There was a change of plan, instead of some of us going up to Pico Ruivo we all went to Funchal. That was after it had been established that the famous market is open every day. So we climbed into Franki's taxis and made a detour to the valley of the nuns. Not the actual valley, but a viewpoint looking down onto it.
After that we got dropped off at the Botanical Garden. It's a very nice and interesting garden, well laid out. Orchids are out of season, not many flowers, that is why we didn't go down to the Orchid Garden. There were enough of them here in the Botanical Garden.At the teagarden we stuffed ourselves with cake and Nelita-type sandwiches, that was lunch. The remainder of the afternoon we planned to walk around Funchal central, to get to it required taking a bus. A business hungry taxi driver offered us a fare for €10 and then dropped it to €8, we couldn't refuse that, especially since it meant we could leave immediately.
This by the way was only the inner circle, other people had already departed for town by different means and only 5 of us were in that taxi.
And now we just wandered aimlessly around town, I found my chocolate (74% Cocoa) and bought plenty slabs. And I also found orchid bulbs for sale in the street, so I bought some, they are now recuperating and hopefully growing in the greenhouse.
Near the fort is a swimming beach, we took a short dive into the clear atlantic water. The beach was very stony and not pleasant to walk on.For the way back to Ponta Delgada we took the 19h00 bus.
This saved us Franki's taxifare and it was fun. We were back in time to have dinner at the hotel.And finaly a candid shot of Steve. Walking through Funchal, Sue had managed to run him into the ground.