Battling the Elements in Patagonia

We arrived in El Calafate and took a bus to our hostel - America del Sur. The receptionists immediately recognized us and asked if we are “Emily por dos,” as everyone seems to refer to us on this trip. We happily answer yes, mistaking recognition for a smooth check-in. They tell us that they overbooked and don’t have room for us but we can go to a nearby hostel and stay there. Unfortunately, the roads are unpaved and we had to carry our enormously heavy luggage several blocks to our destination. It turns out, nobody at the new hostel spoke English and they also didn't have space for us. Obviously, I storm back over to America del Sur in quite the huff and demand that the receptionist find somewhere else for us to stay and help carry our luggage this time. It worked and we ended up a perfectly fine hostel called Nakel Yanu with working WiFi. 

In the morning, we booked our excursions and planned the rest of our time in Patagonia. Then, we went for a run around the lagoon and returned to catch our bus to Chalten. With little time to get to the bus station, I frantically searched for food, racing through the streets with my luggage and calling out "excuse me" at the top of my lungs for people to clear the way. Melissa basically had a heart attack trying to keep up. Apparently, noone can make a sandwich in under 15 minutes so we got ice cream instead. With minutes to go, we race to the bus station and look up to see a massive flight of stairs in front of us. Out of nowhere, a guy comes and grabs my suitcase and starts to run up the stairs. Unsure of whether he was stealing my luggage or helping me, I chase after him.  At the pitstop, Melissa recognized the possible hero/thief and it turns out he speaks English and heard me call that he might be stealing my luggage. We introduce ourselves and David 2, and his girlfriend, Shannon, became our best friends of El Chalten. We basically had the same itinerary and ran into them everywhere. 

We had the strangest experience upon arriving. The bus stops in the El Chalten park entrance before arriving at the bus terminal. There, we received a stern lecture by a park ranger about the rules of the park. He had a vandetta against Israelis and every time someone spoke during his speech, he snapped “Shalom Shalom.” It was upsetting to learn that this anti-Israeli sentiment was shared by most of the locals. Their disdain for Israelis is not political but based in experiences interacting with rude Israeli travelers, fresh out of the army and too macho for rules. While a few obnoxious Israelis seemed to ruin things for their co-patriates, it was fun to see so many Israelis every place we went. In fact, on the trails, signage was posted in Spanish, English and…. Hebrew! 

At the bus terminal, I found a place to change money and Melissa went to the bathroom. The funny thing is, she got stuck in the stall. When I finally went to fetch her, a woman informed me in broken English that my friend is unable to get out of the toilet and she was finding help.

We spent the afternoon doing a really nice hike to a waterfall. The next day, we set out to trek Fitz Roy (Laguna de Los Tres). It was a long and challenging hike and also incredibly beautiful!! The final stretch to the peak was a very steep 2 km climb. At the top, we ran into David 2 and Shannon and squealed with delight. The 4 of us ate lunch together and enjoyed the scenery. We refilled our water bottles in the lake and drank the most delicious water. Throughout the entire hike, we were surrounded by incredible snow-peaked mountains and clear blue streams below. 

Back in town, we were barely able to walk. We hobbled to the restaurant only to find that it was full. We asked when a table would be ready and the waitress asked where we are staying. I told her “right here” and plopped down on the floor out front. She took pity on us and eventually gave us a table. 

The following day, we set out for arguably the coolest part of the trip: Ice climbing on the Viedma glacier. At the busstop, Melissa noticed a man davening and wearing a talit and tifilin. She obviously screeched and pointed at him to notify me of her finding. We took a bus to a boat and a boat to the glacier. Positive that lunch would be included with our excursion, we laughed at the over-prepared person who had packed lots of food. When the boat docked, it caught our attention that people seemed to have really intense gear. Still unfazed, we hiked up from the dock to the glacier. The first indication that we were actually the idiots was when the guides asked if anyone doesn’t have gloves and Melissa and I are the only ones to raise our hands. Starting to get nervous, I ask if lunch is included and find out that it is actually not. As if this wasn’t enough to ensure our place as the biggest jokes of the group, Melissa could not get into her harness and required the assistance from the guides. 

