Samantha Cox first visited Madeira in the summer of 1999, little knowing the trip would change her life forever.
Just three months later she sold her house and moved there permanently with her two young children. Here is her moving story ...
After my divorce and reaching the grand old age of 30, I decided to take a holiday with my friend, Paula. Originally I wanted to go to Ibiza, to let my hair down and party, but Paula wanted a quiet break and Madeira was on special offer at the travel agents, so we booked a week in the ‘floating garden of Eden’. Friends said Madeira was a destination for the more ‘mature’ person, and that if I wanted to go somewhere to be young, free, single and party then I was off to the wrong place. Little did I know that this holiday was going to change my life.
Paula and I stayed at the Hotel Quinta do Sol, in Funchal, and did the usual touristy things. We saw the island, read books by the pool and found the nightlife wasn’t as bad as we had expected. But, for me, the striking thing about Madeira was the ambience the island seemed to exude – even when we first landed, I remember thinking to myself: “Ooh, I could live here”.
As soon as I returned to the UK, I found myself hankering to be back in Madeira again, so much so that I sold my house, said goodbye to everyone and flew back to the island with my children, Natalie and Elliot, who were then just five and seven years old. We arrived in October, just three months after my initial visit. With two small children in tow, five suitcases and a cardboard box, I rented an apartment in Funchal.
I had already arranged for the children to start at the British School, which is a privately run school for children up to the age of 12. Luckily my children settled in quite quickly and it was there I started to meet other parents and integrate into the island’s very small expatriate community.
The first six months were the hardest – I often got depressed but refused to give in. I had initiated our move on a whim, doing very little research, and had arrived with only one contact on the island, Michelle, a holiday rep who I had met during our trip in July.
Job hunting
Being a single mum meant finding work was going to be difficult. Although my skills were in hairdressing and complementary therapies, I thought that going freelance would fit in better with the children’s schooling. But finding a job on a small island without speaking the language is exceptionally difficult and seven years ago the expatriate community
on Madeira was much smaller than it is now, so I soon realised that building a business to serve just that sector was a non-starter.
After a few months, the money from the sale of the house was starting to dwindle and I knew I either had to invest it in a home for the children and find work, or return to the UK, which
I thought would be tantamount to failure. I was determined not to give up.
In February 2000, I purchased my first home on Madeira – a dilapidated, 100-year-old, stone-built quinta in Ponta do Sol with half its roof missing. That same month I had met a lady the same age as me who had just qualified in massage and we agreed to take over an existing health centre in one of the hotels in Funchal.
Buying the house and the business at thesame time was an experience I will never forget. People thought I was mad to buy a house so far away from the capital, and one that I couldn’t move into straight away, but I believed my house was going to be our future and the location was going to be popular with tourists and expatriates.
Luckily I was right. Since I bought the house the island’s infrastructure has greatly improved, with anew motorway and a series of tunnels that have cut the journey time from my home to Funchal in half. Ponta do Sol and Calheta are now verypopular areas with the Brits as they are still fairly rural, have the best weather, and are within easy reach of the rest of the island.While I started working in my new business, the builders started construction on the new roof my house needed.
To add to my stress, in March of 2000 the apartment we were renting sprung a major water leak and in desperation we had to move in while the builders were still finishing our new
home. It was not an ideal environment for my children, but as time went on we managed to get the property in order.
Commuting back and forth to Funchal, running a business and bringing up two children who had long holidays from school was not easy. It soon became apparent that the health centre, with its limited clientele and location, was not going to bring in enough money to support two working partners so, after a year of struggling, I left the business and went into the timeshare industry. Our lives changed again and the stress mounted. Working in timeshare means you only make a living if you can sell – you can put in the hours and come home with nothing – but if you are good, you can make a very decent living. The industry is harsh, high-powered and pushy. It was awful working this way, not knowing if I could pay the mortgage from my commissions. But Madeira does have a good reputation compared to other resorts, and I found that I survived nine months of selling quite sufficiently.
It also taught me many sales techniques which have helped me since.
Stop press
In 2002 life took yet another unexpected turn. Aftergoing for a coffee with a depressed friend who ran the local English language newspaper I was whisked into the world of publishing. With no experiencewhatsoever, I was thrown in at the deep end and look on the role of director and then, later, editor.
After a year, I decided to go it alone and set up my own newspaper, The Madeira Times, which is now into its third year. I have one full-time member of staff and several collaborators that help with the paper, which is free to readers. It’s a demanding job as I deliver 7,000 copies a month to hotels and businesses around the island, cover the editorial, sell advertising space, write copy and even do my own layouts, before handing in the disks to the printers in time for the deadline.
As the paper is one of the only English points of contact on the island, I get a lot of enquiries from people who are looking to move here. Last year I was approached by AFPOP and helped set up a branch for Madeira. It is now run by a friend of mine who arranges monthly dinners where ex-pats can meet other ex-pats.
If someone had read my palm all those years ago and told me this is what I would be doing then I would not have believed it! Moving to a different country or a small island will never be easy, even if you have researchedthe location well beforehand, unlike me. But the island is a great place to retire to, which is why it still appeals to the more mature market.
Over the next 10 years I predict more changes. The expatriate community is growing steadily and will grow further, with so many beautiful properties now built and for sale.
The island itself is a beautiful oasis of green, which creates a calmer and more natural ambience compared to the hustle and bustle of the manic lifestyle we all know back home.
Culture and traditions are still widely practicedamong the locals, adding charm and a true community feel. But most of all Madeira has good, warm weather all year round which is
probably the biggest attraction to moving here.Would I go back to England now? Never!