Island, a nature preserve
Our 250 mile overnight crossing from the Canary Islands brought us to Las Desertas. the first of the three main islands in Madeira. This island is strictly held as a natural reserve in hopes of giving the monk seals a chance to come back from near-extinction. We had a short walk on land near the ranger station, and then a Zodiac ride offshore to see the colorful and volcano-striated cliffs. (A monk seal popped its head out next to another Zodiac, much to everyone’s surprise–they are notoriously shy.)
Offshore view of Las Desertas cliffs shows their volcanic origins
A jumble of geology on Las Desertas
On the short hop over to the main island (also named Madeira) to the capital city of Funchal (6th largest city in Portugal), we encountered a large pod of pilot whales swimming across the strait. The sighting emptied the room where an excellent lecture about the Portuguese language was underway, to everyone’s joy, including the presenter. These marine mammals, the largest of the dolphin family, swam with their babies alongside our ship for some distance on that beautiful, calm day.
Cliff view on Madeira Island
Inland valley on Madeira Island showing vineyard terracing
Colonized by the Portuguese in around 1420 and still an autonomous region of Portugal, Madeira is a popular tourist destination, especially for Europeans. Half of its quarter-million residents live in Funchal. A walk near the harbor led to narrow, cobblestoned streets, one named Rua de Santa Maria which is famous for its 200 or so painted doorways which are worth the amble.
This man loves his job!
A morning drive inland led to some beautiful vistas and then to one of the region’s many vineyards. At the Barbusano winery, we sampled a range of their numerous varieties of Madeira wine. Each was eloquently and passionately presented by the vineyard’s enthusiastic owner. Madeira wine comes from grapes grown on steep hillsides in overhead arbors that I imagine require pickers to be part mountain goat, part gymnast. Besides the grapes themselves, the underlying secret to what makes Madeira wine special is a process known as “fortification” where grape spirits are added during fermentation, increasing the alcohol content to 17-18%. Then it is either heated (to simulate the aging process the wine endured in hot boats during long seas voyages in ages past), or aged in oak barrels either in heated rooms or exposed to the hot tropical sun. The results are rich, complex flavors which bring great happiness to my taste buds.
Walking tour of the Barbusano vineyard
We enjoyed live dancers wearing this traditional festival attire
After the busy port of Funchal, it was nice the next day to arrive at the region’s third main island of Porto Santo, 44 nautical miles northeast of Madeira. Porto Santo is nearly bisected by a two-mile runway used until 1992 when the island stopped serving as a NATO base. It is a quiet place of just 5,000 residents (until tourist season, which quadruples the population and fills the eight hotels and four B&Bs).
On Porto Santo, the view from a high point, looking one way...
Porto Santo has miles of sandy beaches!
...and looking the other way
Beside the water on the island of Porto Santo (poncha bar not shown!)
It would be remiss not to mention that Madeira is also host to a famous cocktail known as “poncha.” The essential ingredient is “aguardente”—similar to brandy and made of either distilled grapes or sometimes distilled cane sugar. To make poncha, one mixes the spirits with honey, adds lemon juice, more cane sugar as needed, tea, water, and additional flavors as desired. (Check that your designated driver is with you!). On our one beautiful day on Porto Santo, we drove around the island with an information-packed guide, saw a hoopoe bird (very exciting for me!), and then had the sandy beach and breakers to ourselves. Happily, the poncha bar at the beach was open and we had the chance to taste-test a variety of poncha flavors. What a wonderful final impression of a lovely place, I thought, as our ship headed northwest toward the Azores later that day.
[Note: If it interests you to read my brother’s “take” on the journey, go to his website at https://sheepdogguides.com/tr/atlan25/atl-itin0.htm]