We hike to the glacier and start to climb down these really slippery rocks to underneath the glacier. We were the only ones struggling and noticed that every single other participant was wearing intense climbing boots. The tour guide turns to us and looks at our feet and exasperatedly cries “WHY TENNIS SHOES?! WHY!?” Apparently, we missed every memo of what we needed for the day. 

The guides gave us a quick tutorial, crampons and ice picks, and we successfully scaled several ice walls. It was really fun and rewarding and the whole group marveled at how we were able to do it in sneakers. Usually repelling down after climbing up is the easy part… except for Mel. She somehow slipped and dangled from her harness, falling into complete hysterics and crying “owwww” until the whole group was laughing at her and started taking pictures. Don’t worry, they collected her email address and promised to send over their gems. 

The glacier was massive — 950 square km! The scenery was beautiful, the day was a blast and we had a really fun group. We enjoyed talking to everyone and hearing about their various travel experiences. There was a British couple on a year-long journey around the world, an American couple on their honeymoon, a Russian couple who were definitely the best climbers, a needy Roman man traveling alone, and us. 

Back in town, we had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Parador, and got ready for Shabbat, which starts and ends really late. To set the mood, we sang lecha dodi while walking to our new hostel. We said kiddush and motzei in the lobby and went to bed before the sun even set. 

We woke up to miserable weather but determined to stick to the schedule, we hiked through wind and snow to do the Laguna Torres hike. It felt almost mystical. We came back soaked but accomplished.

Sunday morning, we grabbed brunch at the Wafleria before catching our bus back to Calafate. We sat at a long table with other customers and played Uno until our food came. These 3 massive guys from Boulder, CO, sat down next to us and decided to play with us. We had a hilarious conversation with them until we had to run to catch our bus. 

Laguna de Los Tres

Viedma Glacier

Videma Glacier

Viedma Glacier

View of Chalten

Fitz Roy

Laguna de Los Tres

Laguna de Los Tres

Conquering Iguazu: Nature & New Friends

Sunday morning, we went to the airport to fly to Iguazu to see the world's largest waterfalls! Somehow, my suitcase passed through the weight check and I didn't have to pull an Extreme Travel and start unpacking my suitcase on-site. Running on very little sleep, we deliriously attempted to use Spanish to acquire hot water, 3 cups, 2 spoons, and sugar to make our oatmeal. Somehow, the plane decided to take off early and everyone else had boarded.  We didn't get the memo. We heard our names called over the loud speaker and took off running. The pilot asked us what we were doing and we honestly explained that we were eating oatmeal.

View of Iguazu from Plane

Once on the plane, we passed out immediately and slept until the pilot got on the loudspeaker and announced that Iguazu Falls is coming up ahead and to look out the window for an incredible birds-eye view of the falls. The falls were impressive, even from the height of the plane. Most surprising was the color - the water is brown from minerals in the soil. We landed in Iguazu and immediately felt the climate difference. Iguazu is hot and very humid. [Tip for anyone traveling to Iguazu (and you really should) -- bring insect repellent and anti-itch cream!]

We arrived at our hostel, Mango Chill, and discovered the best part of the place -- the receptionist, Manu. The hostel had a funny smell and a strange bohemian atmosphere, where only half the guests seemed to be there to see the falls and the other half seemed to be on drugs. We spent a bit of time relaxing by the pool, which looked like it was infused with disease. The evening receptionist, Alex, gave a helpful overview of the Iguazu park and what to expect for the next day. After that, we went for a walk to see the sunset over Paraguay at the intersection of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.

Back at the hostel, we sat down to a family style dinner, which felt like the the first real meal we consumed since arriving (we have mostly been consisting on ice cream, trail mix, and of course my veggie sandwich that brought all those comments and eating sounds upon me). We met this multigenerational British family - an 84-year-old granddad, traveling with his daughter, her husband, and their (grand)daughter who is a teacher in Buenos Aires. When Alex came to clear my plate, he commented on how little we eat. I have never been told that in my life!

