Chão da Ribeira, on the North of Madeira Island, is an almost plain area crossed by a small river that meets the sea in Seixal and surrounded by high green mountains, covered by the Laurel Forest.

Photo by Catarina Fagundes

Some years ago, Chão da Ribeira was like the cellar of Seixal, when there were no cars, people from the village climbed all the way up to cultivate cabbages, potatoes, beans, corn or wheat and when these works were harder and took more than one day they took shelter on the small cellars.

Photo by Catarina Fagundes

Today, many of the agriculture lots are abandoned and, as landscape is so amazing, it become fashionable to transform these cellars into weekend houses.

Photo by Catarina Fagundes

Fajã da Nogueira is a valey, surrounded by inland cliffs and ridges and divided by a water course, named Ribeira da Metade (River of Half), in Santana. It is included in Madeira Natural Park as an Integral Nature Reserve and it is also a Biogenetic Reserve.

Fajã da Nogueira habitats include alpine scrub and grassland, below which is transitional forest, with Laurel forest occuring in the lower parts of the area, where it is possible to find ancestral trees, that date before the discover of the island.

Photo by Catarina Fagundes

This site is a water catchment for the town of Funchal, where a hydroelectric power plant works since 1971. Close to the power plant there are some houses that were built to host its workers as it is a difficult access area and far from the main villages.

Photo by Catarina Fagundes

The Desertas Islands are visible from Funchal to the South-east, at about 18 miles distant. Looking at them from North-west to South-east (from left to right) there are the Agulha (Nail) Islet, the Chão (floor) Islet, Deserta Grande (the big Deserta) and Bugio.

The Agulha Islet is a pinnacle that once had foolish Madeira people as it resembles a warship and as it did not replied to their signals they had fired against it.

Ilhéu (islet, in Portuguese) Chão is like a small plateau with 96 meters high and about 1 600 meters long.

Photo by Tânia Pestana

Deserta Grande, as the name says, is the largest of those islands, with 10 km long at its greatest width with 1,5 km. It has only one landing place, where there is the house of the Nature guards from the Natural Park of Madeira. Its highest point is 493 meters.

Photo by Tânia Pestana

Bugio is about 7 thousand meters by 800 wide and it highest point is 411 meters and it is the breeding place of Fea’s Petrel, a rare seabird from Madeira. This is the reason why it is more protected than the other islands, so you can only pass around by boat at the depth line of 100 meters.

Photo by Tânia Pestana

Câmara de Lobos, seals’ lair in english, is a very pitoresque fishing village that distance 9 km west from Funchal. The village was named like this due to the monk seals that were very common on this bay, many years ago. In 1950 this typical bay, full of colourful fishing boats, was the subject painted by Mr Winston Churchill). Until 2 years ago, we could see the fisherman’s small houses built on the high rocks that surround the port but know these people were reallocated in a safer place so instead of houses we Câmara de Lobos now have a panoramic garden.

Photo by Hugo Romano

Madeira Archipelago counts already with 5 marinas, one in Porto Santo Island and four in Madeira island. The one in Porto Santo is located inside the harbour and can berth 75 boats.

As for Madeira, the oldest marina, with more than 20 years, is in Funchal, sheltered in the port with 210 slips for yachts and a quay for tourist vessels.

In the south east of Madeira, 12 miles distance from Funchal, in Caniçal, there is a private marina, Quinta do Lorde, with 242 berths.

For the west side of Madeira, we can find two more marinas, one in Lugar de Baixo, Ponta do Sol, and the other in Calheta, both with about 300 moorings for yachts.

In all these marinas you have at least the main facilities like showers, WCs, laundry, restaurant, etc and in some of the marinas you can also find ramps for beaching boats, nautical shops, wi-fi spots, swimming pool, gymn…

Funchal's Marina

Photo by Miguel Fagundes

Porto Santo's Marina

Photo by Catarina Fagundes

Calheta's Marina

Photo by Catarina Fagundes