Walking Trail Polgadas

The Polgadas Pedestrian Trail is an old access route to Fajã da Caldeira de Santo Cristo on the Island of São Jorge in the Azores.

The tour of Polgadas is another different access to Fajã da Caldeira Santo Cristo. It starts in Urzal, from there we’ll go all the way up to Pico da Ovelha, where we can see the 5 islands of the central group of azores. Along the coast we can see the lagoons of Fajã da Caldeira de Santo Cristo and Cubres.

We will go on to east, through the central mountain range of the island where we’ll start the descent using the trail of Polgadas. There are many endemic species that we find along the way, including the Sphagnum, which is an extremely important moss for water retention.

The first part of the descent includes stone steps which will bring us to the valley of Polgadas. This zone is an excellent place for herding because it is protected of the characteristic strong winds in the north coast of the island.

Along this route we can probably see goats. Once domestic animals, after the earthquake on January 1st, 1980, they were set free and became wild.