We had a terrible night's sleep because one of our roommates decided to turn off the air conditioning and the room was unbearably hot all night. In the morning, we set out to see one of the most magnificent places on earth: Iguazu Falls. [Travel tip: buy food in advance and pack lunch for the park because everything is extremely expensive inside] With only 1 day to see everything, we had quite the challenge ahead of us. We started by heading up to Devil's Throat, the viewpoint at the very top, looking down at the falls. We then hiked the Sendero Macuco that ended in a single beautiful waterfall, where we swam in the refreshing water. When we swam close to the falls, the pressure actually made it difficult to breathe! Afterwards, we stopped for smoothies and had the most ridiculous experience using outrageously bad Spanish to understand the flavors and place our orders. Then, we took the Great Adventure boat ride that starts with a truck ride through the jungle, during which Mel and I both promptly fell asleep and missed the tour guide explaining all about the plants and animals. We then got into a small but powerful motor boat that took us up the river. We rounded a corner, and the massive waterfalls were right in front of us. The boat actually took us right up to the falls where we got completely soaked. It was exhilarating! We then ended the day with 2 more hikes: the lower (blue) and upper (red) trails. These had the most spectacular views and were our favorite parts of the day. We stayed until the park was closing and they forced us to leave. One thing that struck us both besides the glorious views, was how efficiently the park was run.

Iguazu Falls: Devils Throat

Macuco Trail

Upper Trail

Iguazu Falls

Back in town, we went to a Mexican place for dinner. At one point during our meal, we look up to find our Israeli friends from Buenos Aires walking down the street towards us. They joined us and we all had dinner together. It was so cool sitting at a random restaurant in Iguazu, Argentina and knowing people to spontaneously join us for dinner!! We are the last ones remaining and the restaurant was starting to close so I obviously asked the waiter to take a photo for us before we leave. I hand him the camera and lead him to the table where I find David saying Birkat Hamazon. So our Spanish speaking Argentinian waiter is holding the camera and trying to take a picture and Melissa tries to explain the situation but accidentally mixes up the Spanish words. She tries to tell the waiter: ""Wait 2 minutes, I'm sorry" but ends up telling him "Wait 2 minutes, I'm sitting now!" So Raz and Bezik jump in and tell the waiter "she doesn't speak Spanish! She doesn't speak Spanish" and Melissa is saying "Yes I do! Yes I do!" and I'm completely unaware of what has transpired.

After we finally get our photo, we go back to our friends' hostel to retrieve the bag I left behind in Buenos Aires. We end up staying and hanging out there, which worked out really nicely because they also had working WiFi! Melissa jumped into the pool in her clothing, which 2 days later, still hasn't really dried. We guilted the guys into walking us home to our hostel. There, Melissa helped me proof my medical school application, which I submitted the next night!!

In the morning, we arrived at the airport for our flight to Patagonia. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed but more unfortunately, the airport's air conditioning wasn't working so we sat in the sweltering humidity, waiting for our flight. The security was surprisingly intense: the man who checked us in asked us if we have any sharps in our carry-on luggage. We said no and he gave us security clearance stickers. Somehow that same guy appeared at every stage of the airport process: check-in, security, ticket collection, and boarding. The hilarity of the situation was only beginning. As we waited to board our flight, we sat on the floor in a heap, while everyone waited in line to get on the plane. My bug bites were itching like crazy so I decided to use this opportune moment to rub hydrocortisone cream on all my bites, of which there were many. Melissa starts to lose it and tells me between laughing and gasping for breaths to look up. I unassumingly raise my eyes to see the ENTIRE line of passengers staring at my diseased-looking legs in horror. We could easily identify the Americans from non-Americans because the Americans tried to peer at me subtly, while others just gaped openly.

Next up: El Calafate and El Chalten!

