Prior to arriving in Madeira, I had done oodles of research on fun little stops we could make during our three week stay so we can explore when we have some extra time and one of them was Cascata dos Anjos.
Cascata dos Anjos is a waterfall located in Ponta do Sol, close by to where we were staying. During my research, Google told me it was only 10 minutes away but my sense of direction took a few days for me to develop as the roads in Madeira twist and wind and there are tunnels everywhere so even though I had seen it on a map on several occasions, I hadn’t quite figured out how the local roads connected. If you’ve never been to Madeira before, there are 153 tunnels on the island, which means some roads can be accessed by driving through an old tunnel and others may need one of the new roads to arrive at a particular destination.
On our first evening, Yim and I went into Ponta do Sol for dinner at the Palm Spot Restaurant, which is the only vegetarian restaurant in the town, and at the end of the main street there was a dark tunnel, which cars were parked in. I had read that parking was allowed in the tunnel and I didn’t really think too much more about it than that.
The next morning we got up to hike Levada do Moinho and finished our hike in the early afternoon and it was a nice day, so I said, “I think that tunnel we saw in town last night leads to a waterfall that flows over the cliffs and down onto the street and I think we can get there by driving through the tunnel”… and off we went.
The tunnel doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It’s dark and wet. Water drips down from the ceiling and there are cars parked along the walls with people walking inside. When we came out the other end, there was another tunnel around the bend, which had a metal barrier halfway through with a dead end symbol on it but I knew we were now on the old E.R. 101 regional roadway and I knew the waterfall was on that road so we kept on driving until we got to a concrete barrier on a narrow street and I parked the car, got out and walked until we found it.
We were fortunate enough to find a few minutes of having the waterfall all to ourselves and after taking a few fun photos, we walked back to the car, where we had to turn around on a very narrow street.
Collect moments, not things !
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