Walking in the Greater Funchal Region

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Thursday October 13– Another lazy start to the day. Slept until 7:30 and then did a little organizing and who knows what else in the morning. Where does the time go? At one point I heard my Airbnb host leave the apartment next door (cleaning, I think), so I opened up and asked him for a new garbage bag. Mine was not full, but it did have a rotting orange that was stinking up the place every time I opened the garbage can. He showed me where they were – I thought I had looked everywhere but had overlooked them. He had left me some fruit when I arrived, but on my first or second day, I realized that the orange was all moldy underneath, threw it in the bin, and have been regretting it ever since. Looking forward to turning that around.

I finally got out of the apartment and decided to do some walking in the local area, a little more on the fringe of town. There are two walks in the Lonely Planet guidebook I have, and I decided to combine them since one ends fairly close to where the other begins. I took a bus to the Pico do Barcelos Viewpoint which has a good view over the main part of town as well as the San Martinho neighborhood I would be walking through. The first part of the walk today was downhill, and the first main stop was at the local church and largest cemetery in town. I always enjoy a good cemetery. It’s nice to see the differences from place to place. Across from the cemetery, there is a nice park and I walked around there as well. Next to the park there was a dirt path that started leading down to the coast, and I really debated whether I should follow it down, hoping it would lead me to the start of the second hike. I walked for a bit but was afraid it would just end up in a dead-end neighborhood that would get me nowhere. I turned around, and headed back up, but decided to blow off the rest of the “official” walk and follow an altered route in order to get the two walks to join up in a more sensible way. This would allow me to walk the coastal part all the way back to town rather than away from it. It Once I made it to the coast, I walked along the hotel district where many tourists stay. It seemed to be nothing but hotels and shops and restaurants. I was able to scramble over some rocks and take some nice pictures. Overall, a good four hours spent. The walk back into town brought me to the mall, and I went in for a couple of groceries and a bubble tea. While there, I decided to just go ahead and get sushi for dinner (because of course the place that sells sushi also has the bubble tea). On this trip, I’ve become a champ at getting up early (most days) and eating dinner at 4-5pm so I only have to walk up the hill back to the apartment once. I skipped the gelato today but snacked on some Doritos I bought last Sunday when I got back to the apartment. New neighbors showed up last night and when I heard them come back at night I immediately turned into one of those old ladies peeking through the curtains to see what’s going on, who they were, what they were doing, etc. Actually, many things I’ve been doing are old lady things. I’m everyone’s grandma now.

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Photos

San Martinho Cemetery statue
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