Conquering Buenos Aires #IsraeliStyle

Friday morning we woke up and went back to Florida street to change money properly. We bargained hard and got a very respectable exchange rate. It's quite scary to walk out of a sketchy place with wads and wads of cash.

Stopping for a quick breakfast to fuel up for our bike tour of Buenos Aires, I ordered a grilled veggie sandwich, which turned out to be a gazunta sandwich. We ate as we power walked to the bike place and for the first time in my life (possibly?), I was the recipient of a food-sound cat call. It went like this: "YUMMM!!!!!" We arrived at the bike shop and the comments on my sandwich continued. 

Willis

After a quick orientation to the day, we met our bikes. Melissa had a complete meltdown that the name of her bike was Willis. The bike shop guys were asking if she had an ex by that name but it turns out, she really wanted to name her bike after her spanish name, Luz. 

La Boca Stadium

We started the tour in San Telmo and learned about the history of Buenos Aires, which was originally settled by the Spanish in search of gold. We continued on to La Boca and saw the (in)famous soccer stadium. Games get incredibly loud
and feisty, often breaking windows of homes nearby. Visiting team fans are no longer permitted in the stadium due to safety concerns. We rode through La Boca on bike paths until we reached La Caminito, the brightly painted area of La Boca, where tango originated by poor immigrants living there. Our guide the made matte, a traditional caffeinated drink and offered it to the group, The whole idea of sanitation seemed to be lacking so I passed. There was street art everywhere, much of it telling the tragic story of persecution and disappearance. Afterwards, we rode on to Puerto Madero, a mostly uninhabited very expensive neighborhood, where mostly celebrities and athletes live, named for the defunct port that took so long to build that it was too small for modern ships by the time it opened so it was never really operational. We then stopped for lunch and learned a bit too much about our guide's relationship issues. 

We then explored Retiro neighborhood, the main transportation hub of Buenos Aires and then Ricoletta, where we saw the law school and the cemetery. This time we successfully found Eva Peron/Duarte's grave. It's pretty nondescript except for all the people waiting to see it. Afterwards, we biked through Micro Centro, the "heart of the city" and ended up at the Pink House, which is the Argentinian version of the White House. The surrounding plaza was being set up for the Dakar rally, a global motorcycle event. The tour was a great way to see so much of Buenos Aires in a short amount of time! After we concluded the 8-hour bike tour, we raced to buy food for shabbat. Melissa had her second meltdown because she really really really wanted to get ice cream before shabbat and didn't want to hear that we didn't have time. 

Ricoletta Cemetery

Evita's Grave in Ricoletta Cemetery

When we got back to the hostel, we quickly discovered that the Chabad we had arranged to go to is almost a 3 hour walk from our hostel so we scrambled to come up with an alternative plan. Being in Little Israel, we mentioned to an Israeli in the hostel that we are religious and they told us about a chabad only a few blocks away. It was one of the coolest chabad experiences either of us has ever had. After Kabalat Shabbat, we sat outside with about 60 Israelis all traveling South America after the army. Like everyone we have met so far this trip, they were all incredibly nice and it gave us the chance to practice our Hebrew. After dinner, we went with some our new friends to see the Pink House and the Opera House, Teatro Colon, lit up at night. 

In the morning, Mel and I walked back to the Pink House to see if we could do a free tour but they were closed for the rally. Then, we went back to Chabad for shul and lunch. Lunch was much smaller than dinner but one thing was consistent with the night before and struck us profoundly. The guys were all incredibly helpful in a way that we don't see very often. They exhibited what Camp Stone calls a Rosh Gadol, Each person was constantly looking out for others and being proactive to see how they can help. If anything was finished, someone immediately got up to refill it. No one asked how they can help, they just figured out what needed to be done and did it. It was really nice to see and a lesson we should take home with us. Our theory is that this mentality comes from being in the army. Regardless, it was beautiful. 

We then went with our new Israeli friend, David, and walked back to Ricoletta to the Fine Arts Museum. He then walked back and Mel and I continued to Once, the Jewish neighborhood for a self guided walking tour. We saw magnificent shuls and a thriving community. Men wore kippot in the streets. Jews we met said they don't have issues with Antisemitism or security. We were struck how amazing it is to be part of something so global and ancient that we could walk into a shul in South America and it looks the same as shuls across the rest of the world. 

