Madeira, finally!
My Bucket List Madeira, is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal, the other being Azores. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo and the Desertas (Desertas Islands are protected areas that required preauthorization to visit). This 798 km2 island is just the top of a volcano which explains the steep slopes and irregular coast line. Originally uninhabited until the Portuguese sailors of Prince Henry the Navigator claimed it in 1419, they named it Madeira, meaning wood in Portuguese, because of the dense forest covering the island. The island has many different microclimates. Temperature varies a great deal between north and south regions due to sun exposure, humidity and wind. The island northwest is wet and dry in the southeast. In the 16th century the Portuguese started building aqueducts (levadas - from the Portuguese word "levar" to car...