Another adventurous weekend has arrived and nothing better than visiting a beautiful place that at the same time can instruct me and learn a little more about the general culture! today we are going to visit the "Rota da cal museum", what we will do is travel back in time to learn what the calcium oxide production industry was like in the Madeira island region, previously it was a business that helped locals for their livelihood! Nowadays it practically disappeared but the museum is there to show us what it was like to work in these "mines".📚🌲👨‍💻🌄

I had to drive more than 20 kilometers from the city of Funchal to get here to "São Vicente" which is a small town that is located in the middle of the island and is isolated from the center, therefore it is synonymous with the natural heritage of the island. ! and at the same time it shows us its culture, the "Ecomuseo" is practically a giant oven where the workers brought the "calcium oxide" stones to crush them and then place them in the oven to transform it into powder that they later used to paint and work the walls of the houses! The island of Madeira for many years was a very poor place and there were not many sources of employment, so both men and women had to take risks in this dangerous and deadly business to bring bread to their homes!👨‍💻🤔🙇‍♀️💥

Entering the museum has a cost of 2 euros per person and you can enjoy a video that lasts 20 minutes and explains the process on the production of calcium oxide, you can also enjoy a beautiful view of the protected area of "Laurisilva "which is ecologically interesting because unique animals and plants in the world live here! If you want an intimate experience, I recommend you visit it in the spring. If you want a pleasant and sunny climate, you can come in the summer, but be careful, there are many tourists!🙇‍♂️🌻👨‍💻🌲😮🚩

When you come to the ecomuseum you can take advantage of making a stop at the "Volcanic" museum, which is very visited in Madeira and where you will learn a lot about the types of rocks and geology of the island! Sadly, it was closed when I stopped by for maintenance, but take the opportunity to shoot some nice photos! It is a family visit that can last a couple of hours, in both museums there is parking and you will not have a problem getting there since they are easily accessible!🙇‍♂️🙇‍♀️🚙🧭🥳

I have good news for you and it is that in the 80s a group of explorers found some fossils that date back more than 5 million years. Incredible right? The ecomuseum has a half-hour tour from the entrance to the route they used the lumberjacks!🤔🙇‍♂️🧭🙇‍♂️🦖🦕

For what you do not know, calcium oxide under normal conditions is found in soils and rocks in the form of a "white stone", in fact its production occurs when heat is applied to the "calcareous" and that is why once it is extracted the stone must be pulverized by introducing heat and for this process an oven was used🤯🤯👨‍🏫🕵️‍♂️

Do you see where those houses are? that was the town where the workers of this company lived, you can see everything clear but this was a very dense forest, the women and men had to wake up every day at 3:00 am to make a 2-hour walk between a piece of land very complicated! The problem is that the calcium oxide production process gives off a vapor that caused a lot of damage to people's lungs and many died working in this industry with less than 40 years of age!😮😥😥

This is a wooden container where the lime was taken from the extraction site in the mountains to the oven, and then from the oven to the town, this whole walk took more than two hours and each container weighed about 40 kilos, the women They carried one of 20 kilos! Can you imagine walking every day with a dead weight of 40 kilos on your back? I see how hard it was to work in this business! And let's not forget that everyone breathed the toxic gases from the decomposition of the lime.😮😓😨

I don't know if our generation would be used to a job as hard as this! and visiting these museums make me reflect on all the things I have in my life and that I didn't have to work the way our grandparents did, I think I feel a little more humble! With the passing of years, the damage caused by this type of industry was discovered and practically there is no longer anything artisanal.😲😢

Finally, stop by at the "Veu da noiva" viewpoint to take some nice pictures of some waterfalls that we can see on the island of Madeira! It is also free and it is a stop of only 10 minutes😏😏