We ended our walking tour with Templo Libertad. Unfortunately, we forgot our passports but convinced the security guard to let us in by telling him our ID is in our money belts under our dresses so we couldn't access them. It worked. :) 

Exhausted and hungry after a long day of walking and site seeing, we returned to the hostel. Only, we couldn't find it. After frantically looking at a map and street signs, we realized that we had successfully gotten back and were standing right in front of it. After shabbat, Melissa went to Chabad and BBQ'ed with David. That hamburger made her a very happy girl. But she never did get her ice cream. Chabad didn't have anything vegetarian so I went for pasta with David's travel buddy, Bezik and another Israeli in the hostel. Then, we went to see the famous Buenos Aires night life. Buenos Aires is REALLY the city that never sleeps. We bought tickets for the club from an Israeli promoter and went with our new friends to their friend's hotel to "gather." I left my pocketbook at their hotel and will hopefully be seeing it tomorrow when David and Bezik arrive in Iguazu. I guess we have been spending alot of time together because when the new guys asked us questions, we answered in Hebrew in unison. It got weird in a way that only Katie and I have been able to achieve. 

The club was really fun and we danced as awkwardly as we wanted. Melissa peed twice. Outside. Obviously.  Then, we found ourselves a taxi to return to the hotel for our flight to Iguazu early this morning. This was the scariest part because you hear stories of taxis taking advantage of tourists. We climbed into the car that said "radio taxi" since those are supposedly more reliable. The interaction started out problematic... I tried to give the address of the hostel (1385 Avenida De Mayo) but I kept mixing up Spanish and Hebrew and I didn't even realize until Melissa put me in my place! "Uno... Shalosh... Shmoneh-" "Emily, no!" 

When we arrived at our hotel, I went to pay the driver the amount on the meter. I gave him money waiting for change but instead of change he returned "my bill" to me because "it was ripped." He indicated that we needed to give him a different bill. Having heard similar stories of taxi drivers swapping bills out for fake, ripped bills and demanding more money, I recognized his trick but didn't know what to do. I don't speak Spanish and even if I did, I don't know how I'd get him straight. So I decided to forgo our change, pushed Melissa out of the car and ran away. I guess thats a success story.

Americans on the Loose: Arriving in Argentina

After a crazy semester of premed life, I finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel: Argentina with my main girl. Josh booked me in first class, which it turns out is really the only way to fly. Mel and I landed in Buenos Aires and the communication struggles immediately commenced. No, not with each other -- that's been on par with martial level comm. But neither of us speak Spanish and apparently few people here speak English. We finally get from the airport to the bus station to the hostel we booked and schlep our luggage up several massive marble staircases, only to discover that the hostel is fully booked and without our reservation. The guy was very nice about it and recommended another hostel a few blocks away. So, we get our luggage back down the stairs and out the door and to the new hostel, which is where we discovered the writing on the wall. That is, the Hebrew writing. We unknowingly entered little Israel. The new hostel is swarming with post army Israelis.

After settling our accommodations, we set out to change money. The black market rate is much better than the official exchange rate so we searched for the recommended sketchy guy in the back of a perfectly unsketchy business. We had a hard time finding the street so we showed the address to a policeman and asked for his help finding the street. Apparently, "Florida street" is where all the sketchy money changing happens so the policeman knew exactly what we were up to... Oops. 

After finally changing money in the back of an ice cream parlor and in desperate need of nourishment, we stopped at the only other place open on New Years for ice cream. Obviously, I needed to taste flavors so I looked up the word for "taste" on my  handy Bing Translator app and requested foreign words that indicated flavors. The shall-we-say charming man behind the counter insisted on feeding me the little spoon of ice cream! When I requested a second flavor to taste, the strangest thing happened --- he took back my little tasting spoon and DOUBLE DIPPED IT INTO THE ICE CREAM! Oh, and then insisted on feeding it to me again. 

