Strolling with Sergio - Sergio is a very friendly and very knowledgeable guide. Our walk along the Levada Nova through the Mimosa Valley was hampered a little by the rainshowers and winds, but Sergio did his best to keep our spirits up throughout. He told us some details about the Levada network, but not too much - you can always read about that in books or on the less-reliable Internet - and more importantly about the flora we passed (sugarcane, sweet potatoes, strawberry guava, avocados, deadly nightshade TREES(!), singular banana crops, deep-rooted Eucalyptus trees planted to prevent landslip, and the beautiful Mimosa trees), and about the fauna of the past (each family might keep a cow in a "palheiro" solely for milk; being a volcanic island, most animals were introduced by man, unless they arrived by flight or as stowaways on ships, or hidden in the young trees being planted). As Sergio promised, it was a flat walk along 6.5 km [about 4 miles] of the Levada. The tricky bit for some was the severe incline partly covered in moss at the end on the way back to the minibus. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge Sergio, not just from what you must have delivered many times before, but also for your answers to the group's questions on unexpected topics. Muito obrigado!