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The Macaronesia islands are a collection of four archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Europe and Africa. Each archipelago is made up of several Atlantic oceanic islands formed by seamounts on the ocean floor with summits above the ocean’s surface. The...

Porto Santo is a small island discovered by Portuguese navigators in 1418. It was the first of many islands to be discovered by Portugal’s maritime power during the 15th and 16th centuries.  The island is located 29 miles northeast of Madeira Island, the larger of the...

On the beautiful island of Madeira which is located 600 km off the coast of Morocco, and a 90-minute flight from the Azores is where the biggest fireworks show takes place every year! No winter jackets are needed here! With an average temperature in the winter in the high...

The archipelago of Madeira is located 520 km (280 mi) from the African coast and 1,000 km (540 nautical miles) from the European continent. This is approximately a one-and-a-half-hour flight from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Here on this island paradise lives just over...

In the early 15th century, European merchants became accustomed to vast trade with various East regions. They wanted to improve their productivity and route time by finding a shorter path to the east by sea. Many European nations were becoming maritime powers and were starting to...

The annual flower festival on the island of Madeira is a perfect festival to represent Madeira island’s natural beauty.  The island is known for its unique gardens and exotic flowers, where anything and everything grows in these fertile soils. This is a colorful, fun...

The legends of Christopher Columbus have become notorious in history with many people debating whether he was the son of a Genoa weaver born in Italy or was he born in Portugal since he never spoke or wrote in his native language of Italian and always wrote in Portuguese and...

The gorgeous island of Madeira, which belongs to Portugal, was discovered in 1418 by the Portuguese Explorer Joao Goncalves Zarco. It was an uninhabited island 1000 km’s from the capital of Portugal, Lisbon, and just 500 km’s off the coast of Morocco. It is...

Joao Gonçalves Zarco was a knight in Prince Henry the Navigator’s court, during the Portuguese “Age of Exploration” in the early 1400’s. Joao Zarco led the first fleet to discover uninhabited lands in Europe, fueling the exploration age that spread through...