{"id":2766,"date":"2011-02-25T18:20:56","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T17:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geoffjones.com\/?p=2766"},"modified":"2011-02-25T18:20:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T17:20:56","slug":"first-week-in-madeira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsite.geoffjones.com\/?p=2766","title":{"rendered":"First week in Madeira"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Geoff<\/a>
Geoff in Maderia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of my dreams has been to live in the winter sun, I really hate to be burning up money just to try and keep myself warm! It seems a lot more economical to live in a climate where the sun keeps you warm! However, I couldn’t live in really hot countries like Dubai etc where you equally\u00a0 have to waste money on AC.<\/p>\n

So the challenge is to find somewhere that is sunny but\u00a0 still cool!, reasonably economic to live and with walking and snowboarding close by \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So here I am in Madeira. 32 degrees North of the Equator surrounded by the cool Atlantic ocean, so warm but not hot! Currently its around 20\u00baC in the sun but cooler in the light wind. As a mega bonus the walking is superb, I’ve spent the last 7 days walking over very varied terrain and still haven’t seen but a fraction of the island.<\/p>\n

My return flight from Stansted on Easyjet was\u00a0 \u00a357.93\u00a0 I’m now staying at the very central (behind The Cathedral) Residencial queimada de baixo which is run by the Chafariz Hotel, \u00a0the rate I’m paying is \u20ac500 for a month (Equivalent to 14 days at their \u20ac35 day rate). Which I think is very reasonable; it includes breakfast and a daily clean too. For the 10 days Sally<\/a> is here they are charging me \u20ac50 more \ud83d\ude42 My evening meal at Cafe do Teatro is about \u20ac17 for beer, main, dessert & coffee. Coffee’s in town are about \u20ac1and the cakes are delicious.<\/p>\n

The hotel has no internet but the municipality have installed wifi points around town so you can get free internet OK. (T-mobile<\/a> are charging \u00a310 for 50MB on their roaming tariff).<\/p>\n

Walking is a dream \ud83d\ude42 Buses (SAM<\/a>,\u00a0Horarios do Funchal<\/a> & Rodoeste<\/a> )\u00a0\u00a0to the the walk starts are between \u20ac2 and \u20ac3. I’m using the Rother walking guide to Madeira. In the past week I’ve completed walks 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 17, 19 & 35 so still 41 more to do in that book!\u00a0 Although some will need taxi’s to get to the starts and a couple I’m probably not capable of doing due to my vertigo \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

All my walks I’ve done this last week are on Everytrail<\/a> with pictures on Picasa.<\/p>\n