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| The ship’s morning arrival to the island of Madeira, Portugal was cloudy and cool, later to clear and warm up. |
This morning at 9:00 am our ship, the Norwegian Epic, entered the port of Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, situated 350 miles from the coast of Morocco (where we’ll be living one year from now) offering us one of the most breathtaking views of our lives.
Birds flutter around our ship, searching for a meal as the thrusters stir up the ocean floor, bringing fresh schools of fish to the surface.
The vistas of this mountainous island with peaks at high at 6100 feet is a mere 35 miles long and 13 miles wide. The hillside is liberally ensconced in one architecturally interesting white building after another.
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| As the ship, the Norwegian Epic, approached the pier in Funchal, Madeira. |
On May 15, 2014, we’ll return to Madeira to a nearby coastal village, Ribiera Brava, where a magnificent home awaits us to enjoy until July 31, 2014, a full two and a half months. We’ll be arriving to Madeira after spending nearly three months in Marrakesh, Morocco. At this point we haven’t planned our mode of transportation for this short journey, preferably a ferry or ship but most likely by air.
Our bellies full of a good breakfast in the Garden Café, we are currently situated in our favorite booth, to ensure our most advantageous views while we wait to disembark the ship to meet Gina, the owner of the house we’re renting here next year, to give us a tour of the house and the island. We couldn’t be more excited!
What awaits us today is a similar feeling of adventure we felt upon entering Belize the months ago, almost to the day. Neophytes when we left the US only four months ago, we now have a little experience under our belts with mounting opinions and ideas as to our present and future as world travelers.
It would have taken eight years of two-week vacations to experience what we’ve done thus far in these four months. With five cruises behind us, we begin to get a “lay of the land” in cruising as well as the experience of living among the locals in a remote underdeveloped country. Our feet are “officially wet” with so much more awaiting us in the future, especially today as we explore this magnificent island.
Our MiFi is working here allowing us to upload photos we’ll take when with Gina today as we explore this tiny island and our future home for 2½ months.
We’ll be back later this afternoon with photos before the ship sails at 6:00 PM while our connection stay in tact.