With Gee Gee visiting Porto Santo island for the first time, we wanted to make sure we showed her parts of the island beyond the southern beaches. We reached out to our favorite taxi driver from last year’s visit and scheduled a tour for Thursday morning.
The 90-minute tour included stops at viewpoints on each end of the island, the noteworthy Pico de Ana Ferreira geological monument, and a coffee shop housed within an old-fashioned windmill which represented one of Porto Santo’s past industries. (Tourism is now their only industry.) We weaved through residential neighborhoods as our driver Rui pointed out the notable scenery and provided thought-provoking commentary on some of the challenges the island faces, such as high unemployment during the tourism off-season and an aging population.
Posing in front of Pico de Ana Ferreira geological monument.
We tried our first Brisa Maracujá (passion fruit) soda; Brisa is made in Madeira and very popular among locals in the main Madeira island and Porto Santo.
We discussed lunch options with our driver, who suggested we try the octopus at the Bar do Henrique, which recently opened for the season. Located along the beach, the restaurant yielded great views of the ocean, and the adjacent steps allowed the kids to play in the sand as we waited for food.
Bar do Henrique.
Everyone except Emmie and Eilidh tried at least one bite of the octopus. It was better than I expected but still tasted pretty fishy, and we ate less than half of the generous platter. Noah notes he liked the octopus “more than mashed potatoes” (though admittedly he is not a fan of mashed potatoes.) We mixed and matched informal sandwiches and doubled down on the fruity Brisa drinks we’d first tried earlier at the coffee shop.
More Brisa drinks – passion fruit, apple, and orange.
On the walk from the lunch spot to our home, the kids enjoyed climbing a large hill of sand.
I worked most of the day, but the rest of our crew, including Amanda (the photographer), made time for an afternoon visit to the beach.
Late in the evening, Amanda, Noah, Emmie, and I ordered a taxi to the city center for dinner, and to check out the São João festivities for the evening. We split a couple of tasty ham and cheese sandwiches then walked to the pier to eat them. The kids got to spend a little more time at the playground, and we finished our night with ice cream and cotton candy.
Loaded into the taxi for our evening trip to the city center.
Noah’s cotton candy portion was… pretty large.
Emmie eats ice cream in the middle of the São João festival sign.