New year’s eve

Day 8, I was still down with fever and cold. So just another lazy day for all of us, K and the young one were knackered from their squash session late night the day before, so we just had a leisurely breakfast, packed up and lazed around till half 12 when the taxi came for the pick up back home.

After an uneventful flight, except for my fever and cold, we reached home in time to welcome 2019 the next day.

Day 6 and 7

Day 6 saw me wake up in sniffles but still go to the spa , check out the jacuzzi, the sensory showers, the sauna, halo therapy and Indian head massage with foot message with Himalayan crystals. Still not satisfied, I also went to the beach side tent for back and leg  massage treatment by Sandra - as it had rave reviews. The weather was quiet chilly the whole of this day and I paid dearly for my over enthusiasm. Sandra’s tent had transparent views to the beach (which meant some wind was let in through the plastic curtains )she did a professional job but the wind caught up with me and I fell terribly sick.

K and the young one sensibly enjoyed in the hotel, swimming in the heated indoor pool, resting and enjoying the sea view. 

The next day , day 7 was extremely sunny and while I spent the whole day looking at the sea wistfully from the balcony, K and the young one went swimming and snorkeling in the Calheta beach, looked at fishes, ate dinner, generally had fun and came back to take me for a walk on the stones reaching in to the sea for a 20 minute view of the sunset with some music. 

We ate dinner in the room as I was still sick with fever, cold and body aches.

Day 7 did not start very smoothly. There were some ‘ troubles’ and like we have all done with our parents, the young one said she was walking out on us and went out of the room. I was petrified but did not know if running after her was the right thing to do ( as I am always worried that as a pampered only child she should not grow up to be a spoilt brat), K wanted to give her 5 minutes and then get her back in..in the meanwhile ( ie, within 2 minutes)there was a knock on the door. The young one was back with her anger still carefully managed in her face but piping up childishly ‘ I only came back for my kindle!’. It was obvious, with all the stranger danger stories we had fed her, she had been terrified as well.

We heaved a sigh of relief, hugged her and spoke to her about how though as a family we may have fights , the love and safety a family provides could never be sought or procured elsewhere.  Fights and arguments are ok but walking out on a family is never ok.

At 9 , her anger is still very innocent and her indignant arguments are so funny and cute. But K keeps warning me that I should still try and keep a straight face as, for her, they are all very valid and serious arguments.

Day 5

Day 5 saw us getting ready by 6pm to take the taxi to  Funchal and catch the Porto Santo lime. Reliable Gilberto dropped us on time. The city of Funchal was lit up with Xmas and new year decorations and since the city rose up on a hill by the coast, we had a spectacular view from the board. But this was nothing compared to the brilliant illumination we were treated to , on our way back at 8.40 pm.

The first class ticket afforded us nice comfy seats and a buffet breakfast that was not a patch on the hotel breakfast of course, but was plenty sufficient nevertheless. The wifi on the ship did not work and it was quite windy and chilly on the deck, so we took hour long naps, explored the ship for the next hour ( all magazines and tele and cinema were in Portuguese with no subtitles), and then it was time to disembark. There was not much of a crowd so overall it was not a bad experience.

We had booked a snorkeling session with the mildly famous Maththias, as soon as we landed. He was on time for the pick up and he was wonderfully personable and chatty, especially with the young one. We went to a hilly terrain with a steep, golden sandy climb and drop to turquoise blue waters below. It was a natural lagoon which was calm compared to the slightly rough sea splashing on the rocks at its outer edge.

He got us all into two layers of snorkeling suits each as he was not sure how cold we might feel. The water was not very cold , so we wore our flippers, donned our snorkelling mask and went under. It was the young one’s first snorkeling experience and Maththias was the perfect coach. She loved holding his hand, following his instructions and exploring the magical underwater world.

We saw blue and black fish, a school of striped fishes, wonderful, swaying aquatic plants, shimmering star fishes and the high light - a delightfully playful octopus ( a rare sighting I believe ). In around 40 minutes, the young one felt cold and wanted to get out. She and I steed on to a sandy slice and changed out of our wet suits. K continued to explore and was rewarded with 2 huge red and black star fishes and an elegant dance and exit by the octopus. 

Though K and I had done snorkelling, deep sea walks and water scooters at Mauritius and hence the sea life we had seen was much more varied and colourful, the high light for us was this safe and gentle introduction to snorkelling for the young one with the right kind of instructor.

