Azores: four waterfalls you have to visit in San Miguel

Azores: four waterfalls that you have to visit in San Miguel

Hello again! Today, I'll continue talking about the Azores islands. Previously I spoke to you about the thermal pools on the island of San Miguel, and you can find the link to read them here. Now, I'm continuing with the water-based theme, as I want to talk to you about the waterfalls that you can visit in San Miguel. The truth is that I'm a huge fan of waterfalls, as you've probably been able to tell from my previous posts. On this trip, I had the pleasure of seeing four waterfalls, all of them beautiful, so I'll leave you the name, photos, description and location. I hope that you like them.

Salto do Cabrito

In chronological order, the first waterfall we visited was the Salto do Cabrito. You can find it about a 45 minute walk fro Caldeira Velha. You can go by car, but we really like to walk and go on hiking routes so we decided not to. The majority of the route is by road, but the views are really pretty. You can see the sea, the countryside, and many cows. There'll be a point on this journey where you become submerged in the wild, and you swap the pavement for grass and mud. We did this whole trip with two boys and a girl that we met in Caldeira Velha. It was a completely coincidence that they were from Bratislava (where we actually lived) and they know how to speak Spanish. It's strange how small a world it is. We decided to go to the Azores to be able to disconnect from everything a little bit and on the first day, we found 3 people who lived in Bratislava. Interesting. We got along very well with them, and we asked them if they wanted to join us to go and see a waterfall, and as we'd hoped, they agreed.

We arrived at the waterfall, that is quite high and has two levels from where the water fell. We took some photos and then realised that on one extreme of the waterfall, there was some sort of walkway. We decided to continue along it to see what it was and it turned out that there was an old hydroelectric plant.

The route that took us to this waterfall wasn't very well signposted, there were only a few signposts along the whole path, which indicated "Salto do Cabrito". If you have the time, I recommend that you visit it. It's not the most amazing one that the island offers, but I think that it's worth it for the walk and the views. Whatever you want to do.

Cascada da Ribeira dos Caldeirões

This waterfall is one of the most famous on the island of San Miguel. The car practically leaves you a one minute walk from where you'll find the waterfall. I'm sure that there are various routes that pass through certain points of the island and end here, but we decided to go by car that day, as we had a lot of places to see. To give you an idea of how tall the waterfall is, I'll show you a photo where I'm at the bottom of it, as a sort of scale. The walk to get closer to the waterfall was a bit dangerous. The water from the waterfall was falling very powerfully and it was windy, so everything was completely soaked and slippery. Also, you had to jump from rock to rock to be able to get across the path, and on one side there was a quite a high wall as you can see.

You can find this waterfall in the Ribeira dos Caldeirões Nature Park. There's a trip you can do where you can see windmills and some smaller waterfalls. We went walking through this park, where it's free to get in, and we liked it a lot. The trip is short, about 20 minutes max., but it's really pretty. There are interesting windmills near the water, ponds with fish and water lilies, different plants and flowers of many different colours that all makes this place special. Also, we were completely alone there when we went. There was absolutely no-one around, so we did what we pleased. In short, you cannot miss this area, with its very own waterfall. I'll leave you some more photos.

Salto da Farinha

This waterfull with such a curious name, was the third waterfall we visited. It's in the north of the island, a really interesting area that took advantage of to the max. It's quite close to the Riberia dos Caldeirões so you can kill two birds with one stone and visit both! Truth is, this waterfall was the one I liked the most. Access with a car is difficult so we decided to do it on foot. We had to walk for half an hour from where we parked the car at a viewpoint of the waterfall. We went down a very steep road. To get down was easy, but when it came to coming back, it took all the energy I had.

We arrived at the waterfall and we were having a snack and gazing at it from some rocks that were right in front of it. We were alone there as well, so we were very chilled out. I remember that there were a few houses around this area, and they seemed like summer holiday houses. Also, the prettiest part of this waterfall was the fact that it was right next to the sea. In fact, where the pavement ends and the rough natural path begins, there's a beach with small rocks, little boats and a bar. Obviously in February is was deserted, but I'm sure that in the summer it must be a beautiful area, where you can swim. Also, from here you can see the open see, which gives you a sense of total freedom. We were there for a while/ The view was incredible. You can see the ocean in all its glory, and I held out hope of being able to see a whale, but I wasn't so lucky. I will another time.

When it comes to the name of the waterfall, "farinha" means "flour" in English. My reasoning behind it: I believe it recieved this name because the drop of this waterfall is so long that the water evaporates, and falls in such a soft way, that it reminds me of the moment that you pour flour into a recipe.

In conclusion, to be able to enjoy nature, good views and the water, I believe that this is the ideal place that you have to visit, come what may.

Cascada da Ribeira Quente

And last but certainly not least, I present you with the wildest waterfall. It's called the Cascata da Ribeira Quente (quente means hot in English). This name didn't come about by accident, but precisely because this is a warm water waterfall. I don't know if you've ever seen one, but it seemed intriguing to me at least. As you can see in the photo, the walls the water runs down are orange. As I told you in my previous entry, the thermal water of the Azores is so rich in iron that it gives this waterfall its orange features.

It wasn't too difficult to find this waterfall. Google Maps wasn't sufficient enough to be able to find it, not even the satellite option. We looked through loads of photos to be able to get the exact location, and I don't know how but we finally found it. The way there was quite dangerous and truth is, think twice before you do it. The waterfall is in the mountain, but the only way to get there, as far as we knew, was going along the road. I'll explain: we were in the car and we went through a tunnel. The tunnel is divided into two, and in the middle there's a separation which takes you outside, to the fresh air. Right where the separation is, you can see the waterfall. On the way there, we didn't realise because we couldn't see it. We parked the car a little bit further away, and we couldn't find the waterfall until we went back to get it. We walked in the opposite direction in the tunnel again and this time we managed to find it. It was simply lucky because the stretch where you pass through the tunnel only lasts a second, so if you're attentive on the road, you'll notice that you'll go past the waterfall, unnoticed. We were very surprised that it was here. We continued in the car until we found somewhere to park, a little far away. We had to walk almost 15 minutes and we never thought we would have to pass through the tunnel. We thought we could go along the edge of it and go along the mountain, but no. We tried to go down several routes to avoid the road, but in the end it was impossible. We had to go inside the tunnel, which was quite dangerous. We walked along the pavement, using our peripheral vision to see whether a car was coming or not, and checking that it wouldn't catch up to us 100 metres in front. Suddenly, we saw a bus coming and the tunnel was quite narrow, so we had to run a lot. But, we didn't have enough time so we had to flatten ourselves against the wall of the tunnel. The bus passed right in front of our faces. It was quite risky, and very dangerous so you must be careful if you do it.

Finally, amongst other things, we arrived at the waterfall, but we couldn't get down to the bottom. We had to observe it from above. The truth is that it made me want to get closer and touch the water, but it wasn't to be. And truthfully, after having survived the moment with the bus, we didn't fancy climbing down over uneven terrain, so we left. In the end, you'll be able to determine whether it's worth it or not.

What's interesting about it is that on the way back we could see various pathways that passed under a flow of warm water. In some places, the water was at boiling point. The terrain seemed safer here, so Angel decided to have a look, out of interest. To our surprise, the ground was swampy so you could put your foot in right down to the bottom. The result: your boot covered in orange for the rest of the day. An anecdote to repeat throughout your life.

And that's it for today. Truth is, all of these waterfalls that we found are something that I would recommend visiting from our visit to the Azores. Leave a comment on what you liked the most. Thank you for reading this post, and I'll see you next time for more content. Best wishes.

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