Around Madeira

According to the local press, the introduction of entrance charges for the Cabo Girão viewing point have led to queues of up to 45 minutes as arriving tourists scrabble for change and wrestle with uncooperative turnstiles. There are plans to roll out entrance charges to other popular visitor attractions,  partly to recoup some of the operating costs, but also to help manage increasing visitor numbers. Hopefully lessons will be learned before the scheme is extended.

  Just a reminder that as we approach the new season (and the start of Daylight Saving Time on 26th March), flight schedules will be changing as airlines move from their winter schedules and their staff and planes move to their summer bases. The big news is that Wizz Air seems to have withdrawn all its services between London and Madeira after 25th March.  A greater proportion of Ryanair flights seem to have early departure times (between 06:00 and 06:45), so it's just as well to note that the Aerobus currently has a 04:00 departure every day at present.

  We're only just in February and it's already apparent that the increase in visitor numbers is putting pressure on the Aerobus service between the airport and Funchal/Praia Formosa.  It's becoming increasingly common to find a huge queue/scrum at the airport bus stop even half and hour before the bus is due to arrive - which means the buses take a long time to board (you can't buy a ticket in advance) and you may not get a seat - or even get on board at all.  There have also been times when there have been no taxis available (at least to summon online). Heading towards the airport, the number of passengers boarding, particularly in the centre of Funchal means that buses are running at close to their maximum journey times. There are additional SAM local buses that run into Funchal roughly hourly (on a weekday) from a different stop at the airport - it's around 50m further along in the direction of traffic beyond the Aerobus stop outside arrival - but they don't

  There's currently free entry to Funchal's Natural History Museum - at Rua da Mouraria, 31- owing to significant redevelopment work. Unfortunately, this means that the aquarium - probably the most popular feature - is closed. However, the garden of aromatic plants is open as are the galleries of the permanent collection, though these largely consist of examples of the local fauna, stuffed and mounted in glass cases, which may not be to everyone's taste.