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📡 Today's status

The IFCN's official status, read every day. Green only when the IFCN writes « aberto » with no reserve.

● Open · ABERTO

Santana's great levada, in the heart of the Laurissilva: 8.7 km from the Queimadas forest park to the Caldeirão Verde and on to the Caldeirão do Inferno, and 8.7 km back, about 6:30, moderate, between 872 and 1,020 m. The start is a scene in itself: the Casa de Abrigo das Queimadas keeps the triangular shape and thatched roof of Santana's typical houses. The channel, built in the 18th century to bring water to the farmland of the parish of Faial, runs along escarpments and mountains and passes through four tunnels cut into the rock — a head torch is essential. Then, on the left, appears the Caldeirão Verde lake, where the water of the Ribeiro do Caldeirão Verde falls about a hundred metres. The hardier walkers continue to the Caldeirão do Inferno, 2.2 km further, before returning the same way. Constant forest and damp: windbreaker and waterproof shoes. Queimadas car park charged at €2 per hour.

Highlights

  • Four tunnels: torch
  • Waterfall of about 100 m
  • Caldeirão do Inferno
  • Casa de Abrigo das Queimadas
  • 18th-century levada
Difficulty
Moderate
Length
8.7 km
Elevation gain
148 m
Duration
6:30 (round trip)
Price
€4.50 (over 12) · SIMplifica booking · free for residents and under-13s · Queimadas car park €2/h
Municipality
Santana
🎟️ Book on SIMplifica🗺️ See the route on the map📍 Start🏁 End

Track for guidance only.

Places within 2 km of the route

  • 🌿 Nature

    Parque Florestal das Queimadas

    Above Santana, one of the island's most visited forest parks, by visitors and residents alike, for its scenery and biodiversity: tils, pau-branco, centuries-old heaths, folhados and uveiras of the Laurissilva, mixed with Madeira cedars, cryptomerias and copper beeches; the endemic chaffinch, firecrest and trocaz pigeon, grey wagtail and buzzard. The Casa de Abrigo das Queimadas, with the thatched roof of Santana's houses, has become the "Casa das Tradições Madeirenses". Start of PR 9 Levada do Caldeirão Verde and of the accessible PR 9.1 to Pico das Pedras; picnic area, restaurant-café, shop, bird hide, paid parking and toilets.

    Park free · paid parking (€2/h) · paid toilets
    🗺️ See it on the map
  • 🔭 Viewpoint

    Miradouro do Pico Ruivo

    The highest point of the archipelago, 1,862 m, Portugal's third-highest summit, and the island's widest panorama: the Curral das Freiras valley and Câmara de Lobos, the villages of Santana, the Ribeira Grande and Ribeira de São Jorge valleys, Ponta de São Lourenço, Paul da Serra and, with good visibility, Porto Santo and the Desertas. It is reached only on foot, by PR 1 from Pico do Areeiro (one-way from Pedra Rija, €10.50 ticket) or by PR 1.2 from Achada do Teixeira (2.8 km, €4.50) — SIMplifica booking compulsory in both cases. High-altitude heath and monumental rock formations that often pierce the cloud layer; it is also the nesting ground of Zino's petrel. The lookout itself has no fee.

    🗺️ See it on the map
  • 🔭 Viewpoint

    Miradouro das Empenas

    On the road climbing to Achada do Teixeira, just past Picarouto, at the forks of the Santana mountains. The view runs along much of the east coast, from the parish of São Jorge to Ponta de São Lourenço, the island's eastern tip; on clear days Porto Santo shows up to the north-east. The access road is open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

    🗺️ See it on the map
  • 🔭 Viewpoint

    Miradouro do Picarouto

    Inside the Pico das Pedras Forest Park, on the Estrada Regional 218 linking the city of Santana to the Achada do Teixeira plateau. The panorama stretches from São Jorge to Ponta de São Lourenço, with Penha d'Águia (about 600 m) marking the boundary between Santana and Machico; on the other side stands the central mountain massif, part of the Region's Network of Natural Monuments. The road is open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

    🗺️ See it on the map