Sugar cane gets to Calheta's rum factory

Sugar cane is transported in trucks to the factory in Calheta

In April farmers harvest their sugar cane plantations on the South side of the island and take them in trucks to the rum / sugar cane honey factory and museum in Calheta. It's 5 minutes away from Sofia's Place.

At this time of the year you can visit the factory and see the very old machinery still working like in the old days, check how rum and honey are produced and taste the products in their shop.

David Lloyd in comics festival in Calheta

David Lloyd doing autograph signing in our V For Vendetta copy

David Lloyd is a world famous British comics artist best known as the illustrator of the story V For Vendetta.

He was in Madeira to open an exhibition on the graphic novel V For Vendetta, in Casa das Mudas Art Centre, in Calheta (5 minutes away from Sofia's Place).

V For Vendetta (2006) is a film based on the aforementioned comic book. The movie was exhibited in the Art Centre auditorium, after the exhibition opening and the autograph session, last Friday March 26.

Guest testimonial 2 (Homelidays website)

"My wife, 2 year old daughter, and I spent a week at Sofia's place. It was very special and I look forward to staying there again soon.

From the moment we arrived the stress we carried from the mainland was released upon meeting the owner Sofia. She is a warm, kind, and friendly woman and made sure we felt at home in her beautiful village of Jardim do Mar.

The home was wonderful. It was clean, private, quiet, had a view of the ocean, a nice sunny patio, and had all of the amenities we needed.

We enjoyed that the village for the most part was car free and everything we needed was within a short walk. We did need the car to explore the rest of the island, but it was nice to park the car and walk through the town.

The home was nicely located and we were able to walk through the village down to the ocean with our daughter and did not have to worry about oncoming traffic.

We also liked being able to walk down to Joe's pub and take in the local scene. For us to have a quiet and peaceful village to stay in was something quite special and I would recommend it to anyone."

Overall mark given by the renter: 5/5

Date  28/02/2011  - Mr. Andrew R. - Member n°5017497 (The Netherlands)

Testimonial on Homelidays website

Carnival in Madeira

Carnival parade 2011 in Madeira

Carnival is lived with quite intensity by people in Funchal, the Islands's capital. Traditionally there are two Carnival parades in Madeira, and they are very different from each other.

The most important one, the allegoric parade, which takes place always on the Saturday of the Carnival weekend, is the more sophisticated one and needs a great deal of commitment and organisation from all the groups and the people involved.

Numerous Samba groups with thousands of participants in magnificent and colourful costumes dance to electrifying Samba music through the streets of Funchal, spreading an ambiance evoking the Carnival of Rio. It can be criticised precisely because of following the Rio's Carnival... It could be (more) original and based on Madeiran own Carnival traditions.

The second parade, called "trapalhão", traditionally floods the streets of the city centre with thrilling joy on "Mardi gras" (Tuesday ending the Carnival period). In this parade everybody can take part and the – sometimes quite daring – costumes and depicted caricatures are left to the participants' own imagination.

At least one month before the Carnival peak time the best-known and established Carnival groups visit the hotels and entertain the guests with dance and music performances.

Old Madeira (3)

Monte Train

The Monte Train exploded at the 10th of September 1919, killing some people. Even after this event, the “Comboio” went on until the 17th of May 1943. Shortly after the last trip it was taken down.

Maybe one day the old train will be replaced by a modern funicular, similar in appearance, with room for 60 passengers. The project had a budget of €6.5 million but in the present crisis no one knows for sure. The works haven’t started yet. It is planned to run the same course of the original route, but only between stations at Largo da Fonte in Monte and Terreiro da Luta.

Guest message 4

Please, click on the picture for better reading

Key words & ideas:
"Friendly support", "Good time", "what a wonderful house", "lovely colours", "great energy in this place", "natural being of the people", "inspiring for my work with Feng Shui"

Aditional comment sent to us by Rolf Kullmann, Feng Shui expert & our guest in January 2011:
"The rooms are very well done, in good proportion and the colours are alive. The house has a spacious feel. Outside on the terrace there is a wonderful view of the village and the ocean. It's so great there feeling the elements of nature so strong. The spirit opens and the whole body can deeply relax... The village is idyllic; the inhabitants friendly and natural. Thank you for this place Sofia."

(And check how and why the dining room and the sitting roomchanged place)

Feng Shui inpires change in the house

NOW: dining room and living room since January 29, 2011

BEFORE: living room and dining room since 1998 until very recently

Thanks to one of our recent guests, a Feng Shui expert, the living room and the dining room exchanged places.

And it looks better and feels much more comfortable. We love the new arrangement and hope that also our guests.

As soon as I told my husband about the guest's advice, he immediately pictured it on his mind and said simply "of course". He had no doubt and understood the benefits. However, it had never occurred to us...

My husband always complained about not feeling comfortable sitting in the living room with his back to the main entrance of the house. It never felt right.

Now the living room is much more cosy, quiet and comfortable at the far end of the room (yin energy).

The dining room offers more space to the main entrance area and there is more light (yang energy). And it is closer to the kitchen and theres is more space to socialize.

More pictures here: dining room and living room slideshow

Madeira on Global Traveler

«Any month is the time to be in Madeira», stresses Global Traveler

Goblal Traveler, the American magazine, dedicates the cover story of January 2011 issue to Madeira. You can read the article by Barbara Radcliffe Rogers following one of these links:

Global Traveler cover article on Madeira (magazine online)
Global Traveler cover article on Madeira (on a blog)

Some quotes:

«Brilliant red platter-sized poinsettias peered over garden fences at eye level, passion flowers and lilies bloomed, and the camellias were just bursting forth. Bougainvillea cascaded from every balcony, and morning glories climbed the walls. Bird of paradise, honeysuckle, hibiscus and a dozen varieties of lily painted the landscape. I realized then that any month is the time to be in Madeira.»

«I’d seen only the capital of Funchal on my first trip, so until the ride to Monte I had little idea of what spectacular landscapes lay beyond it. Now I was hungry for more than a glimpse of the steep and soaring mountains that fill the rest of the island.»

«This wild and ragged landscape is made even more dramatic by lakes and rushing rivers, rock outcrops and soaring cliffs that end abruptly at the sea.»

«Most of the island is carpeted in subtropical greenery, 20 percent of it UNESCO World Heritage laurel forests now long extinct in mainland Europe.»

«To irrigate it, in the early 1500s Madeira farmers began building waterways that bring water from mountain springs. More than 1,200 miles of these levadas carry water in nearly horizontal lines along the mountainsides, sometimes carved into cliff faces at dizzying heights. Alongside the levadas, their maintenance paths have become very popular walking trails.»