Aside from going to the beach every day, we had only one formal activity planned for our stay in Porto Santo, and even it was arranged after we arrived on the island. The activity was a three-hour tour of the island led by Porto Santo native Nuno Santos Lã, one of sixteen guides for the local Lazermar tour company.
Noah poses with our tour vehicle.
Noah and Emmie had the back row, Cassy was constant in the middle, and Amanda and I rotated between the front and middle based upon who was holding Eilidh. We started with the Miradouro das Flores viewpoint near the southwest corner of the island before going onward to the Pico Ana Ferreira geological monument, a series of organ-pipe-like columns caused by past volcanic activity. It was a very miniature version of Giant’s Causeway, which we visited during our 2009 trip to Ireland.
Nearly every minute of the drive was filled with information. We learned Porto Santo’s biggest concern is erosion; that the island’s only industry is tourism, and there is a concerted effort to market to Scandanavia and extend the season from six to nine months each year; that the airport runway was built during WW2 as a strategic resource for the United States Army, and remains a part of the current airport, allowing 300-passenger planes to safely land.
We learned of the Portuguese military base on the island and twice-daily flights watching for illegal drug or fishing activities in the nearby ocean. We saw the island’s trash center, where waste is sorted and separated; non-recyclable materials are sent daily to Madeira; a cargo ship picks up recyclables and heads to Lisbon once each week. We learned about the real estate market and now have an idea of how much we’ll have to save to buy our holiday home.
We went to Quinta das Palmeiras, a tiny zoo and botanical gardens in the center of the island. Created more than 20 years ago by Madeira resident Harry Hinton, island locals thought the idea of a lush, green zoo in the middle of a dry island was crazy. It’s still going strong with several dozen birds, an emu, and a small snack bar.
Cassy and Emmie fed fish at the Quinta das Palmeiras botanical garden and zoo.
Emmie loved seeing the emu at the zoo!
Amanda, and a cold Coke, at the zoo snack bar.
After the gardens, we drove by the aforementioned runway and onto the north side of the island to see its rocky shorelines. We stopped by what our guide called the “world’s smallest dessert,” snapped some photos and explained the history behind why the south side of the island was a sandy beach.
Nuno showed Noah and Emmie how they could scratch the desert formations with a rock to make sand.
Up next was Casa da Serra, a small home with origins dating to 1765 and containing furniture typical of that time period and displays on the five former industries of Porto Santo island. We sampled some traditional Madeira “biscuits” (cookies) before our final tour stop at the Serra de Fora viewpoint, overlooking the island from the opposite end from where the tour began.
Eilidh was too tired for the final viewpoint.