We hopped on the bus to the Ricoletta neighborhood. Proud of ourselves for finally accomplishing something smoothly, we went to pay the driver, only to discover that we needed to pre-purchase a bus card and we had no idea how to get one. The driver finally took pity on the pathetic Americans and let us on the bus anyway. We sat down in the back and started chatting. The kind driver suddenly shouted back to us that we should to get off when we reached our intended stop. 

We explored the neighborhood and the famous cemetery and finally collapsed in exhaustion on an ugly little pidgin-covered plot of grass, too tired to figure out how to get back to the hostel. After some stares, and many averted gazes, we finally made our way to a bus stop and asked a couple how to acquire the mysterious bus card. Barely able to communicate with each other, the 2 led us several blocks away to find a store to purchase the card. The store was closed and after much unsuccessful trekking, the bus arrived and they swiped us in and helped us find our stop. They were so kind to us and we're determined to pay it forward. Everyone we have met so far has been incredibly sweet and helpful. I'm looking forward to many more absurd adventures over the next 2 weeks. Stay tuned for pictures... 

The Start of Markovic Adventures: Honeymoon to Portugal, Part Algarve

We returned to Lisbon, rented a car at the airport and hit the road for a trip down to the Algarve. We stopped around midnight at the Montado Golf to spend the night. In the morning, we continued down to Cape Sagres, the Southwest tip of Europe. The highways are really empty because Portuguese can’t afford the extremely expensive tolls. We were advised to take the “motorways” despite the cost because they are much safer since the other roads are swarmed with aggressive drivers.

Sagres

In Cape Sagres, we walked around and enjoyed some wonderful views. We attempted to have lunch at a cafe that sounded perfect for us with loads of salads and vegetarian options but found that it was closed. We then proceeded onto the attractions on our itinerary to find they were also closed because the workers are on strike. One disgruntled tourist wondered if the fortress workers went on strike when the place was still actively guarding the coast.

Walking along the beach in Selema

We headed east and stopped at the town of Selema. We stopped at a convenience store to buy water and the cashier noticed our Rick Steves booked and pointed to a picture of him with Rick Steves on the wall. Apparently Selema is a favorite stop of Rick’s. There are supposedly dinosaur prints on the rocks at the base of the cliff on the beach. Unfortunately for us though, the high tide prevented us from finding them. Not from trying though – We climbed on the rocks to try to one-up the tide to no avail.

We continued on to the Belavista da Luz Hotel, our home for the duration of our stay in Portugal. They told us they upgraded us to a “sea view” room since it is our honeymoon (apparently sea-view and pool-view are interchangeable here but we appreciated the gesture). The room also had a bottle of champagne with a congratulatory note. The staff there was incredibly helpful and friendly! At breakfast, they told us to just ask if we want fried eggs or something so I ordered an egg-white omelet, which totally flabbergasted the guy. He could not understand the concept of removing part of the egg. After going back and forth of me trying to describe the process, telling him to forget it and a whole egg is fine, trying to explain it, telling him its not so unusual in NY… for about 10 minutes, the guy finally left and returned with a fried egg-white but would only give it to me if I told him what I do with the yellow parts of my eggs. I told him I give the yellows to my dog (which is only true of hard-boiled eggs) or I make Pasteis de Nata (similar to Pasteis de Belem – see Lisbon post). He handed me my eggs but proceeded to tell everyone else who walked into breakfast that the way people eat their eggs in NY is by giving the yellow parts to their dogs.

"Sea" View 

Honeymoon Champagne

For dinner, I typed into trusty TripAdvisor restaurants Near Me and sorted by “vegetarian.” We drove to Lagos for the top result and were in for a delectable surprise. We drove up to an incredible resort called Cascades, which housed the wonderful Senses Restaurant. Sitting pretty high up a cliff, Cascades has a beautiful hotel and an amazing porch, pool, and cabanas overlooking the Atlantic. The restaurant had a special vegetarian menu and prepared the food in a special kitchen downstairs. The main kitchen is open and inviting for guests to come watch their food being prepared. The service was attentive and professional. When the food came out, we were in heaven. The chef, it turns out, is a chocolatier trained by a culinary institute in Brugge, so we had to get the “chocolate experience” dessert – it wasn’t as good as we expected – IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER!

