Return to the pretty island of Madeira

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Geo: 32.7571, -16.7706

The Captain, sorry, Commodore as he is known on this ship has so far got the weather report wrong every day. Today he told us to make the most of the sunshine in Madeira as the weather was going to deteriorate from now on. As it was, the sunshine was only intermittent and clouds and showers were the rule of the day. Hope he has got it wrong for the rest of the cruise otherwise we are in for gales!

A coach took us to the Sao Vincente caves, which are all lava tubes formed from when the island was created from a volcanic eruption. As there is no calcium in the lava there are no stalactites or stalagmites and the only slight protrusions from the ceiling are lava drops where the rain water drips through the porous basaltic lava. The caves were discovered in the late 1800s but it wasn't until the mid 90s that someone saw their potential as a tourist attraction and linked 5 of the lava tubes by interconnecting tunnels and lit the place up. Geologically it was interesting and we could have done without the small display about how volcanoes are formed after. Also this was followed by a film on the formation of Madeira followed by some poor man's Disney version of a journey to the centre of the earth, all of which we could have done without but this was to pad out the experience. After we called in at San Vincente itself and saw the Church and had a coffee before proceeding to a Taberna for a drink of Poncho, a drink made from rum, honey and lemon, plus a handful of monkey nuts, the shells of which we were encouraged to throw on the floor. Being good tidy Brits most of us didn't! We didn't buy a bottle of the Poncho either! Then it was time to head back to the ship via the centre of Funchal some bits of which we remembered from the last time we were here. Incidentally the name Funchal means Fennel which grows here. The island is very green with lots of banana plantations, flowers etc. Lots of people grow their own vegetables because most things have to be imported. Lucky for them they have no foxes or squirrels whatsoever to destroy what they have grown. It is a lovely island which would have looked even nicer in the sun!
The Formal evening was Royal Ascot night. There was a hat competition which we did not do but we did wear our previous Royal Enclosure badges in order to compete with our dinner crowd who are all Cunard Platinum or Gold badges!

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