Madeira

The first thing I noticed about Madeira was how rugged it is.  Just like most of the other islands we visited along the way, this was formed by volcanic activity.  But these hillsides are very steep.  It was an overcast morning when we pulled into port, and the mountains disappeared into the clouds.

The next thing you notice is all the houses and buildings clinging to those hillsides.  With few exceptions the houses are white with red tile roofs.  Now and then, you could spot the rebels who had painted their house blue or yellow, but nonconformists were a rare thing.

Once you’re ashore, the third thing you notice is that seemingly every square meter that doesn’t have flowering plants is covered with bananas.  Sometimes you could hardly see the houses through the bananas.  Everybody seems to grow them, no matter how small their plot of land.  On the steep hillsides, the bananas were planted on terraces, many of them very narrow and built by slaves in the 1700 and 1800’s.  Madeira produces over 4 times the amount they consume.  The rest goes to mainland Portugal.  They can’t, however, export to the rest of Europe because their bananas don’t conform to the size and shape required by the E.U.  That has not made them happy.  They are happy, though, about the influx in investment from the E.U. that has allowed Madeira vastly improve their roads, tunnels (>90 km of tunnels) and irrigation systems.

Actually, the bananas grow at only lower elevations.  Once you go uphill, they give way to other crops, notably coffee and grapes.  Hence, Madeira wine.  Seems like every time we turned around someone was trying to get us to taste some.  It was very good, even though it was kind of a waste of time for the two of us. We much preferred the poncha – an evil concoction of orange and lemon juice, rum and honey, traditionally drunk while eating peanuts. Our guide told us that if you drink three, you would become fluent in Portuguese.  I don’t think he was kidding.

The sad part was the ship left us behind here.  The good part was we got to spend a lot more time in Madeira than was originally planned.  That gave us time to explore some of the city.  The annual flower festival was just last weekend, so it was a great time to see all the flowering plants and trees.  Actually, they say there is no perfect time to visit Madeira to see the flowers.  The climate is so mild year round that something is always blooming.  Some plants that only bloom once a year have two blooming seasons here.

Along with the city center, we got to explore lava tubes from some of the old eruptions.  It was fun, but there were problem a few people in the “mobility challenged” category who might have thought twice about going.  The trip took far longer than planned.  But, the highlight of our time in Madeira was a 2 km toboggan ride down the steep hills.  What started out long ago as a way someone devised to help his wife down the steep hills has now become one of the top attractions on the island.  You get in a wicker sled with two guys in gondolier hats on the back.  They steer with ropes and use thick boots for braking.  It’s all over too quickly.  As we shot down the hill, there are people stationed at intersections letting the gondolier guys know if there is any cross traffic coming.  Not sure is they would be able to stop in time even if something was coming.  Now and then a taxi would squeeze by you as you were hurtling down the hill.  All adding a slight element of danger.

After a visit to the Botanical Gardens in a downpour the next morning, we flew in the afternoon to Hamburg, arrive one day earlier than the original itinerary.

Now I’m sitting in Schilphol airport in Amsterdam waiting for a connection to Prague.  We’ve found a nice quite corner of the airport with comfy recliner chairs.  However, it’s harder to write now.  I’m not sitting in the observation lounge or on the rear deck, staring at an endless sea.  Honestly, we’re feeling a bit tired.  Some of the tiredness comes from having to plan our own time again and not having it just evolve as it has for nearly a month, but I know once we get settled into Prague we’ll be ready to roll again. 

Out at sea one last time

During the time of the great explorations from Europe to the New World, the ships would sail down the west coast of Europe toward Africa, following the Canary Current.  At around the Azores, Canary or Cape Verde islands, they would turn west to follow the equatorial currents, and then either head for North America or follow the Brazilian Current southward toward Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn.

Before coming, I hadn’t really thought about how our trip was following those old routes, just in reverse.  Magellan, da Gama, Vespucci, Drake, Columbus and others all followed some or all of this itinerary.  So, it’s hard not to think about this now as we’ve made our way from the Southern Hemisphere, through the Tropics and into northern latitudes. To land where they landed, follow in their footsteps and see the things they saw is inspirational.  To read Darwin’s accounts of Cape Verde, Fernando de Naronha, Rio and Patagonia, and then to step in the same places, seeing what he saw, brings history home.

However, cities grow, lands are transformed by agriculture and deforestation, and even volcanic eruptions alter the terrain.  It can be a bit challenging at times to sense the presence of the adventurers.  You have to look for remnants here and there, or imagine what things must have been like without the skyscrapers of Rio.

