Funchal, Madeira.

First, a quick note: We are traveling for the rest of the month, so internet access is likely to be sparse. If I am slow to respond to comments, it’s due to my lack of connectivity. More on that journey in the months to come.

On our transatlantic tour, we stopped at the Portuguese island of Madeira. Our excursion included a visit to the popular botanical garden high on the island’s dominant mountain.

To get to the garden, our tour bus let us off some distance from the cable car we needed to board. As we walked uphill, we could see a cable car descending, but the tour guide told us that there were two cable car runs. The run in the photo above descends into the city. We walked by that entrance and continued to the cable cars that go to the garden.

It was a warm day and a long uphill walk, so we were happy to enter the shaded area where we would board our car. Like most cable systems, the cars never stop. The area in the photo is the dropoff point. In a moment, an attendant would appear, open the door, and help the riders disembark. We boarded the empty car moments after the previous riders exited. The attendant closed the door, and we were on our way.

The ride lasts less than 10 minutes and carries over 300,000 passengers to the garden each year. The views are spectacular, but the garden is the focus of this post. In the photo above, we got a glimpse of the arboretum on the north side of the garden as we got ready to disembark the cable car.

The garden is divided into different sections, each showcasing a particular type of flora. There’s the arboretum in the north, a collection of succulent plants in the center-east, and an area with palm trees in the south. The remaining parts of the garden are covered with various flowers and other plant species.

Founded in 1960, the garden showcases various plant species worldwide, some even endangered. Encompassing about 20 acres (8 hectares), over half of the garden is dedicated to landscaped areas. It was initially part of an estate belonging to the Reid family, who founded Reid’s Hotel.

As is typical of cruise ship tours, we were escorted by a tour guide who let us wander if we wanted but gave us a strict return time to return to the cable cars. We opted to stay with the tour guide as we learned we would not have time to see the entire garden.

Due to our time constraints, we could not explore the nearby Louro Bird Park, which houses around 300 exotic birds, including Blue and Yellow Macaws, Cockatoos, Parrots, and Lories. We also did not visit the Natural History Museum.

There weren’t many flowering plants this late in the season, but I captured a few blossoms. The garden has several collections divided into six areas. Visitors not limited to a short cruise ship excursion will have more time to explore the garden than we did.

The cable car ride is an extra expense for those not on a tour where the tickets are included. You can skip the cable car ride if you enjoy a workout with a beautiful payoff at the top. As I noted above, a tour bus can’t get you directly to the cable car station, which also requires some walking. It is possible to ride the Funchal Cable Car from the city, and it’s only a short walk to the botanical garden’s cable car system. No matter how you get there, comfortable shoes are essential for exploring the garden’s many paths and diverse plant life.

We appreciated the beautiful views of Funchal City and the bay. These unusual pine trees are probably Norfolk pines. I like to point readers to the appropriate websites for planning purposes. However, I couldn’t find specific information in my searches for the botanical garden or the cable car system. Even Wikipedia’s entry on the garden has a broken link.

Tickets for the Botanical Garden Cable Car often include entrance to the garden itself. You can also find combo deals, including rides on the Botanical Garden Cable Car and the main Funchal Cable Car. My baker’s dozen photographs of our visit to the botanical garden at Funchal, Madeira, are posted in 2K HD on my Flickr site here.

John Steiner