Chã das Caldeiras

Chã das Caldeiras is a village inside an active volcanic crater, a plain of black lava at sixteen hundred metres ringed by a thousand metre caldera wall with the cone of Pico do Fogo rising from the middle. Eruptions have buried the settlement twice in living memory, most recently under lava that swallowed the visitor centre and the wine cooperative, and the villagers rebuilt on top of it both times. Vines, coffee and apple trees grow in the ash. The climb to the summit takes about three hours up and forty minutes down through scree. Accommodation is simple and the village has no mains power.