View from Senses Restaurant, Cascade

Senses - Open Kitchen

Praia da Luz

The next day we walked to the beach in Luz to go tubing. There was a bit of a wait so they offered us to take a kayak out for free. We paddled out and looked back at the small city and took in the beautiful scene. When we returned to shore, we hopped on our “sofa” tube and were attached to a motor boat and off we went, speeding though and bouncing around the ocean, squealing and laughing like children and holding on for dear life.

Riding Through the Mountains

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the supermarket to buy our Shabbat food. We headed back to Lagos to the sister restaurant of Senses, called the Marandus, located in the Vivenda Mirdana Romantik Hotel. We enjoyed a nice lunch with beautiful views. After refueling, we went for a private horseback ride through the mountains (at Tiffany’s riding center) – Josh’s first time on a horse!

Vivenda Miranda

View from Marandus Restaurant

Pre-Shabbat Pic!

Finally, we returned to the hotel for our first Shabbat dinner alone as husband and wife. We sang ourselves shalom Aleichem and eshet chayil, made Kiddush and motzei and felt like grown ups. After dinner, we hung out at the bar and made friends with lots of Brits and Germans and of course, the bartender, Danny.

On Shabbat, we woke up late (I guess we’ve been lacking sleep) and headed to the beach. We got a bit too much sun and Josh’s back turned quite red L. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on our “sea-view” porch.  In the afternoon, we wanted to hike over to Lagos and end up eventually for a final dinner at our beloved Sense restaurant. We anticipated a flat hike – more of a walk really over to the next town. We ended up climbing up over a cliff from Luz to Lagos on a Squaw Peak-type trail (for you Arizonans) except totally unmarked and lacking people. That we were nervous that we would end up stranded on a cliff without phones or a way to get to either town and that the sun would continue to set and the snakes would come out only added to the adventure. We eventually did end up in Lagos and found our way back to the wonderful resort with 30 minutes to relax in a cabana before dinner. (It's too bad there are no pictures from Shabbat because it was some of our most beautiful scenes the trip.)

As one final testament to how accommodating our hotel was, we asked them for breakfast before we left for the airport at 7am. Expecting a boxed breakfast, we were quite impressed when the receptionist asked us what time we wanted breakfast (6:30am) and what hot drinks we’d like (coffee). She then apologized that the hot breakfast wouldn’t be available at 6:30am but that someone would set up the cold breakfast and coffee for us. We headed off to the airport with full stomachs and amazing memories of our honeymoon to Portugal. Now back to reality.

The Start of Markovic Adventures: Honeymoon to Portugal, Part Madeira

Josh and I woke up at 4:15 AM Monday morning to go to the airport for our trip to Madeira. To support my assertion in my first post about cabs being cheap, I'll share with you the cost of our taxi-ride to the airport – 11 Euro after the luggage surcharge. After a spending a leisurely 2 hours eating our boxed breakfast and killing time before our flight – Josh likes to leave us a lot of time, we boarded our flight to Madeira. I should note that at the point at which I am writing this, we have been personally called 3 times this trip – before our NY to Lisbon flight, before the Sea Born boat ride (I’ll get to that) and before our Madeira to Lisbon flight. Sense a trend? Oops?

Enjoying The View From Our Room

We arrived in Funchal, the major city in Madeira (also sometimes called “little Lisbon” according to my guidebooks) and checked into our hotel, The Madeira Regency Cliff. After trying to upsell us on a suite and us declining, they decided to upgrade us for free on the occasion of our honeymoon. We had a porch with a beautiful ocean view and slept with the doors open so we could fall asleep to the splashing waves.

