Santa Maria Full of Grace

Posted on December 21, 2021 by DreamsDoComeTrue

If you are not a reader – listen to this blog post here: Santa Maria

There are hundreds of Monuments of Christopher Columbus sprinkled around the globe. Of course, depending on the location, on some he appears as Colon, on others as Kolumb, etc. but it is still the same person. The man who is celebrated all over the world for the discoveries he made.

Well, discoveries are relative matters. During his first two, out of four journeys through the Atlantic, Columbus and his crew spotted islands of Dominique, Marie-Galante, Guadelupe, Antigua and Puertorico. Later also Jamaica, while sailing along the south coast of Cuba. (These 7 pics come from internet)

All these islands were already inhabited as such Columbus’ discovery was made only on behalf of the Europeans. The people and their lands did not need to be discovered. Imagine they arrived to the Old Continent back then and claimed they discovered new lands. Neither would be a lie in fact. But only seen as such from the perspective of the arrivals.

For some reason, to this day, children are not thaught the true story of the Vikings led by Leif Erikson and then Amerigo Vespucci who visited the lands of American continents way prior to Columbus. I mean, it is after the latter that the continents got their names in the end, however the general global statement and the first answer to the question of the alleged discovery of Americas is Columbus. How a brain of humanity can be washed!

In the USA Columbus Day is celebrated as a national legal federal holiday, every year, on a second Monday of October to commemorate the arrival of the great Admiral of the Ocean Sea in the Americas which was on the 12th October 1492. In fairness, every Bank Holiday means a long weekend so why not….

Some Americans celebrate this anniversary with church services, some with parades and large events. Many celebrations happen in the Italian-American community with the biggest pump in New York and San Francisco apparently. In Hawaii Columbus Day is celebrated as Discoverers’ Day, but it is not a state holiday. Many states now celebrate Native Americans’ Day/Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day in the belief that:

It was the extensive Italian-American population, that began to celebrate Columbus Day first in 1869 in San Francisco. The first state-wide celebration was held in Colorado in 1907 (that’s when my Grand-grampa John was born). In 1937 (remember Disney and Snow White from my other blog Krasnoludki?), Columbus Day became a holiday across the United States. Since 1971, it has been celebrated on the second Monday in October. The date on which Columbus arrived in the Americas is also celebrated as the Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in Latin America and some Latino communities in the USA.

Columbus Day celebrations are controversial and for a reason. As you can see even the Dwarfs have a dilemma. It was not after Leif or Amerigo but after Columbus, who of course had the power of the Spanish monarchy backing him, that the conquistadors went on for the insane raids of the lands inhabited by the Incas, Aztecs and Mayas. Mordering the people, robbing their riches, burning their belongings, to finally take over their freedom, lands and lives. All that out of pure greed and belief that we come from the better world because we have the militarian power. And that lasted for hundreds of years continued by the French, British, Portuguese and Dutch – who has not heard about the Dutch ladies playing soccer with the heads of the Indians?

Columbus, in his 4 voyages, reached the actual mainland of Central America:

The settlement of Europeans in the Americas meant tragedy to the indigenous inhabitants, but at the same time, a win for us, Europeans. Theory of relativity again! The argument is out there and it is alive, questioning whether the damage caused by the arrival of the European settlers which led to the demise of a large proportion of the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas was a direct result of Columbus’ appearance. Yes!

As such, there are people out there who praise Columbus and name him the Admiral of the Ocean Sea still but at the same time you have those that hate everythig that relates to the above facts and those decide to manifest their ideology and feelings via destruction.

In 2020, on my name day, and this is why I remember this event, which according to the Polish calendar, is celebrated only on the date of 26th July, the statue of the navigator Cristóvão Colombo, by Henrique Moreira, made in 1940 and placed in Santa Catarina park, in Funchal in 1968, was knocked down from its location and vandalised. According to the local council, there were: “multiple cracks, dents, and some wear on the surface of the piece as a result of crash to the ground”. The monument was fixed and reinstalled on the 17 December 2020.

It happens over and over around the Earth as we, humans, are restless when it comes to proving our points, some take it too far. And we build them monuments after which we end up destorying them. Where I am from, people used to put down Lenin for example. Whether we can or should compare these two, and many others, I leave to your judgement.

