Portuguese island is a hiker’s paradise

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By Lori Rackl, Tribune News Service

On my right, Jurassic fern fronds and violet morning glories cascade over a steep cliff. I can hear the crystalline water smashing into the craggy shore hundreds of feet below.

To my left, lime-green succulents cling to a wall of volcanic rock.

“You can see why Portuguese call this ‘The Garden in the Ocean,’” says Sílvia Mota, a Backroads guide for the tour operator’s new walking and hiking trip in Madeira.

This lush, 286-square-mile island — almost three times the size of Martha’s Vineyard — has inspired a lot of nicknames. The Portuguese isle has been dubbed The Pearl of the Atlantic, a nod to the ocean that surrounds its namesake archipelago. Madeira’s reputation for comfortable year-round temperatures