Road trip in Madeira,Portugal

Our second day in Madeira, we visited the produce market – Mercado dos Lavradores – in Funchal.

There we found many tropical fruits and flowers

as well as fresh local seafood such as tuna, limpets and black scabbard fish (peixe-espada-preto).

The market is not big, but touristy. Prices for the beautifully laid-out exotic fruits are selling as if they came from another continent. Some of them are, indeed, except for the bananas. Madeira is known for its bananas and here you will find some tastier varieties of the fruit, such as apple and silver bananas.

After the market, we dropped the fruits back to the apartment

before picking up our rental car and began the drive towards the north of the island.

We passed through lush mountains,

Had lunch at a roadside restaurant in a valley

with Açorda, Sopa de Trigo – Madeira wheatberry soup – and of course Bolo de Caco, accompanied by a Passionfruit Poncha that’s basically Madeira Rum or Aguadente with Passionfruit juice.

After lunch, we continued to drive deep into the mountains

where we were surrounded by wildflowers galore

As soon as we spotted a waterfall, we parked the car and set off for a little exploration.

The trail curves along a levada.

The Levadas (from the Portuguese verb “levar” – to carry) are a system of channels or aqueducts of many kilometres in length, mostly bordering mountains but also going through them, with several stretches over rugged rocks, to bring water from different sources to its intermediate or final uses. — From UNESCO World Heritage Center. (Read more about the Levadas, their history and outstanding values here)

We didn’t make it far but it was enough to capture the beauty of spring on the island.

Back in the car, we proceeded to the Fanal Forest.

These magnificent Til (Ocotea foetens) trees date back to a time before the discovery of the island. They elicit mystical illutions when the area is shrouded with fog.

Our last scenic stop of the day was Ribeira da Janela in Porto Moniz.

The islets of Ribeira da Janela it is called, are made up of impressive rock formations. At the top of one of them, there’s an opening that resembles a window, hence the name Janela (window).

On our way home, we stopped by Restaurante Santo António in Câmara de Lobos for their famous Espetada – Madeira ‘kebab’ on laurel skewer

accompanied by a simple Portuguese salad and Madeiran Milho Frito (Fried Cornmeal Cake). The Espetada was on-point, and I liked the Fried Cornmeal cakes. The restaurant was very busy with mostly Portuguese customers.

We had a little advanture after the dinner when one of the navigation systems we relied on directed us into a dead end and it was really challenging to back out of that narrow lane on a steep slope. Other than that, we found the road easy to drive in Madeira.

Coming up next: Hiking: Ponta de São Lorenço, Madeira