There's a trail that connects two of the highest peaks in Madeira and it is glorious. This was my second attempt at hiking this trail. My first one ended when visibility at the trailhead maxed out at 50 meters. The day started the same during this attempt, but luckily the dreary morning weather cleared quickly and it remained beautiful for the rest of the day. The scenery was spectacular. It definitely was the best trail of the trip so far. I finished the out-and-back hike around sunset. Views of the setting sun did not disappoint.

This trail had beautiful views of the ocean, long dark tunnels, waterfalls, and a bunch of cows grazing on a mountain side. It was a great hike.

This was another hike along the coast. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and most of the time trees blocked any views of the coastline. Even though there were a couple brief view points with stunning views, it was a rare miss for Madeira.

This was a short hike to the titular "balconies". Views of the surrounding mountain ranges were breathtaking despite the gloomy weather. At least the coastline was fairly clear, which seems to be a running theme on this island.

I wanted to hike Pico do Areiro today, but the weather was awful. It was cold and visibility was less than 100 meters. Madeira has a peninsula on the east coast of the island. It's a gorgeous area and the weather was warm and sunny. The drive down from the mountains to the coast, from rain to sun, was amazing. Of course the hike was great as well. It was a nice change from all the rain I'd experienced on Madeira so far.

This is Madeira's "Jurassic Park" trail. No dinosaurs, but the landscape was reminiscent of many scenes in the movie. It was extremely wet and most of the time the views were obscured by rain and mist. The hike lasted the whole day and despite my rain gear, I ended the day soaked from head to toe. Worth it.

This was another levado hike. Madeira continues to impress. Although the weather wasn't great for much of the day, the beautiful setting sun more than made up for it.

A levado is a man-made path the directs water from the mountains to civilization. There are a ton of levados on Madeira and most of them are walkable. This one was only a 15 minute drive from my Airbnb. It ended at the top of a huge waterfall. Awesome.

Madeira has a lot of tunnels. The drive from the airport to my Airbnb was about 45 minutes. About 30 of those minutes occurred inside a tunnel. I arrived late at night and was greeted in the morning by some truly spectacular views of the ocean.

El Teide is the highest peak on Tenerife. It's also pretty damn cold. I took a cable car up a couple hundred meters down from the summit. I didn't have a permit to hike the rest of the way and would have needed to book such an adventure weeks in advance. No matter, I didn't want to hike for an hour in the bitter cold anyway. The view from my vantage point was wonderful enough.