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Dagbog fra Madeira (Portugal)
Dagbogen er kun udkommet på engelsk denne gang :-) Sunday 4th of April Machico is really and very sweet and easy dog to have, she is well behaved and so happy about us; she is ecstatic everytime she sees us. The first 1-2 days she was here, she did not play much, but now she has started playing and is showing more puppy-like behavaviour; and we see that as a good sign; a puppy showing adult behaviour is not good and healthy signs. She plays wit a ball, and is happy about her chewing bone, and also likes Gabors shoes;-). Since it is Pascoa now, there are a lot of activities in the nearby church, with singing and so on, and we can hear it because of the loud speakers. She does not feel comfortable with that. But the very noisy fireworks in the valley she does not care about. We just hope that her leg will be okay after we treat it in Denmark!!! Right now she almost does not use it. Saturday 3rd of April We got up at 7.45 after a good nights sleep. We had planned to go on a long trip in the Jeep down to Funchal, Ribeira Brava, Encumeada, Rabacal. In Raacal we would like to walk to the 25 fontes, then continue by car to Porto Moniz and then drive along the north coast back home to Caramanchao in Machico. We brought dog Machico in the car, ecause right now she gets very anxiuos when we leave her alone, which is understandable with the way her life has been. She is very happy driving car so that is the best solution. We stopped for breakfast at the small cafe in Boa Nova near Funchal, where we took breakfast each morning last Easter, when we stayed at the Quinta da Faja. At the cafe we met Duarte, who is the guy who picked us up in the airport when we arrived. (We actually know a lot of people here in Madeira now!) We stopped also at SPAD to get some pain killer for Machico, she started limping more now that the injections she had previously did not work any longer. We also bought dewormer ant some antiparasitic agents just to be sure not to bring anything home to DK. We continued the trip towards Ribeira Brava, and then turned up against the plateau at the middle of the island. From the mountains and towards Ribeira Brava we saw the consequenses of the massive rainfall February 2oth; here it was incredible how gigantic avalanches of rocks had destroyed roads, houses and cars on its way down.
In Rabacal we started out on the levada walk, but had to bring Machico, since it is a trip of about 3 hours we did not want to leave her in the car for so long. It was very cold and windy up there, and with Machicos poor leg, we decided to just go for a short walk in the area, then we will have to do the Rabacal walks some other time.
After Rabacal we took the road to Porto Moniz, which is in the north western corner of Madeira. A small town by the coast, and it has some natural pools filled with sea water. Very nice. But can be dangerous too; just as we arrived we saw a lady falling on the slippery steps, and she hid her head on the rocks; and she was picked up by the ambulance. We also met a nice taxi driver; we talked to him the day we rescued Machico in front of the restaurant; he also saw that she was limping and wanted to help; but since he had customers he could not do anything at that time. But he told us that he had come back later that day in order to get Machico to SPAD, and he had talked to the waitress at the restaurant, who had told her, that we had taken the dog to the vet; so he was happy about that. After lunch at a restaurant (Gabor and Machico shared an Espetada...) we went on admiring the wonderful landscapes. This is an amazing island. We stopped in Santana to go to the supermarket to get a transport box for Machico for the flight home. We went home and Gabor went out cycling his usual loop while I was dog sitter. Since I have no races coming up at he moment and Gabor has, it is more important that he gets to do some biking here. The weather has not been so nice either, cloudy and rather cold, and this has also imfluenced the time we spent on the bikes. At about eight o'clock we went to restaurant White Waters down town and had a nice dinner; and after that Machico showed us round in her old neighbourhood. Funne to see her there; she obviously recognized the places we went. After that it was bed time for us. Friday 2nd of April We had breakfast at Victors and Dilias house; they had prepared a wonderful meal for us, with eggs, pancakes, fruit, cheese, bread..etc.etc...It was very nice to sit and talk for a few hours. Then Victor dropped us off in Marocos where Gabor and I did a 2½ hour long levada walk; ending in Machico, on the opposite side of the valley compared to where we live. We went home through the town; we would like to hurry home to Machico, who was left alone in the roof.
