Next day we're taking morning bus No.56 at 10:00 a.m. (08:10, Sat 07:30, 09:30, Sun 07:30,10:30, cca 2,50Eu) to Riberio Frio - mountain trout farm. It is very touristic, but nice :-). Huge trouts slowly circulating in ponds. Fern trees adding even more to exotic atmosphere.
Trouts are in tanks from very small pieces to bigger ones.
At first we're going to viewpoint Balcoes alongside narrow levada.
After cca 1,5km we enter rocky place - Miradouro dos Balcoes - a fine viewpoint.
We're turning back to Riberio Frio to start walk levada do Furado (below "wooden" restaurant not clear sign and turn to path leading through stony bridge crossing the stream).
It is the "real" levada with middle difficulty according guidebooks. The path is sometimes very rocky and goes above the water.
Levada continues through nice thick forest in the middle of the "wild" nature. It is ideal for admiring, no "up and down". Also you can't be lost , just always alonside the water channel.
In some places levada pass small tunnels in "Indiana Jones" style in the rocky wall. Surrounding is very green. Heather and laurel trees combined with mosses and ferns.
We're comming to waterhouse where levada is splitting into two. One goes steeply downhil to Portela pass, another to Santo da Serra.
Thanks to newly opened tunnel there is not anymore bus connection from the Portela pass. You have to rely on taxis only. Therefore we're continue right by levada to Santo de Serra. The path is wide with very big trees and blossoming hortensia.
We're comming to the next waterhouse with strange tree. Than we're leaving levada by steep descent to the village.
Santo de Serra is known as place with one of the world's finest golf courses. But we decided to go to bar than to golf which was much cheaper :-). The bus to Funchal was just in 20 minutes time.