Funchal was very touristy and a bit disappointing. Madeira is super hilly so there were many beautiful views of the sea, mountainous terrain, and infrastructure. We started by sitting at a tea shop for tea and cake at a beautiful square. We stopped at Bordal, a recommended embroidery shop to find ourselves a tablecloth for our new apartment. Turns out embroidery here, while quite fine, is also quite pricey so we didn’t buy anything.

Monte Palace Gardens

We took a cable car up to Monte and then explored the Monte Palace Botanical Gardens (which they reminded us on every other telephone post that it is one of the top 13 or 14 botanical gardens in the world, depending on which sign).

Strolling through the gardens was relaxing and serene. After waking up at the crack of dawn, the slow pace of the garden was the perfect start to Madeira. We decided to skip the Toboggan ride back down to Funchal since it seemed overpriced and very short but immediately regretted our decision once we were far enough down the hill to make it not worth walking back up. The way down was STEEP and 6 km long. After 2 km, we decided to cab down the rest of the way.

Monte Palace Gardens

Next stop – the Farmers market. Pretty touristy as well but we had the chance to taste Poncha, a traditional Madeiran drink, which we hated, and 6 different types of passion fruits that grow in Madeira, which we LOVED.

For dinner, we tried a Turkish restaurant called “Istanbul Restaurante” (they’re quite creative with names – the Indian restaurant next door was called Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant). We loved the food and service and ended up returning our second night as well!

Levada Trail

The next morning, we joined a tour to walk along a Levada, or water channel for irrigation, called Valley of Paradise. The tour guide was very funny and the walk was easy but lovely. The guide pointed out some of the flora and fauna and made friends with a local dog.

The afternoon plan was to rent a car but there were no automatic cars available on the island and neither of us can drive a shift so we rearranged our plans and took a boat tour instead. The Sea Born boat ride, which waited for us incidentally, was incredible! The weather was gorgeous and the water, clear blue. I got a new perspective of the island by sea as I sat back with Josh and sipped a refreshing local beer (Coral) while the wind whipped through my hair.  [Note: I’m not a big beer drinker but it’s good stuff.]

Josh with our little SmartCar

Ponto Moniz

Our 3^rd and final day of Madeira, we finally rented our car and drove around the whole island. Turns out we got a SmartCar which was a tight fit with our luggage but I pulled a Ronnie and repacked everything in our suitcases so that it all worked out. We started with a view point from a neighboring town called Cabo Girao. Unfortunately, the sky was pretty cloudy so we turned around partway up the mountain since visibility wasn’t great. We continued on to Sao Vincete and admired the quaint town before setting off to wander through volcanic caves formed by lava. The caves were very cool and we learned a lot from the exhibition on volcanoes afterwards.

We then drove westward to Porto Moniz for the local natural lava pools. I wrongly assumed they were warm in temperature but the name is deceiving because it just means the pools are sitting on old lava but they were freezing! We went swimming and befriended a pair of British brothers on holiday. They gave us a tip for a great lookout so after air-drying in the harsh wind (we didn’t have towels), we drove up for a look.

Traditional House in Santana

Our final stop before heading to the airport was Santana, a town that still has the original type of Madeiran houses – small, A-shaped houses, painted red, white and blue, with thatched roofs. They were cool to see but there are only a few left and its very touristy so it wasn’t our favorite stop.

View from the Drive

View Along the Drive

Overall, the driving experience was slightly terrifying – many of the roads are incredibly narrow and winding, at the edge of cliffs, and intended for 2-way traffic. Josh did an excellent job behind the wheel. The views were INCREDIBLE though. The island is so lush and green and surrounded by perfectly blue water. The air was so fresh. We were so dazzled by the scenery that we didn’t even mind that we never figured out how to work the radio.

We finally ended up at the airport and my phone ran out of data and voice minutes – it really held out quite nicely since the car GSP failed us and Google Maps came to the rescue. Anyway, we made the flight just as they were pulling away the staircase for the back entrance to the plane. Just in time.

This is the U-Turn we had to make when the GSP failed us...