But, it’s at sea, in the open ocean where I can see what they saw.  In most ways, this is exactly what they encountered: scanning the horizon, looking at the weather and wind patterns, the rhythm of the ocean and of life at sea.  The birds and dolphins and whales.  This is where I can best feel the presence, and can sense the history.  There’s a connection here that has barely changed over generations and centuries.  

How people spend a day at sea

Things I’ve learned on this trip

·      Charles Darwin’s grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood.  Yeah, the Wedgwood china guy.

·      Charles Darwin’s wife’s grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood.

·      Darwin was not the Naturalist on board the Beagle.  Someone else was.  He was actually on board to be a gentleman companion to Captain Robert FitzRoy, so he would have someone of his same social class to converse with during the voyage.  FitzRoy was concerned because “melancholy” ran in his family.  His father slit his own throat.  So, he thought having a companion on board would be good for his disposition.  While that may have worked during the voyage, in later years FitzRoy slit his own throat.

·      When South Africa was unified after apartheid, it was looking for new symbols and a new flag.  One of the ideas was a flag with words saying something like “strength though diversity” in a native language.  Instead the flag said “don’t urinate here”.  They didn’t use that design.

·      After the Moors were driven out of the Spain and was followed by the Inquisition, most Muslims and Jews were not tolerated and expelled.  To help root out any Jews and Muslims who might be trying to conceal their true identities, many meals often began with small plates of ham and wine begin served to guests.  A Jew wouldn’t eat the ham.  A Muslim wouldn’t drink the wine (or eat the ham).  So, by refusing the offering they could open themselves up to being discovered.  This was the beginning of tapas.

·      It was Magellan’s navigator who first named the Patagonians.  It’s meaning is huge monsters with big feet. The more sensational the account, the more it “sold” upon returning to the Old World.  And who was going to dispute the account?

·      The largest Welsh settlement outside of Wales is in Argentina.

·      There is a huge amount of plastic floating in the ocean.  Most of it is tiny.  There is no such thing as huge islands of plastic and trash floating in the Pacific.  It’s true that due to currents and wind patterns, there are higher concentrations in certain parts of the oceans.  But no massive islands that you can almost walk across.  Total Oprah Winfrey sensationalism.

·      “Foreign aid is often a smokescreen to hide the systematic looting of a country” – Roddy Bray.

·      I don’t miss news and politics.  Especially politics.

·      The Southern Cross is great to see, but not nearly as large or as spectacular as I imagined.

·      The big Discovery Channel documentary saying that Yellowstone is due to erupt and take out most of the Western U.S. doesn’t appear to be valid.  It does not sit above a deep-seated hotspot.  This is based on data just analyzed in September.

·      Today’s population of people of African descent in the Americas equals ¼ of the total population of Africa.

·      On Columbus’ first crossing the crew slept on deck.  When they got to the New World, they found that the indigenous people had invented the hammock.  They thought that was a pretty good invention, and the use of hammocks quickly spread aboard ships.

·      The map that Columbus used was given to him by Paolo Toscanelli.  The map shows Western Europe, India, Japan and Cathay.  Right in between was an island labeled “St Brendan’s Island” about where the Americas are located.  Shows that it is possible that Brendan arrived there first from Ireland.  Whether or not that’s true, it is conclusive that the Vikings were there about 500 years before Columbus.

·      A psalter found in a bog in Western Ireland was found to be made from Egyptian papyrus, demonstrating a connection to the Eastern Mediterranean and between the monks of Ireland and the Coptic traditions of Egypt.  The Irish monks followed a lot of Coptic traditions.

·      The Vikings settled in northern France, among other places.  Norse-Man’s-Land became Normandy.  So, when the Normans invaded England in 1066, it was a successful Viking invasion.

·      Some of the most recent research on ocean level rise indicates that nearly half of the increase may be due to over-drafting of groundwater.  The assumption is that more water is being taken from underground aquifers and that the excess is flowing to the oceans. We’re building fewer dams than we did in the 20th century and before.  Total demand for ground water has increased, but the pumping of groundwater has increased even more.  So, increasing groundwater pumping is leading to sea level rise.

Half of Israel's fresh water comes from de-salinization.  The next closest country gets about 2% from de-salinization.

Pirates!!

On the bridge, they keep a log of all incoming communication regarding weather and sea conditions, emergencies, men overboard, etc.  This log is posted by one of the chart tables.

Lately, there have been reports about pirate activity off the west coast of Africa, primarily in Nigerian waters.  There have been nine attacks in the last four weeks. Ships have been boarded by heavily armed pirates with automatic weapons, some as far as 100 nautical miles offshore.  They’ve done some robbing, some hijacking and some kidnapping.

Great!! First engine problems, then propeller problems, and now pirates.  Arrrrr!  Actually we are well to the west and north of all this.  But it gives us something to talk about at dinner.