After the 15 km long walk we just relaxed a bit here in the house before we went to Victors place, just the 25 m up the road. We were invited to dinner there; and we spend a nice evening togeher, enjoying the riso a la marisco, and other nice dishes. Thursday 1st of April We started the day calling SPAD only to find out that they could not do the surgery today - and they thought it was impossible for us to bring the puppy to Denmark on Monday! Well, then we phoned another vet, who is a specialist in ortopedia; and by the help of Victor we arranged to go to SPAD, get the puppy and then go to the other clinic, hoping that he would do the operation....well, during the day we went to this clinic, but the vet, after examining the puppy and the radiograph, said it was an old fracture, and that it would take a specialist to do it properly. Since it is several days ago it got hurt, and there already now was callus formation, it would not make any difference if we wait till we go to Denmark. Ok, we decided on that. Next problem was to be sure to get the puppy with us to Denmark; but during the afternoon we got the papers in order and could take the puppy home with us, to our house in Machico. On the way home we stopped at the airport in order to make the reservation for her on the flight. We have to get a transport box for her. We will do that on Saturday. Finally we could go home and relax a bit. This holiday has so far been the most stressful in many years. Now we hope to be able to do some other things the last days we are here.
By the way the puppy ended up with the name Machico after the town where she was found (and probably born) by us on Tuesday. In the meantime she went under the names Kutya, like our dog back home and also Cão, which is Portuguese for "dog", but that name is too similar to "cow"... Now I am dog sitter and Gabor is out on his bike on the tough one-hour loop. It seems like Machico is doing a little better with her leg now, but we have to remember that she has been treated for pain, and this will make her seem better although her leg still is painful. Victor came by while Gabor was out cycling, and we went up in his garden and I saw the chicken, the ducks etc; it is a large property he has; and both the garden and the house is absolutely wonderful. The house is very spacious with more than 300 m2. Then we went to his mothers and fathers garden (both Victors and Dilias families almost all live next to each other in this area) have lovely fruits from the trees; we also got avocados to bring home, and lots of bananas. Wednesday 31st of March After lying awake most of the night speculating about this little problem of ours, we got up, had breakfast. Weather was cloudy and a bit windy. The plan was to call SPAD to hear if they had come up with a price for the surgery of the puppy...it turned out that they had not discussed that yet, but promised to get back to us during the afternoon. We thought that it was rather strange that they did not move faster since we are ordinary, paying clients...well we could not do more at the moment, so we decided to go out on our bikes. Victor (or Dilia) has been so sweet to let me borrow her MTB, which I am grateful for, since my Pinarello is not suited for these mountains...we went up ascents of 30% rise today...! It was 3 hours of uphill riding, or so it seemed! But very beautiful landscapes! After returning home and after a hot shower, Gabor left me lying in the sun while he took another one-hour loop...he never can get enough of that biking!
I phoned SPAD once again, only to discover that they now had a price for the surgery (250 euro), but had not operated her yet, nor did they seem to do so before the Easter Holidays...We were not satisfied with that, to put it gently. I tried to convince them that the 250 euro was no problem and that we had to get the dog into surgery, the sooner the better. Our objective, after a lot of thoughts, would be to bring the dog to Denmark, and then find out what to do with her later. It seems that her future here is too uncertain. The secretary promised to talk to the vets as soon as possible tomorrow, and if possible they would do the surgery then. We talked a lot about it, and we decided to put pressure on them tomorrow. Either they do the surgery tomorrow, or we will find some place else to get it done. But where? We asked the Danish lady (Birte) we met yesterday, if she knew another vet and she has now given us the phone number to another clinic in Funchal. We walked down to Machico and had a nice dinner the same place we had breakfast yesterday. Gabor had the traditional beef on speer and I had the espada fish. Very nice. During dinner we discussed what to do about everything, dogs, moving to Madeira etc. and we decided to bring the puppy home to Denmark, even though it will mean some rather big changes in our life. But we have thought a lot about it, and it cannot be right that we can't help this little puppy just because we worry what will happen in our privileged world! We simply have to do this. Maybe we will sell our apartment and rent a house with a garden instead. Well we had a very nice evening, after dinner we went for the usual restaurant for coffee and anis dulce, and we were sitting outside in this warm evening for an hour or so, before we headed home. Tuesday 30th of March What a crazy day!!! We woke up quite late after a good nights sleep.
Like always, we arrived after darkness, so it was exciting to see what
the house and surroundings looked like. It was amazing, the house is
situated on a hillside overlooking the valley and the town of Machico.
We decided to walk down to the centre to get some breakfast and to find
a laundry (a lot of dirty clothes!), it was easily done. Afterwards
we strolled around for an hour or so. Machico is a sweet little town.
