PONTO do SOL

High above the Atlantic, on the craggy slopes of Madeira, nature writes a defiant story telling her doubters to STFU

Here black volcanic cliffs plunge into turquoise seas and the wind whispers through crevices carved by time, life doesn’t just survive — it thrives with wild abandon.

It’s a place where the improbable becomes reality, where succulents cling to sheer cliffs, their roots gripping tight to impossible surfaces, bougainvillea that struggles to grow in the Texas heat, spills like flame from the mouths of rock walls, ferns leap from cracks in the ground, and along ancient aqueducts-emerald green moss grows against the ash-gray bones of thrse ancient waterways.

On Madeira, nature doesn’t ask for permission — it insists. Lava rock that once scorched the earth now nourishing new life.

This island is a reminder: beauty is not always born of ease, strength is not alway obvious. Sometimes it erupts from hardship, ekes out its existence in the narrowest places, and still manages to dazzle. And in that fierce determination, it creates something breathtaking.

To walk these volcanic paths is to witness quiet miracles, strength, resilience, determination and the vivid, defiant colors of life saying, again and again, I am here.