Dateline: Funchal, Madeira. Madeira is yet another attractive island about which the average American knows little or nothing. My only association with the name was the Limelighters’ libidinous song “Have Some Madeira My Dear” which made it clear Madeira was a wine with potential for seduction.
Unlike the Canaries, this island doesn’t have a Hawaiian feel about it – it is pure Mediterranean in feel while located off the coast of Africa. The difference is that the Canaries are loaded with palm trees and Madeira is not.
Madeira is a quasi-independent part of Portugal. Unlike the Canaries, there were no native inhabitants here when the first Europeans arrived, sent by Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator. That made settling the islands simpler early in the 1400s.
Madeira means “wood” in Portuguese because the island’s original discoverers saw it was totally forested. Most of those trees were harvested for lumber which was shipped to Portugal for shipbuilding in the years when Portugal was building caravels and exploring the world.
Today tourism from Europe is Madeira’s major industry. There is also significant agriculture, conducted on terraces up the steep slopes of the mountains (there is no level land). In addition to the famous vineyards, there are many bananas grown here and exported to Portugal. The farmed hillsides are so steep a farmer could literally fall off his farm and not stop for maybe 100 ft. I saw vineyards you’d almost have to rappel down to trim the vines.
Like the Canaries, Madeira had snow in the higher mountains over the last three days and the natives are excited about it. Mountaintop snow doesn’t happen often here. The locals think it is cold in town while our passengers are going about in shirtsleeves. I think that means the climate here is normally very mild.