Maththias then chatted with us about how the octopuses, once they trust you are very mischievous, how a Murray eel will catch a finger and spin so fast that you would loose your finger and how he believes monk seals will return to poro santo once the octopus population, which is their prey is revived.

We climbed back up to the car, changed to dry clothes in hidden alcoves, took a picture with Maththias and drove back to a restaurant  in the area by the beach. On the way, Maththias also took us to a viewing point for a picture with a wonderful view of the whole island.

As he only accept d donations and had no fixed price as he introduced people to snorkelling as a passion, we paid him what we thought was a good price for a professional service as he was indeed extremely good.

He also spoke about his horse obelix which the young one was very keen to see. Unfortunately, while reversing in to the very narrow drive to drop the snorkelling gear off he scraped the car, which belonged to his friend. So, we thought best not to ask to see obelix as he was on the phone profusely apologising to his friend in Portuguese.

We had pizzas and the local breezed at a  simple restaurant and made our way to the beach. We walked along the beach from one end to another and while the young one and K wet their feet and three pebbles at the sea, I walked up and down with Sid sriram singing in my earphones, the wind tousling my hair and my feet sinking in the fine golden sand.

We walked back to the shuttle station and paid a Euro each for the 10 minute ride to the cruise ship. We relaxed, had a snack buffet and slept ..completely knackered from the day.

Gilberto was waiting to take us back to Calheta. We paused a minute to enjoy the magnificently lit up Funchal city view and then went to the hotel and slept.

I discovered the next morning that I had caught a cold.

In all, given that having chilly wind blowing in my ears is an absolute no-no for me, no matter how sunny the weather is..Porto santo in December is not a good idea.

K and the young one however had a great time and enjoyed the weather.

Day 4

Day 4 dawned with some trouble with the little one. The usual mischief and the testing of borders happened. As she is no longer a little one we had mutually decided to take hard calls to educate the young one on the link between cause and effect.

Consequently we cancelled the planned trip to Praia de Garajau and Christo Rei as she had wanted to go snorkelling. Also, breakfast for her was strictly fruits, orange juice, cheese,egg and hash browns with no pastry or cakes or cereal or pancakes, the fare she usually looks forward to on holidays.( This she suggested herself as she understood that we gave up the trip as well, for no fault of ours)

After a few failed but valiant attempts some genuine repenting happened and then some rectification as well. So, we took her to the infinity pool of the hotel as it was a fantastically sunny day. Though the infinity pool was not heated, the warm weather made it easy after a while, once you braved the initial baptism by ice cold water. The view of the sea, the mountains and the sun made for a wonderful family swim.

We then took a taxi with Gilberto Perreira, our taxi guy who we had disappointed with our late morning cancellation, to go to Leavada do risco. Levada are actually tiny irrigation tunnels used in olden days to get water from the spring to farm the hilly volcanic terrain of Madeira. In the modern day, following these tunnels leads them to the wonderful springs along the way and finally to the original water source.

It took 20 minutes to reach the starting point of the trail high up in the mountains. Driving through the clouds and looking down at the city on the slope brought back nostalgic memories of Ooty and Darjeeling  in the 1990s.

We were dressed for sunny weather but right at the top it was a tad chilly. We decided to brave it and started walking through the stunningly scenic trail.There were lush green mountains kissed by puffy white clouds , there were mini waterfalls seeping across the moss patched black rocks, fresh green trees all around and never was there not a sound of a babbling brook through the  pipe-like thin irrigation tunnels.

There were intertwined branches of trees forming brown and green canopies, steep climbs, flat walks and  stepped declines all in one trail. The weather got very pleasant after the first few minutes and with the gentle breeze and pristine mountain air, it turned out to be a fantastic outing. 

Be it wherever we went, even this remote hill trail which ended in a spectacular water fall, there was absolutely no garbage whatsoever. Majority of the visitors were civic minded and even at the end of the trail, we saw an employee of the Calheta municipality watching out for any stray litter.

On the way to the waterfall, we stopped at the Rabacal nature spot cafe, to sit amongst chirping birds , stretching trees watching mountains and peeping clouds to have a divine home made chocolate cake and tea. 

