I’m a map lover, someone who can settle down with a town plan and busy myself for an hour or more studying streets and intersections. I’ve certainly done that with the map of Madeira. But there’s one very significant detail I’ve only begun to visualize correctly on this trip.

I stay on the south side of the island, in the town of Funchal, but for our entire stay last year, I kept thinking I was facing north. No map study would convince me otherwise. Nor would noting how the sun rose on my left as I looked out at the ocean.

It makes me think about how bungled one can become when one’s original assumption is way off the mark, how every decision after that is flawed by association.

But this year I’ve mastered the basics. When I want to look toward home, I look to the right. I look west.

(Heading west on the boardwalk.)