MY TRAVEL STORIES
The First Day of Hiking in Tenerife
Hiking Adventure Through Tenerife’s Majestic Landscapes
If the schedule for the first day on the island was not followed, it turns out that the plan for the next day remains just that, a plan, opting on the spot for something else.
From previous story here.
We still kept the way of spending the day, that is, dedicated to hiking, as well as the destination we were supposed to reach.
Initially, we planned to walk the Teno Alto circular route with a length of 9 km, an elevation difference of 900 m, taking about 5 hours, starting/ending in Buenavista del Norte (the road to Punta de Teno until reaching kilometer 2.5 where you see a barrier where you can also leave your car — on Carretera Casablanca).
But once we arrived in those lands and having traversed El Palmar Valley the day before, we noticed the marked trail leading towards the hamlet of Teno and said to ourselves that since we found a safe way to reach the top, we would return the next day and not look for the route chosen from home through Buenavista del Norte.
Therefore, we start in the opposite direction on the last part of yesterday’s road, from Garachico to El Palmar.
We stop in the quaint and stylish village of Los Silos, with its cobblestone streets and white houses with brown windows, where locals sit for a coffee on the shady terrace in the center.
We enter a social center that follows the same color coordinates mentioned above, an opportunity to get in touch with how children are informed about winter holidays, participating in all sorts of thematic games or listening to stories read by teachers or public servants disguised as fairies or elves.
If you ever get here, consider also Puertito de los Silos with Charco los Chochos where you can continue the road along the ocean to enjoy very beautiful beaches.
We return to the small village of El Palmar, wander around the center for about 10 minutes — there’s not much else to do but stretch your legs a bit and photograph the iron statues that immortalize a band of local troubadours -, park the car in the shade of some trees in a specially arranged place for this purpose and start on the fairly wide path towards Teno.
Until the year 1972 when the road was built, the route we are walking on was the main link between El Palmar Valley and the village of Teno. I don’t even want to imagine the effort people had to make to carry their food or animal grains here…
For faster travel, they used Camino del Risco, a marked and numbered route as PR-TF 58 currently, also considered by me for walking, but the degree of difficulty is quite high (it is, after all, called the risk path), which is why I remain only with the thought of a possible adventure.
The first part of the trail is quite pleasant to walk, with a gentle incline, flanked by small stone walls, in the shade of trees on the left and with as many cacti as I’ve never seen in my life, on the right. There were plantations with fruits just ripe for picking…
I keep looking back and watching the valley that stays lower and lower. And which delights me more and more with the beauty of the place, full of greenery, with houses that seem to have tumbled down from the high ridges that border the place.
A slightly contrasting note is made by the “scars” — so called by the Spaniards — visible on one of the hills and due to human action. Used since ancient times for grazing and growing different varieties of plants, with the construction boom of the early ’60s, the hill was excavated for materials. Initially with pickaxes and shovels and later using dynamite, which brought it to its current state, with deep gashes in its body resembling deep wounds.
For those less friendly to hiking or with poorer physical condition, car parks located at different levels of the ascent come to the rescue. So, you have the possibility to drive up, leave the car in such a place, and continue on foot.
Several times the path intersects with the road and in those places, the asphalt is interrupted by a strip of cubic stone, akin to a pedestrian crossing, a clear sign that hikers have priority.
And they begin to face greater difficulties, namely steeper climbs and a narrower path with stones, becoming thus more slippery.
Once you reach the highest point of what becomes downright climbing at the end, you forget all the hardships and breathlessness endured the moment you look back: at the tips of your toes lies the entire valley and at forehead level, the Teide Peak, which raises its height from a shawl of fluffy clouds.
We catch our breath and recharge our physical and mental batteries looking at these beauties after which we enter the descending slope that meanders through a forest of young cedars, leading us somewhere down in a narrow valley that I think only fills up in case of rains that form strong torrents.
However, from here, there’s another climb to reach our destination. And we climb, because that’s exactly why we came here and not stayed home in bed to rest…
Teno is a very quiet settlement, with a small souvenir and goat milk product store right at the entrance, a shaded public terrace with a few benches in what might improperly be called the center, and just a few small houses. Most of them have their shutters closed, only about two with animals in the yard, a sign of daily use.
Liga stays on a bench in the shade to rest, and I, eager to see as much as possible, start exploring the surroundings, with Paisaje Lunar En Teno Alto being a short distance away.
I tried to imagine it from home, somewhat similar to the valleys in Cappadocia, that is, sandy and arid areas flanked by greenery.
My intuition wasn’t too far off from the reality of the landscape, a brown sandy, barren area, crossed by the road from which, at a bend, the Atlantic below could be seen.
Quite a spectacular landscape, and I recommend it to those who will make it to Teno.
As so many times before, the return journey is shorter and less tiring, the landscapes can be viewed from a different perspective, so we end the route quite cheerfully but also with the desire to see a bit more in the area.
We decide on Garachico, the little town nestled under a high rock of about 500 meters (more or less after being exposed to the weather). For parking, one can use the public and free parking immediately on the edge of the main road, near the town’s beach and natural pools.
A leisurely evening stroll from whose itinerary could not miss Plaza Juan Gonzalez de la Torre with its locally famous Puerta de Tierra, under which all people and goods entering or leaving Garachico, including slaves brought from Guinea and Angola, were once obliged to pass.
The square is flanked by magnificent buildings representative of Canarian architecture, and from here start the main streets of the town.
A beautiful building is Casa Condes de la Gomera, on the ground floor of which we manage to enter, just that being open to the public at that hour of the evening. The building is located in Plaza La Libertad, the main meeting point for locals.
Also in the area, you have the opportunity to admire other beautiful buildings such as the Franciscan monastery built in the 16th century, the house of culture, the town hall, and Iglesia Nuestra Senora de los Angeles.
A not too extensive, beautiful, and very clean town, quiet at dusk, somewhat different from other cities that begin to buzz at these hours, Garachico presents itself as a good benchmark of the north of the island, sought after by many tourists if I am to judge by the numerous tourist units found there.
Read next:
