MY TRAVEL STORIES
A Day in the North of Tenerife Island
My northern Tenerife escape amongst breathtaking scenery
After the previous hiking day, we planned a day of visits at a leisurely pace through the villages and towns in the northern part of the island.
A fan of driving on local roads instead of highways — an opportunity to pass through towns and have the possibility to stop at points of interest, not necessarily because of costs (and in Tenerife, there is no toll for using them) — we immediately exit TF-5 and start climbing. And we climb the narrow lanes of some villages as if the builders were trying to break records for steepness…
The truth is that the places we pass through are beautiful, and if you look to the left, you see the Atlantic down below with its beaches and hotels lined up along the shore.
But the most beautiful view we have is from the terrace of Mirador El Lance, with the so beautiful Orotava Valley in front of our eyes, stretched between the mountain peaks on the right and the ocean shore on the left, a very green expanse, dotted with villages and terraced agricultural fields.
As we would later find out from a documentary seen at another tourist attraction, the Orotava Valley was formed by the collapse of a part of the mountain range mentioned earlier and its slide towards the water, thus giving birth to the most fertile area in Tenerife Island.
Nearby passes the hiking route 0.4.0., a unique challenge in Europe, where you travel in a single day from the shore of the Atlantic Ocean — Playa del Socorro — to the Peak of Teide. You just need endurance…
Next to the viewpoint stands the imposing metal statue of El Mencey Bentor, the leader of the resistance of the natives from the north against the invading Castilian troops, who chose to throw himself off these cliffs rather than be captured by enemies.
The statue immediately reminded me of the one of Cristiano Ronaldo in Funchal, not necessarily by size but because of the construction material and, especially, a certain anatomical place predominantly touched by tourists…
Arriving in La Orotava, we make our first stop at Museo Artesiana Iberoamericana, an institution that operates inside the former Dominican monastery San Benito Abad, a beautiful and remarkable building for its wooden galleries and stone columns with Tuscan capitals plus the exterior arches.
On the facade of the building have survived symbols specific to the Dominican order, namely the torch and the dog, alongside a door with fine ancient carvings.
On the narrow and sloping streets of the old center, you find a plethora of traditional houses, many of which have been renovated and turned into tourist attractions open to the public, some for free and others in exchange for not very large fees.
Most of these buildings have wooden balconies, Mudejar-style ceilings, and still display the heraldic emblem of the wealthy families that once owned them.
As examples, I mention Casa Mesa, Casa Torre Hermosa, Casa Egon, Casa Lercaro, Casa Molina, and especially, Casa de los Balcones, the most known in the city, built in 1632 by the greatest carpenters of the time. Currently, the house is a museum and houses a large collection of antiques from the Mendez Fonseca family, the first owner.
Also in the old area is the city hall — or Palacio Municipal — where you can enter and admire the elegant halls, covered with soft and elegant carpets, vintage armchairs and sofas, or the rooms where the city’s meetings are held.
On the esplanade in front of it, scenes typical of the Christmas holiday were represented during this period. Here, on June 13, 2007 — during the festivities in honor of the city’s spiritual patron — was presented the largest sand painting (859.42 sqm), a record certified by the Guinness Book.
Behind the building, which itself was once a monastery, is Hijuela del Jardin Botanico, set up in the former garden of the nuns with the initial purpose of being a nursery of plants for the landscaping of the city.
Once you enter through the wrought iron gate with beautiful ornaments, you find a shady and pleasantly smelling space, not too large, where you leisurely walk admiring the interesting flowers (Taiwania cryptomerioides), bushes, and local or acclimatized trees in these lands.
Here we initiated our admiration for flowers, and the continuation was perfected at a distance of 280 m, in Jardin Victoria (also known as Jardines del Marquesado de la Quinta Roja), a public garden with free entrance from 9 AM to 8 PM.
The construction of this garden is linked to the local authorities’ refusal to bury the Marquis of Quinta Roja in the local cemetery, at which point his mother decided to transform and arrange the gardens of her house as a burial place for her son, also erecting a family mausoleum at the highest point, decorated with Masonic symbols.