We had lunch at White Waters, the same restaurant we had dinner at last
night. In the middle of lunch we observed two stray dogs in front of
the restaurant, a brown one and a black/white one. The latter looking
very young - and, unfortunately with a broken leg! They were looking
for food the poor dogs. We gave the puppy (less than three months old)
some chicken. It was very friendly and sweet. It stayed close to the
restaurant while we were there, and we asked the waitresses what we/they
could do to help the dog. They called the local vet, but they could
not come and get it, but we were welcome to bring it there. So we did.
We carried Well we found SPAD after cruising around in Funchals narrow streets for a while, in Victors huge Land Rover...exiting! The receptionist said that they would take the dog in, examine it in the evening, and then decide what was to happen with it. We did not like that, because we thought that chances for it to be euthanized were greater than for having the operation...so Gabor and I discussed for a while what to do. In the meantime, a Danish lady and her son entered the waiting room, they had a stray cat with them. We talked to them for a while, and they helped us a bit with the language barrier, although the receptionist was good at speaking English. The Danish lady has been living here in mAdeira for many years, but had now moved back to Denmark. We told her that we would like to move to Madeira and we exchanged email addresses and phone numbers so we could stay in touch. Gabor and I decided that we would pay for a consultation and an X-ray, to allow us to be a part of the decision of what was going to happen to the puppy. The X-ray showed that she had broken the distal part of the humerus (the upper arm), but fortunately the elbow joint was not involved. The bad news was that SPAD would not pay for an operation since they receive SO many dogs, that they only keep the healthy ones. Hmmm....new problem. We decided that if we could get a price estimate for the operation we would pay for it...the vet could not give us the prize before discussing with a colleague, so we agreed to hospitalize the puppy and then talk tomorrow about the prize of the operation. We went home to Machico to pick up the clean clothes at the laundry and then home to our house. Long day with a lot of speculations. Not to talk about the speculations of what is going to happen to the dog after the surgery...? Can we find a home for it here, should we bring it back to Denmark, and how...etc.etc.etc. Well we will know more tomorrow! We both agree that we could not have reacted in any other way, we could not leave the puppy to a miserable death here, with a lot of pain and no food it would definitely die. Monday 29th of March After breakfast we went bike riding for a few hours on the loop and then on the flat part. While Gabor was going for one more loop, I went running 45 minutes on the fantastic beach. It was amazing, almost no people, sunshine and the whire sandy beach.
After a shower and another try of uploading the race pictures on the web site, we had lunch at a cafe near the beach and then took a walk on the beach. In late afternoon we were to meet Victor and the other guys to load the cars with luggage and then we would take 4 vans to the ferry a few kilometres away. Everybody was tired now after this hectic weekend, and for the first time we could actually sit with Victor and Dilia and the two other guys from the tri club to talk. There were some waves so Dilia and I was a little sea sick... Getting the cars to the right places were another logistic challenge, but finally we ended up at Victors house, and we could see "our" house, which is a house belonging to Victors brother Miguel. It is located just 50 metres from Victor and Dilias house, and it is a wonderful little rebuilt house, and it looks brand new. It contains living room, kithen, bedroom, extra bedroom, bathroom and on the first floor is a big room. It has a garden and a terrace overlooking the valley. It is very very kind of Miguel to let us stay here!
Victor and Dilias house is fantastic...they have a lovely garden with palm trees etc. nd the three lovely dogs welcomed us home!
Sunday 28th of March
Race day!!!
The race start was at 9 o'clock, so we thought if we got up 6.30 it would be fine. However, quite early, we thought we heared athletes talking and making noise in the hall way; and we thought that they were up really early, but then suddenly it struck me: summertime; is that today; and do they also have that in Portugal??? We hurried down to breakfast, we were the only athletes left and it was already 7.45. Quick meal, and then up and get ready for race. Wetsuit on, Saturday 27th of March Up to a nice breakfast. We asked Victor if he needed us to do things for him, but he said we could do what we wanted. So after putting the bikes together we went to see the bike course, which is simple, flat, out and return with two minor deviations. To be repeated 6 times. We also biked round the island on the only road there is; it is a very very beautiful island, and the 14 km loop round the island is very tough!! The weather was great, sunny but a bit windy. We decided that I should NOT go swimming, because no matter what, I would think it is terribly cold, so I should just prepare for that and in my head convince myself that it is possible to swim 2 km.
