The espada is a long, ugly fish that tastes divine. We were anxious to see more of this rumpled island, so a group of us took a car for an all-day spin. We stopped at a couple of fishing villages, climbed to the cloud-fringed mountain ridge where snow sometimes falls, then headed down the other side to visit the quaint towns and churches. Noon found us at Restaurante Cachalote in Porto Moniz for more seafood. In many ways, Madeira is an island where time has stopped, or at least slowed down.
Portuguese families are large and the pace is slow.
But like many visitors, we donned our hiking boots and went on a walk along a levada - the narrow old canals where rainwater still bubbles down from the heights to irrigated crops on Funchal s side of the island. All Rights Reserved.