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Strange fruit.
We decided to rent a car to check out the sights of Madeira as we will only be here a short time and there is a lot to see. Although it has a few larger cities most of Madeira is rugged hills and cliffs or forest so we were surprised to find that it has major infrastructure as well. We found ourselves driving on super highways (the island equivalent anyway!) through extensive tunnel systems, on well kept roads, with real signage. Of course the derelict roads falling away into the ocean with barley enough room to squeeze by, even in our tiny rental car, still exist and we were nearly run off a mountain road by a gang of bikers. Well, they were actually bicyclers but there were four of them and they were taking up the entire road. We attempted to take a walk through the laurel forests on one of the high plateaus but we were caught in a cloud and decided against getting soaked and lost. Instead we wandered around the gift shop to check out the hand knitted Madeira hats and sweaters and the really bizarre collection of obscene fridge magnets and bottle openers that are very popular here. Chugging up and zipping down mountains we managed to see a great deal of the island but not nearly all of it. You really need more time here than we have but we did get some great photos, and we bought some very strange fruit from roadside vendors so in the end we were content.