TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
TRAVELING EAST Breakfast this morning was in a little restaurant overlooking the colorful fishing boats in Câmara de Lobos, a village just outside Funchal. A place much favored by Winston Churchill, Câmara de Lobos is where he loved to paint. The picturesque boats and scenery are in direct contrast to the black scabbardfish they catch here at night. Often referred to as “monsters from the deep,” due to their rows of sharp teeth, they are extremely ugly but considered a wonderful fish to eat and are often served with passion fruit and banana sauce. A short journey along the coast leads to a glass walkway at the top of the towering Cabo Girao, allowing visitors to walk out and admire the stunning vistas. At the entrance,
we encountered an oddly dressed man playing bongos and chanting in strange tones. A rainbow formed overhead, so we drove up the nearby hillside to get a better view. There were many eucalyptus trees and the air was heavy with their pungent scent. Further along the coast, we traveled through a rock tunnel, which made its exit onto a road where a waterfall plunged onto the pavement from the lofty rocks above. Many visitors stopped to dance in the cascading water. TRAVELING WEST Eventually, we traveled west from Funchal to Quinta do Lorde. The terrain became frilly, and smooth porous stones of various colors littered
the landscape. A couple of small vans along the way displayed beautiful handmade artwork. We continued to Semana, famous for its historical tiny A-framed houses with straw roofs. I especially enjoyed the woman spinning yarn for her handicrafts in one of the A-frames and the homemade cakes and biscuits in another. The flavor of home baking outstripped the usual tourist offerings. We received some interesting baking instructions using local ingredients, like the syrup from the sugarcane — often referred to as honey cane — and used in the island’s traditional madeira cake. Here too they sold Madeira wine, and we learned that a five-year- aged bottle goes well with savory dishes and a ten-year-old with desserts.
34 FREDRIC H. RUBEL MAGAZINE
Powered by FlippingBook