It is one of the most beautiful and dangerous routes of Madeira but it plunges into the laurel forest.
When I was younger (and I am not old as you might think!) there was only a single map with that described all the paths of the island, called the bunnies map. It is true, do not laugh yet! In it contained a legend in the figure of a rabbit in different colors designating the degree of danger of a pedestrian path within the island. The colors indicate the degree of hazard that each journey involved, were the easiest and the most difficult green covered from yellow to orange and this last animal color designated the most dangerous track of the island. This famous map was very easy to anyone, which by the way strangely enough is no longer printed. Do not ask me why.
It's one of those winding and violently beautiful and orange paths that I am going to speak about. The walk begins in the forest park of Queimadas, in Santana and now a warning never let the weather condition of Madeira, or the area where you are staying influenced your departure, due to its several micro climate both rain and fog may happen in one extreme of the island, as when we go in opposite direction we are warm up by the comforting sunlight. That said we continue forward without no fear, as one of the characters of Herman Jose says. Where were we? Ahh in the beginning of the path. Another warning and I swear it's the last one if you're claustrophobic, if you suffer from vertigo and your heart is weak you simply cannot contemplate such beauty. I'm sorry. The reason is before our eyes, before you reach the waterfall we walk a trail with 5.9 miles of distance between tunnels, which the locals affectionately designate as drills and winding twists and turns that adorned the laurel forest to open little by little to a show of cliffs and deep canyons of rock with no end in sight. Until the green cauldron the route is relatively flat, in fact it is so crowded that the greatest danger we face is driven by a fall due to an educated passage that we give to other hikers in a hurry. There are so many foreigners moving on this path that gives the distinct impression of being busier than certain streets of Funchal. It's crazy. When you see the waterfall we are confronted by the magic of light that break down into multiple colors.
To reach the Cauldron of Hell and we must continue around this turning point for many. Now there is no going back possible. Then we go forward by one that continues following the water channels into to another drill and when we face once again the day light we faced a suspended landscape and a kind of narrow balcony where we have necessarily to walk with much attention and care as possible because one misstep means death. Hence the name cauldron of hell. It really a hell to get there. It is the touch of the divine in nature. We simply stood there, speechless before such beauty. We are small and humble before the mountain in its fullness as a mystery that unravels. We Breathe fresh air and it does seem that we are treading the soil of an inhabited island, this is our happy solitude. Once more I find myself a curve with a slope that is necessary to climb. Further, since the path narrows and we gradually give way to taking over the route in reverse. Forgot to add there is only one way out of the Cauldron of Hell, by the same route in reverse. And it’s futile to ask for helicopters, because they won’t come. It will however to be necessarily to go back the same way, although there is a passage of more than 1km that continues to Boaventura for the more daring. And for those who doubt my words, the only thing I have to say is that is really worth it. Arriving to hell, a sweet contradiction that leaves me speechless, the landscape stretches vertically before your eyes, is a verdant canyon ... Now I know what the explorers felt when they arrived at Madeira. What they saw this witness over 20 million years of existence, untouched and inviolate. Well, now I have left nothing more to say than return the same way I came and continue to lose myself again in this green wave.