As I already mentioned it in my other post, Columbus passed through Madeira on three occasions during his voyages to the Americas, having docked there in 1475, 1480 and 1492.

He was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451 and began his career as a merchant who mediated in the sugar trade. For commercial purposes, he sailed to England, Guinea and Madeira. In 1479, Columbus married Felipa Perestrello de Moniz, daughter of the former governor of Porto Santo. He spent several years on the island, and today his house, Casa Museu Cristóvão Colombo can be visited there as well as well you may want to celebrate the Festival in September in his name.

https://dreamsdocometrue.blog/2021/12/18/the-holy-port-of-porto-santo/

In 1492, Columbus set out to find a new way to Asia. Three ships took part in the expedition: the karaka “Santa María” (280 tons) and two caravels – “Pinta” (240 tons) and “Niña” (100 tons), whith a total of about 90 crew.

The Dutchman Robert Wijntje, along with seven craftsmen, began to build the replica of Santa Maria in Câmara de Lobos – yea, the same that Churchil used to love paiting – in July 1997. Construction lasted a year and was completed in July 1998. In the same year, Santa Maria de Colombo took part in the Expo 98 exhibition in Lisbon, where almost 100k people visited it within just 25 days.

And here we come..

Santa Maria de Colombo

Once more, we headed to the port of Funchal to board a boat. Columbus’ karaka awaited us impatiently – Not! Was very calm in fact. Although busy with the crowds rushing to get on board. Almost felt like boarding Ryanair flight, only that with a lower capacity and via wooden ramp instead of an airbridge.

So have we. After reaching the top, a lovely ara, a talkative red parrot, welcomed us to advertise herself as a picture perfect model, but we kindly refused and went further to find some spot which would offer us nice views.

I happen to have a great luck for elderly men, and this time, my entertainer was a German tourist who started off with the story behind his scar across the chest – heart surgery and through some other, equaly amuzing stories we moved on and out onto the open seas.

Our very hairy captain put his entire self into searching for the dolphins right away. This time we were not looking for America.

The boy seaman was not staying behind his bosman and used every opportunity to scan the sea himself.

We were on the journey to discover these…

Suddenly the boy seaman spotted something and ran down the mast to ring a big noisy bell. Yes! They could be seen in the distance!

First shy, one, then two… only to pop out of nowhere and dance in front of us in the crystal clear waters of Madeira coast, was a group of wonderful happy dolphins posing in front of everybody’s cameras.

Sadly, not everyone seemed so amused. This poor girl spent the entire journey looking just about the same:

A Poem by luckycharm

No Stress

Dolphins swim together!
No fighting!
No malking!
No masking.

Outside, twenty four seven
No street from work
or bills to pay
Just living life their way.

Who wanted, went for a splash and later we were treated to the famous Madeira wine and cake.

Santa Maria the Colombo is a piece of art. There are no words that can describe this boat. It simply must be seen. Of course, it is not an exact copy of the Columbus’ boat as it has a toilet, engine and surely plenty of other emergency divices which are hidden from the tourists’ eyes, but overall, it is the most beautiful thing I have seen. I have to admit that once I got myself under the deck, I could not stop photographing every item. It all is fit to perfection.

In the end, just a quickie pee and we were back again the port of Funchal.

And in the port we were welcomed by this lovely lady who treated tourists with the bread rolls… Modern dog slavery? Hmmm… not sure but she was drooling so crazy onto these rolls that we skipped that pleasure…

Pleasently tired, we dragged ourselves back to the car and then the nearby hotel only to sleep until the next adventure call woke us up. Of course we stayed on the B&B deal: eat well, pack more for later 🙂

To summarise I can tell that these things I personally am sure of…. Christoper Columbus did not discover Americas but that does not mean he himself was not an outstanding sailor and navigator. His boat, Santa Maria was Graceful and purely wonderful. Here now listen to that – the name Anna, which is my very own, comes from Latin and means Grace. And Columbus was very lucky having her for his means of transportation. Holy Mary, Full of Grace is how they prayed on every journey and it is thanks to her that they went further than they dreamed of. And finally Madeira was made by volcanoes.