Terraced on several levels, impeccably trimmed and cared for, with small fountains from which very clean water sprang, with many species of flowers in a multitude of colors, and a balcony from where you look at the city below and the distances to the ocean, I warmly recommend the garden for you to consider when you get there.
Arriving at the quaint Plaza de la Constitucion, we have on our right the superb Casa Ascanio, one of enormous dimensions for the time it was built, in 1928, at the wish of a young married couple.
Besides the intrinsic beauty of the building, the flower beds and romantic gardens full of plants are admirable, as well as the location of some benches under arches of greenery.
Now a cultural center, inside it is equipped with a bar — with the possibility of being served on the terrace — and rooms for various courses like table tennis, aquagym, swimming, or pilates. I think it’s a real pleasure to exercise in those rooms.
La Orotava is one of the cities where many couples — local or foreign — choose to get married, the city’s historic churches and the elegant city hall are the preferred buildings for the ceremony, and for the celebration, brides and grooms choose manors and old estates in the Canaries to live a special day and surprise their guests.
The town is full of flowers, poinsettias at this time of the year, planted in various supports on poles, cobblestones, or balconies at very short distances from each other, so you get the impression that you’re walking on marked paths.
The last attraction visited in the city is the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, historically dated 1768–1788 and built on the site of a former parish church constructed in 1503 with funding from trade with America.
The route then leads us to Puerto de la Cruz, the largest town in the north of the island, a good point for setting up a base and departing for other interesting places.
Here we wanted to visit Jardin de Orquideas Sitio Litre, the oldest garden and the largest collection of orchids on the island, which Agatha Christie also visited. But our wanderings and lingering in La Orotava led to a delay of 24 minutes past the 2:30 PM closing time to the public, so we were left with no choice but to circle the high walls in hopes of finding a spot through which to look inside. But to no avail…
We are left with a walk through Jardin Botanico, open until 6:00 PM, with an entrance fee of 3 euros, whose foundations were laid by King Carlos.
In a rectangular configuration, with straight paths that intersect along and across, the garden has an important collection of tropical and subtropical species, some of economic interest and others of ornamental value, such as palm trees, bromeliads, fig trees, and over 40,000 dried specimens of Canarian flora.
Although in my not too vast knowledge about flowers I imagined the ficus only in pots, here I had the opportunity and the great surprise to admire a giant specimen of Ficus macrophylla native from Lord Howe — a small island off the east of Australia -, with a huge central trunk, 25 meters high and a diameter of almost 9 meters, surrounded by large adventitious roots, planted in the 70s, a plant that represents the symbol of this garden.
If you’re wondering what adventitious roots are, find out that they grow anywhere on the aerial part of the plant and act as columns or buttresses for supporting branches, allowing the tree to spread over a large area. I got informed on the spot…
We take some ocean air after walking on the promenade and then make our way back to the accommodation, with a stop in Icod de los Vinos, at the Millennial Dragon Tree Park (5 euros entry) with its famous millennial dragon tree — drago milenario — believed to be over 1,000 years old, 18 meters in height, a crown diameter of about 20 meters, a perimeter at the base of the trunk of another twenty meters, about three hundred main branches, and a weight of approximately 65 tons.
In a special place of the park, in some funeral caves dug into the rocks, you come across the place where it is said that the Guanche mummies are located, embalmed bodies intended to be kept dry and not to rot for a long time after death.
The medicinal plant garden also has a dedicated area since it is estimated that approximately 10% of the nearly 2,000 wild plants that grow in the Canary Islands are medicinal. Tablets with explanations in Spanish, English, and German offer explanations about the diseases treated by each plant and how to administer them.
Exiting the park, we come across the very beautiful Casa Museo Los Caceres, a building as white as milk foam, with balconies and window frames in brown, located in the splendid Plaza de Andres de Lorenzo-Caceres, the town’s central square, with a design close to classicism — wide pathways, gardens, fountains, a kiosk, a pergola, and a wonderful stone staircase.
In the evening, we too watch a bit of the artistic performance of a music orchestra taking place in this square, take a tour through the local football club museum where the first game kits worn by the athletes, resembling striped pajamas, are displayed, after which we retreat to the terrace of the villa where we are staying, for a glass of Canarian wine amidst the rustling of banana leaves stirred by the Atlantic breeze.
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