We visited the waterfall, took some picks and walked the 1.5 km back to the vehicle pick up point. Here a shuttle took us back the 1 km steep walk to the top where the taxi was parked, the same path that we had easily and pleasurably climbed down on our onward journey.

As always, I had a great time and the young one and K had a lovely time as well though they prefer beach visits to nature trails.

Once at the hotel, we caught up on some pending work, watched the breath taking sunset  from the balcony of our sea view room, wrapped ourselves in warm clothes and set out for dinner at the same place as the day before,

We had a leisurely dinner and rushed back to sleep as we were all knackered plus we had a half six reporting time next morning for our taxi to the Porto santos  line to catch the 8 am ferry to the island with the golden sand and  apparently warm waters.

Day 3

On day 3 we had planned a whale and dolphin watching trip with possible swimming with the dolphins for the young one. ( by the way the Madeira special almond cakes in the buffet this morning were out of the world!)

The young one did some tests and we set for whale watching. However we were told that the peak season was over and we may not see many whales or dolphins. Given that the price was expensive, we gave it a miss and took the taxi to Funchal. It was a 30 minute ride and the taxi guy offered a round trip.

Once there, we took the cable ride to the botanical gardens. While the ride with views of the shimmering sea and the orange tiled lovely homes were a delight , the botanical garden was a disappointment, especially for the price. 

We should have instead paid just for the cable car and got down at Monte palace which costs much less and is a much much more worthy site. It is interesting how the cable car ads below talk nothing about this but lots about the ‘ quiet dull if you are not into gardening’ botanical gardens instead.

We had some milk shake and banan crepe, next to a small cafe near the Monte gardens  and then caught the cable ride back down.  We then spent some time at the promenade, after which we caught the taxi back to Calheta.

The weather is chilly till about 9 am but then from 9.30 to 4 pm it is absolute heaven. Fantastic sun with a perfect breeze to deliver an hour ideal day!

Once at the hotel, The  young one and dad went straight into the indoor heated swimming pool while I rested. We all then went down the road to the manufacturing the gelato hotel. Their tomato,sauce base for the pizzas and pastas were as good as we had read in the reviews and once again I was struck by how genuinely friendly and welcoming the Portuguese are.

I made a mental note to make somewhere else in Portugal our holiday destination, the next time we are planning something.

Xmas 2018

I had wonderful memories of our April trip to Lisbon , so for Xmas when we were discussing options, along with Cyprus and Morocco, Portugal was once again on the list. I really liked the polite and friendly Portuguese and given R’s class timings on the 23rd, a jet to holidays to Madeira fell convenient.

The agreement was that the young one would do her maths and English for some time every day in the morning and nights and we will spend the day enjoying. Mum and dad will also support her and not watch tele when she is working. 

On the way to Madeira, the 4.5 hour flight saw the young one learning some wow words for some time and then watching tele. The 2 hour delay of the flight already gave us a wonderful brunch at the airport giraffe through the air

One vouchers.

We landed at the Cristian’s Ronaldo airport only to be greeted by for  sunny but slightly chilly weather with a roaring wind.

We reached the savoy sachchurum hotel which was around 40 minutes from the airport.The drive along the coast was adventurous with steep slopes, dark volcanic rocks and the absolutely roaring sea and howling wind.

The hotel was neat, the rooms were spacious and the service excellent. The room was facing the sea bang opposite and it was a delight to look out of the French windows during the chilly mornings and sit on the balcony during the wonderfully warm afternoons. We sat and chatted with a Madeira wine  between us and the roaring sea almost right below us in the late night post the young one going to sleep.

The bathrooms were a strange phenomenon. You could not see from inside but it was a crystal clear view of the goings on in the bathroom from  outside  them! The less said on the topic, the better it is!

The day we landed, we went for a swim in the heated indoor pool - we were the only ones in the pool and came to the room, ordered room service and went off to sleep.

The next day, we woke up late, had a wonderful buffet with a phenomenal spread , worked for some time and once the sun was high, went off to the tiny but perfect Calheta sandy beach. The water was the warmest we had ever seen in our travels. (Not even Dubai had such warm waters. I believe the volcanic springs may have something to do with this). It was shorts and t shirts weather, so we played in the beach for a while, walked along the promenade and on our way back had an early dinner at the new era restaurant. Food everywhere is healthy and with decent flavour.