In the spirit of confusion, let’s roll into Christmas 🙂

OMG how I’d love to be in Madeira on New Year’s Eve! BTW.

Anna, Full of Grace 🙂

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The Holy Port of Porto Santo

Posted on December 18, 2021 by DreamsDoComeTrue

As always, if you prefer to listen to this blog post, click here: Porto Santo

Life has more imagination than we carry in our dreams. – Christopher Columbus

It is easy to remember that this mini island of Porto Santo, belonging to the Madeira Archipelago, is 43 km up north from Madeira and is almost 43 km² in size. Surrounded by a few tiny uninhabited rock-islands. There are some 5.5 thousand citizens there.

A tiny airport in the middle of the isle could get you here if you had a private jet, but if not, then you will most likely, like me, be forced to take a ferry directly from Funchal. To give you an idea what it cost back in 2008, see a copy of my ticket below:

The ferry leaves Madeira’s port of Funchal quite early. It takes about 1.5 hours to get to Porto Santo. Some people holiday on this tiny island and I can totally recommend it if you are one of those that are capable of spending 12 hours a day on the beach for the entire week. But if you are not, then one day, two tops, will be just about enough. Especially that incredible Madeira is so so fabulous and in my opinion you can never get fed up with it.

Waking up early and spending first hours of the morning in Funchal port is truly magical.

Following the light of the sun, we left the old world. – Christopher Columbus

So we boarded. Slowly, we left Funchal and headed along the east coast of Madeira, passing Machico and Ponta de São Lourenço on our left and Ilhas Desertas (Deserted Islands), in fact inhabited by spiders only, on our right in the distance and heading onto an open ocean. The water swooshed behind us. It was very hot. The climate here is sub-tropical hence temperatures hardly ever get below 23 °C. In the summertime 30 plus is guaranteed for at least a few months straight. Not in Madeira though where you can expect rain anytime.

Funchal, capital city of Madeira, remains a regular port of call for cruise liners that are crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. In the past Winston Churchill used to visit here and cure his “black dog” of depression painting the landscapes of Câmara de Lobos. Austrian Emperor Karl I and Empress Sissi visited often and it is to this day that their descendents pop over here pretty frequently. The Green Pearl of the Atlantic that Madeira is, also attracted George Bernard Shaw with its fascinating views, food, people and flowers.

Whilst the interest was always big, hence demand high for visiting the island, the island’s inaccessibility posed a problem. Madeira wished to open up not only for tourism but also for trade with the mainland Portugal and at the same time, with the rest of the world. In 1964, an airport has therefore been built, just on the outskirts of Funchal on the east coast of the island.

It was not an easy task though. Not many of you may know that Madeira is made of mountains and tunnels that run through the mountains. Given that, finding a long, straight and flat area, sufficient to fit the runway was virtually impossible. A little piece of land neighboring the mountain has been found however, just outside beutiful village of Machico, not ideal but could be worked with. The terrain was cleared and two, 1600 metre long each, runways were built.

This was not safe and insufficient for the growing aircraft and therefore one of the runways, which was closer to the mountain, was permanently closed and the other one extended to 1800 metres in 1986.

The same pattern occured – not good enough for yet growing planes and trourism. As such, another kilometer was added to the existing one to make 2781 metres of a runway that is partially on the land but mainly on the concrete poles fit into the Atlantic Ocean. Every single one out of 180 columns is around 70 meters in height and this is why it is best seen when driven underneath, which you do on the way from Funchal to either airport or to Machico. A truly fascinating experience; imagine you first drive through a few kilometres long tunnels only to end up on a super high bridge that then takes you under the airport runway platform where you drive between the mentioned concrete columns and you come out of it to end up inside another tunnel with a few lanes and roundabouts to navigate through.

The above mentioned extension opened in 2002 and was recognised worldwide. Two years later it was awarded the Outstanding Structure Award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.

Today Funchal airport handles 3 million customers per year.

Ferry ride gives a brilliant opportunity to enjoy incredible views on Madeira Airport, which as you can see, is very unique and pilots must pass special training to be able to land and take off here. This is one of the reasons why Funchal is a more expensive destination in comparison with the neighboring Canary Islands. Majority of airlines simply do not operate here on schedule. You therefore are left with either charter flights or connecting flights as the port is used mainly by Portuguese airlines. Also, due to lack of typical to Canary Islands type of sandy beaches and a risk of drizzle, people prefer the former which, at the same time, are a cheaper option.

