The village of Ribeiro Frio

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Presentation

General information

The village of Ribeiro Frio is the home base of the hikers who from go away towards Portela or Balcões.

In a pleasant site, the slopes which dominate Ribeiro Frio are rich vegetable in cash and belong to the forest Park Flora da Madeira. A trout breeding benefits from the freshness of this environment.

Etymology
Ribeiro frio: “cold brook”

Situation

To 32 km of Funchal.

Coordinates: latitude 32.82046 NR; longitude 16.867447 O

Visits

Forest park of Ribeiro Frio
The forest park is characterized by very beautiful gardens where the flora and the forest cohabit in harmony, and where one can admire very rare plant species of the Madeira.
Fish pond with trouts



Miradouro back Balcões
Since Ribeiro Frio, the mossy track, pleasant and bordered of flowers, skirts the levada da Serra do Faial, passes in corridors cut in the basaltic rock. The excursion below begins to approximately 150 m the breeding from trouts (west coast of the road), and reached, into 20 min, the view-point of the Balconies, located at 2 km towards the west on a slope of the valley of will ribeira da Ametade, at the end of circuses of high mountain. Coordinates: latitude 32.741949 NR; longitude 16.890793 O

View-point (870 m), one of more impressive of island, offers superb view from above on torrent and on valley of will ribeira da Ametade (or will ribeira da Metade), which leaves the side of the peaks jagged (pico do Arieiro, pico das Torres and pico Ruivo), which passes at the bottom of village of Cruzinhas, to the more opened out coastal valley whose round hills carry rich cultures. In backdrop draw up themselves imposing it piton of Penha de Àguia and, on the left of Penha de Àguia, one sees the houses of Faial.



Levada do Furado
Path of Portela (4 H approximately with foot; path on the right). The starting point faces (in diagonal) at the beginning of the excursion leading to Balcões. The way skirts one of the levadas more the appraisals, the levada do Furado, which feeds out of water the cultures of Oporto da Cruz and the area of Faial, before reaching the miradouro of Portela. The levada do Furado is shown under different days: narrow, broad, tarred, in waste land most of the time, it crosses forests and offers here and there the imposing ones escaped from glance on more the high summits of Madeira. In Ribeiro Frio, the beginning of the footpath, somewhat below the homonymous restaurant on the right-sided (is) road, is clearly indicated by a Portela sign; a few meters after the bridge which spans the ribeiro Frio which one perceives the deaf rumbling, one fall on the levada do Furado. Approximately 8 km out of the 11 km on the whole are done in the direction of the east along the levada do Furado, the 2 km remaining are carried out, in descent, initially near the levada da Portela and finally lead straight to the collar of Portela (622 m bus stop). After approximately 2:30, one arrives at the water tank of Lamaceiros. Towards the end of the excursion, close to the collar of Portela, one sees the villages and the valleys arranged in terraces of the North-East of the Madeira and sea. The course comprises rather short cliffs and some tunnels. One can shorten this walk while walking about twenty minutes along the levada (before the cliffs start) and while returning towards Ribeiro Frio. The levada do Furado (“levada of the tunnel”) was dug in 1820 through steep slopes of the laurisylve to join the levada da Portela and the levada da Serra.