Living in a Banana Plantation…

… we could hardly believe it when we were met by Janito and taken down this footpath (extra) by the banana trees to the House of the Sun, our house for 5 days! What a great find it was. We had a room each and tons of space both inside and outside. There was even a jacuzzi! This morning we left as the sun was coming up to go to Carbo Girao where a glass platform is at the top of a 600m cliff, then Camera dos Lobos, a small port where Churchill liked to sit and paint. The big attraction was the Cural des Freiras (Valley of the Nuns) where a small village is situated in the crater of an extinct volcano, which has kept its 16th-century Santa Clara Convent where the nuns used to hide from pirates who were attacking Funchal. This has to be seen from the viewpoint called Eira do Serrado (extra). We did not see pirates today when arriving back to Funchal for our last evening in Madeira! A great holiday with much more dining and people than we are used to so next week will be lots of exercise if the weather is good. 

Thank you so much for the many gifts this week when I could not respond.