Cascata do Aveiro

Santo Espirito, Azores Region, Portugal

About Cascata do Aveiro

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Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Cascata do Aveiro could very well be the most significant waterfall on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores.

It features a drop that’s said to be between 70-120m tall (though its consensus height figure is probably more like 110m).

Santa_Maria_305_06192024 - Cascata do Aveiro
Cascata do Aveiro

Indeed, we could easily see this waterfall towards the end of the road north of the village of Maia (in the civil parish of Santo Espirito), which seemed to be right against a churning Atlantic Ocean.

As you can see from the photos on this page, this waterfall had light flow during our late June 2024 visit.

In order to have perhaps a better experience than us, it would probably require a visit in the Spring though that’s contingent on the quantity of precipitation and how soon thereafter you do a visit.

Ilha Santa Maria is one of the drier islands on the Açores so even being here in the right season is no guarantee of having flow better than what we had experienced.

Santa_Maria_231_06192024 - Looking back at the turbulent coastline at the end of the EN1-2A Road near the Cascata do Aveiro
Looking back at the turbulent coastline at the end of the EN1-2A Road near the Cascata do Aveiro

As for experiencing Cascata do Aveiro, we could already get pretty satisfactory looks at most of its towering drop right from the road, especially as it made its final descent towards the bridge over the Ribeira do Aveiro.

However, we also did a short walk roughly 300m (or 600m round-trip) from the end of the road to the base of the waterfall.

The walk featured a lot of duck and geese sitting and/or swimming in or around the Ribeira do Aveiro Creek as well as some relics from past attempts to tame the creek.

Right at the bottom of the Cascata do Aveiro was a fairly large plunge pool surrounded by nearly vertical cliffs (so rockfall danger is ever present here) that seemed quite inviting for a dip.

Santa_Maria_210_06192024 - Looking upstream from the road bridge over the Ribeira do Aveiro before continuing upstream to the base of the Cascata do Aveiro
Looking upstream from the road bridge over the Ribeira do Aveiro before continuing upstream to the base of the Cascata do Aveiro

Cascata do Aveiro looked a bit shorter from this far up close, but a lot of that is from a combination of forced perspective as well as the fact that the cliffs did have some slope, especially towards the top (to obscure the upper parts).

Overall, we spent 45 minutes away from the car, which easily could have been much less time had we not lingered around taking pictures and skipping stones.

Authorities

Cascata do Aveiro is located on the island of Santa Maria of the Azores Autonomous Region of Portugal. It is managed by the Municipality of Vila do Porto. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting the official Azores tourism website.

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Tagged with: santo espirito, santa maria, azores, acores, portugal, sea, maia, ocean



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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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