One more year and the fireworks show in Funchal are always a surprise even for locals. 8 minutes of colorful and sounding blasts that
makes everyone emotive and powerful to start a whole new year.

This year there was an observer from the Guiness World Record to evaluate Madeira New Year's Fireworks and now Madeira is mentioned in the third most read book in the world as the biggest pyrotechnics show. Seventeen tons of fireworks spread through 37 different places in Funchal amphitheater which has thrown into the sky more than 650 thousand explosions...this was the beginning of 2007 in Madeira Island!

Happy New Year, with all good things that you deserve!

There are 4 varieties of Madeira wine, each one different from the others, suitable for different occasions but all with the excellent taste of Madeira Wine. Next one can get to know the 4 varieties of Madeira wine, the differences between them and when to drink each:
Sercial – it is a dry, light, perfumed wine with a clear colour. It should be drink as an aperitif.
Verdelho – it is a half-dry, delicate, with a golden colour and very intense scent wine. It is a good wine to accompany meals.
Boal – this is a half-sweet wine, rich, soft and with a dark golden colour. It is a nice wine to drink between a roast meal and dessert or accompanied by cheese.
Malvasia – this is a sweet, rich, bodied and very perfumed wine with a reddish-brown colour. It is usually drank with dessert or between meals.

Everywhere around the island one can feel the Christmas spirit in the air. Starting early in the morning in rural areas with birth masses, where people wake up early and go around the neiborhood playing some typical instrument to wake up everybody so they can join the mass that celebrates the each of the 9 months when Holy Mary carried Jesus in her womb.

In Funchal downtown there are decorations all over the squares where one can see the children chorus singing in front of the Cathedral, the Santa's reinders with Santa's little helpers and also some shops where one can buy some last minute Xmas gifts.

The brinquinho is used to compass the rhythm of Madeira folklore. It is made with articulated dolls, dressed typically and distributed in two circles with one doll at the top. Each of these dolls have two bottle caps each which make sound when pushed up and down.

The black scabbard fish (Aphanopus carbo) is a species from Madeira sea fish. Its habitat is in deep waters, around 1000 meters of depth. Due to its habitat it is a dark fish with big eyes, different from the scabbard fish captured in mainland waters.

Captured mainly by Câmara de Lobos fishermen it measures about 1 meter and can live from 4 to 10 years old. It is one of the deepest types of deepsea fishing in the world.