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We stayed at our family home in Mackay, but in the first morning we felt like being in Madeira Island!!! My cousin Lyn`s parents (Conceição e Manuel) are from Madeira Island and emigrated to Australia over 50 years ago. Madeira is an island in the Atlantic Ocean belonging to Portugal. The Portuguese discovered and populated the island in 1419, over 600 years ago. The island is very mountainous and hardly any flat surfaces exist on the island. The Madeirense people live on the face of the mountains and plant their crops in step like portions excavated in the mountain which they call “Poios”. Their house in Mackay is built on a hill resembling one of the Madeira hills and amazingly Manuel spends all his spare time transforming this piece of the tropical Queensland into a Poio. Every time we come to visit them, we cannot resist and spend some time enjoying the beauty of the Poio. In the series of photos that comprise this section we try to take you to a trip to Conceição and Manuel Poio in the tropical Macay.