A hikers paradise.

I think Madeira may be one of the best places for hiking we've visited. There are just so many trails. Everywhere. And there are buses to many of these trails and levadas. Levadas are the reason a lot of people visit Madeira but there are many non-levada hikes as well. There are peaks over 6000ft (which we plan to tackle later this week) and hikes along the coastline, which we did today.

Yesterday we did many touristy activities. 😄  We rode up to the Monte neighborhood in a cable car, hiked a levada up there (more on that later), had lunch with a great view, and took a wicker toboggan down the hill - only powered and steered by two Portuguese men!  This used to be a very real way they got down the hill here, but as Marco from our guesthouse said, they only go half as far and charge twice as much now. Ha!  We also took a tour of the Blandys Madeira Wine Lodge after our toboggan ride. Yum.

The Levada dos Tournos:  we started out under the cable car house on a well worn trail. It led away from the chaos and into the woods. Just a bit in, we crossed a pretty impressive bridge over a fairly fast running river.   You can see me perched up on the bridge below.

We wound our way up to the levada, passing a long abandoned house on the way. Everything is in bloom here right now. The flowers are spectacular. 

Before the start of the levada, there is this warning sign.

And rightly so, check out that drop off next to Toms foot!

We spent quite awhile along the levada, weaving through the forest. 

We finally switched back to the "trail". I say that in quotes because this area had burned recently and since the ground cover was decimated and trees killed, this is a slide area. We were honestly happy to finish the trail only seeing a fist size rock fall next to us. You can see the fallen trees below. Between the trees, drop offs, and stinging nettles over growing the trail, the last mile was interesting.

Today, we picked up our rental car that we will need to get to our next stop tomorrow. We leave the big city on the island (Funchal) and head to Santana on the east coast, definitely more rural.

Since we had a car, we decided to go out to the Sao Lorenco peninsula for a hike today. It was gorgeous and we had beautiful weather. High dramatic cliffs and rolling hills.

Our target is that far off summit. 

We've hiked no less than 10 miles a day for the past 3 days. My brain says this is paradise. My legs say they need a light day.  Bah, what do they know?