A grand day out

Had a minibus tour of the east of the island today.  It’s many years since we explored this area and we had a very knowledgeable guide who slipped from Portuguese to English and German without drawing breath. 
The blip is taken from a viewpoint above Machico and shows the end of the airport runway.  After Machico we went to the most easterly and driest point of the island Ponte de Sao Laurenco, then to Porto da Cruz where they make rum from sugar cane grown on the island.  After that to Santana where the famous A frame Madeirian houses are, the local council have renovated some of them for the tourists but you can still see evidence of some of the old houses used as outbuildings.  Then we were driven to the start of a short levada walk before heading high up to Pico do Arieiro, at 1,818 metres its the third highest peak on Madeira, we couldn’t get right up to the top because the snow was still lying up there.  Our guide told us that when it snows the residents of Funchal drive up and make a snowman on the bonnet of the car, then try to get down to Funchal before it melts or falls off - we did see quite a few cars with snowmen heading down hill! A very good day out, just chilling now before we go to a restaurant recommended by Orchid99 for dinner.