And do you know whose name does the airport in Funchal bear? Yes, the incredibly talented and hard working, Funchal born Cristiano Ronaldo of course. The below was the original, rather unfortunate depiction of the famous footballer.

Thankfully his mother opposed to it and the sculpture has been replaced with a more handsome and accurate himself. Can be seen in the Airport Terminal.

Speaking of Ronaldo, there’s one more monument of him in the Funchal port and it apparently brings luck when you rub his you know what 🙂 I wonder what Mama says to that 🙂

R.E.M. stands for R-onaldo E-ros of M-adeira. But he’s out of time

Porto Santo however means 9 miles of a gold sandy beach – Praia Dourada. It runs along island’s entire south coast and therefore this is where everyone coming to Madeira goes for the sunny part of their stay. The people of Madeira travel there too quite regularily. I am assuming they have lower deal on the ferry travels but I have not checked. Madeira’s three beaches are small and black.

When you near Porto Santo, the first view that opens in front of your eyes are steep cliffs of the neighboring islands. It does not suggest any of what hides just behind them. And when what is hiding behind them appears in front of you, you can be sure your jaw drops and you drool without realizing it.

So the engines stopped. The boat positioned itself by the pier. Everyone looked left and….

….literally ran off the ferry. We went to find the nearest car rental place and got a tiny stinker for an entire day for an equivalent of what we paid to rent a jeep for a week in Madeira, but sure, needed to be done!

There are not many roads in Porto Santo and therefore we drove them all! And yet had a good few hours left for enjoying the beach!

There’s no need to talk much here, so let me take you on the photo tour around this tiny gem on the Atlantic. Calheta – Ponta (Ponta da Calheta) ont he opposite side of the beach with the fabulous views on Ilheu de Baixo and the coastline.

Next up, Ponta da Canaveira on the northern side witht the view on Ilheu de Ferro:

As you noticed, my ferry ticket dates back to 2008. I am happy to see some very positive changes in Porto Santo. When we were there, there were far less places to stay in as well as places to eat, in comparison to what I am seeing now when browsing places. Some major monuments, such as the Moinhos de Vento (The Windmills) used to be neglected and abandoned whereas now they seem to be a true tourist attraction. It makes my heart hop with joy 🙂 See below, 2008 vs 2021 (the concrete structures that can be seen on my photo are also gone – ufff!). That’s Miraduro de Portela.

In the end, just before going for a splash, we visit Vila Baleira. A very pretty and well kept town, proud for its most famous tourist attraction on the island – Casa de Cristóvão Colombo – Christopher Columbus House – Museu do Porto Santo, located in the house where the traveler once lived. The museum is not only a documentation of the presence of the discoverer in the Madeira archipelago, but also indicates the strategic importance of the island in the times of Portuguese maritime expansion.

In mid-September, the Festival Colombo takes place on an island. Christopher Columbus lived in Porto Santo for several years with Philipa Moniz, whom he married in Lisbon, a daughter of the captain of Porto Santo, and it was here where his son, Diego was born. He worked here as a sugar merchant.

The boat you see in the below video is called Santa Maria de Colombo and if you are brave enough to get on board with the real sailors, you can. They will show you dolphins if you are good Boys and Girls and in the end treat you with a sip of Madeira wine and cake. This is for another blog post though, I’m afraid 🙂

As for the Festival itself, well, as festivals do, this one will bring you back to the world of the end of the XVth century Madeira archipelago. You will be entertained in the local way, with the local food and music. You will see the life of the locals as it was when Columbus walked on along the Praia Dourada.

Many shows and parades entertain the spactators. Among them the arrival of the Culumbus. Games, plays, stalls, circus, theather and exhibitions. All that on this tiny little piece of land somewhere in the Atlantic.

However

It is easy to discover what another has discovered before. – Christopher Columbus

and therefore it is now time for YOU! to go there and find for yourself the things yet undiscovered.

And to help you find your way, here’s the map that Columbus allegedly used during his many travels. Guard it with your life!

Ahoj there!

Anka

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