Done with our exploration of the Ponta de Sao Lourenco, we make our way off the peninsula and back into civilization by way of Canical, the little village on the water with a history of whaling (Canical was one of the last places in Europe to give up whaling) and a commercial port that services the multitude of fisherman still making a living off the waters surrounding Madeira. Our route is not the most direct (thanks as usual to the GPS), but we do end up exactly where we planned – at the Muralha’s Bar on the seaside street of das Pedreiras. We had scoped this restaurant out ahead of time (of course) and it comes with a great bonus – a private parking lot! Lovely! It’s a beautiful day, and they have a lovely courtyard where we plunk ourselves down to enjoy the mural on the wall (Muralha is wall in Portuguese) while we wait for our order of…
…Octopus and Espada (the local fish that is about the ugliest thing you’ll ever see, but also one of the tastiest), and a splurge of Bolo Caco, a local bread specialty that is shaped like a cake, baked on a stone slab and in this case, slathered with garlic butter. Oh my.
Everything is superb, and we are reticent to leave this nice sunny little respite – but we have more exploring to do.
As we entered Canical, we spotted a sign for the Whale Museum, which we thought would be interesting, but unfortunately, it is closed on Mondays, so we continue on with our planned excursion – driving up into the hills for viewpoints over the water and to visit Camache, the town famous for basket weaving. I have the tour all mapped out, and the directions are flawless. Unfortunately the roads are about the scariest things we’ve driven on in forever. We scared ourselves silly navigating up narrow lanes, at a 50 or 60 degree angle. It was all we could do not to turn back (because then of course, we’d have to go DOWN at that angle, which was more frightening than continuing up). It was so scary, I didn’t even take any pictures!
There was an overlook somewhere up there that reputedly provided a beautiful view along the coast of the island, but at the couple of places that had the best views, there was absolutely nowhere to stop. We pressed on until we reached Santo da Serra, which was supposed to have a good viewpoint as well, but we never found the town center where it was located. We did find a slew of street parking spaces out in the middle of nowhere – seriously nowhere – the only thing on either side of the road were cow pastures and barns. Odd.
Following the route became easier from Santo da Serra though, and we easily made it to Camache where we did find the main square and stretched our legs (and nerves) a bit walking around the lovely little church, a scenic overlook that gives a decent idea of just how high up in the mountains we were and the O Relogio (clock) factory which also contains the wicker showroom.
Perusing through the wicker showroom, there were tons of great bargains. Truly, handmade baskets and serving trays and bowls, all incredibly reasonably priced. But we have absolutely no room in our bags for anything, and truly no need for anything either, so we satisfied ourselves with simply looking at everything available. There was one fascinating object, and that was a set of serving trays with photos of the old and new airport. Since the airport is now one of my most favorite and intriguing structures, I took pictures of both as a reminder of it’s history.
And that’s that! Tour over, we head back down to sea level to the Avis store, where we are about 45 minutes too early to turn in the car. Recreating the past, we park outside the store then walk around the corner to the Pub Number 2 to have a drink (as we did on our last visit), while we wait for Avis to reopen for the evening. Once that is accomplished, we walk back down the hell hill (much easier on the downslope) and onto to the ship to get ready for sail away.
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