In the afternoon we had a great lunch; bean soup and bolo do caco. According to coach Gabor he always had a great race after eating beans the day before, so I try to do that whenever possible. Later we watched the Triatlo Joven, ie. the children's race, and Gabor took a lot of pictures to give to Victor for the web site. After that the registration for tomorrows race took place in the race office; and I received my number, swim cap etc. Then we had some more to eat and went home to relax in the hotel. We skipped the race briefing, because then they would not have to also do it in English; guess we are the only ones who do not understand Portuguese. Friday 26th of March Woke up at 7.30, more than ready for breakfast. How lovely to be back in Madeira! After breakfast Gabor couldn't wait longer - he had to go out on his bike, and after putting it together he set off for Pico do Arieiro. I put on my running shoes and went to see how things looked down in Funchal, after the terrible flooding a few weeks ago. Weather is nice, sunny and 21 degrees. Lovely to be able to exercise without having to spend 1 hour getting dressed. Funchal was rather chaotic, but by the waterfront, the damage was not severe, I guess it is worse when you come into town. I went running a little over ½ hour, although I would have liked it to be more, but I have to relax before the race. On the way I met a group of what also seemed to be triathletes. After that I put on my wetsuit and went to the roof top pool. A small one and very cold water, but I did it to get used to the cold water. After a quick nap, Gabor came home and we went for lunch in the nearby Chinese Restaurant, and we took a walk in Funchal. They had done a great job already, cleaning up and restoring the town, because we have pictures showing the tremendous damage to roads, buildings, pavements, houses etc. and many of the damages have already been fixed. We packed our things once again, and carried it down to the port - or Gabor actually carried most of it. He is not happy travelling with bikes I can tell you :-). We also had to carry the bikes on board the ferry; would have been smarter if we could load one of the luggage trailers with bikes and then roll the trailer on board. There were many triathletes waiting for the ferry. Among them a large Spanish group from Tenerife. The boat trip takes 2½ hours, and like Duarte warned us, there were pretty high waves and the ship was rolling, but fortunately we fell asleep while we were watching our favorite Portuguese TV show (O preco certo - or something like that; it is the one where the contestants have to get the prices of different items like casseroles and TV's:-) ) At Porto Santo Victor and Dilia were waiting for us and the other athletes; very nice to see them again. Transit to the hotel in town was arranged and the bikes were taken there also. We checked in, carried luggage and bikes (yeahh) up on the second floor and went for a little walk in the very small town. Once again we arrived at a new place in darkness; but we got an idea of what it looked like here. A pretty town, an enormous beach and a lot of beautiful palm trees. After that we went straight to bed. Thursday 25th of March Finally we are here - after a travel time of 14 hours! We had stops in Hamburg and Lisbon. It went very smooth in Copenhagen Airport, the bikes and 2 bags were checked in without problems - and without paying anything for the bikes! When we saw the aircraft we understood why...it was so small that we thought that our bikes could not possibly come with it! Well, we couldn't do anything about that now. In Hamburg we waited 3 hours before the flight to Lisbon; and with a small delay, we were not sure if we could make it in time for our flight to Madeira! It was very tight, but we made it, and again we thougt (and were told at the gate) that our luggage was not going to make it. So we prepared for a plan B regarding how to get the bikes in time for take off for Porto Santo Friday night. We actully was reporting the lost luggage to the airport staff when it suddenly appeared- all of it - in the odd sized baggage counter. Yeah!
Then we could finally go out to meet Victors friend, Duarte, who was waiting for us with a van, to take us to Funchal and our hotel. He also provided us with ferry tickets for Friday noght to Porto Santo. Victor has done a great deal of work for us, planniing everything into detail. Thank you very much for that!!! The hotel was fine, actually it is a small apartment, with a small kitchen, balcony, bathroom and living room/bedroom. The view from the balcony is towards the sea. Duarte warned us that we can expect 4 m high waves during the cruise to Porto Santo, so I think we must consult the pharmacy for some anti sea sickness treatment!!! Goodnight! |
the
puppy the whole way, it was totally calm, and must be in a lot of pain,
the left front leg was just hanging after it. When we arrived at the
vets, it was siesta, so we had to wait 45 minutes! When the vet arrived
she took a quick look at the puppy and said that it was better if we
went to Funchal to SPAD (an animal protection centre, where they take
care of stray dogs). We called them and they said we could come anytime.
New problem. How would we get to Funchal? Well, again we thought of
poor Victor! Maybe we could borrow his car? First we had to go all the
way home, uphill, carrying the puppy, who was SO patient. We called
Victor and he would be home soon, so we could borrow the car. Great.
We thought that once we got to the animal shelter everything would be
OK, they would operate the dog and afterwards find a new home for it.
But, but but...
