The Canary Islands, an authentic natural paradise, are renowned globally for their diverse biodiversity and distinctive landscapes. From the sandy beaches to volcanic summits, this Spanish archipelago encompasses a remarkable range of ecosystems, including laurel forests, lava deserts, and vast cactus fields, creating a varied habitat for a diverse array of flora and fauna.
The Financial Time magazine features the area of Masca in Tenerife, referring to it as the ‘Machu Picchu of the Canary Islands‘. A journalist shares their exploration of this region in the northwest of the island, located within the Teno rural park.
Anaga Rural Park
The excursion commences at the viewpoint in the Anaga rural park, situated at an elevation of 1,000 meters. In less than a minute of walking and following the trail mapped out on her hiking app, she enters a surreal cloud forest. Delicate laurel branches adorned with Spanish moss arch over the orange soil, occasionally affording glimpses through gaps of the sparkling Atlantic below, with El Teide, Spain’s highest peak, commanding every panoramic view of the hinterland.
The trail emerges from the woodland onto steep open terrain, occasionally passing by remote and seemingly inaccessible clusters of farmsteads; villages that only received piped water as recently as 1998 and had to rely on donkey deliveries. Meticulously maintained terraces wind around the sloping hills like contour lines, their beds already teeming with vegetation by mid-January. The warm, humid air and the fertile volcanic soil create an ideal combination: a profusion of growth, from ferns to bananas, brambles to exotic birds. Tenerife initially prospered as a staging post for conquistadors and traders en route to the Americas, providing supplies and essential acclimatization: a halfway point straddling the old and the new world.
Rich Biodiversity
Prickly pears and lizards abound, along with roses and robins. Some of the gentler cliffs resemble those in Cornwall, adorned with cacti. Gazing down at the undulating sea, with the resounding crash audible even from a distance, she pities the crews of those laden carracks and galleons who must have longed to linger. There is mention of a venerable maritime heritage and the prevailing trade winds battering this exposed stretch of coast, where lighthouses are still being erected. The modern white peak, overlooking its destiny, Punta del Hidalgo, was erected in the 1990s.
Yet, the journey is arduous, through imposing gorges punctuated by treacherous outcrops of tuff and chalk. The trail is always clearly delineated and well-maintained, but it presents intermittent physical and spiritual challenges, such as negotiating a steep crumbly pumice slope or traversing a lengthy vertical vein of fractured shale, resembling the back of a stegosaurus. Suddenly, the arduous journey becomes apparent, with regular trekkers here reporting the need for resoling their boots every few years. The weekly itinerary with the Pura Aventura tour operator ensures a maximum of 12 strenuous kilometers per day, a reasonable total for the casual rambler who may not have devoted the festive season to rigorous fitness. This means she always feels deserving of her dinner, yet manages to avoid dozing off with her face in it.
The logistics of her trip are meticulously coordinated, a series of minor miracles. Just in time, a taxi materializes outside the specified tavern in remote Punta del Hidalgo to transport her 90 minutes along the increasingly populous coast, amidst a tide of ring road traffic and banana plantations. Upon arriving at her hotel in Garachico, the suitcase she had left at a reception desk in San Cristobal de La Laguna earlier that morning miraculously awaits her. Perhaps, all of this feels so extraordinary because each of these days, with their spectacular sensory encounters and sporadically challenging stretches, seems interminable. La Laguna appears to span a week and half a world away, yet against all odds, she and her luggage have been recollected in some manner.
Her accommodations are blissfully removed from the high-rise concrete that characterizes the Canary Islands. Grand Hotel La Laguna is an 18th-century manor with a charming sheltered garden. She slumbers in one of the ancient chambers with lofty vaults overhead and dozes off beside the rooftop pool, feasting her eyes on an array of ancient domes and towers, against the backdrop of lush mountains. At La Quinta Roja in Garachico, another merchant’s palace, the focal point is a domedThe Winter Claim: Discovering Tenerife’s Beautiful Scenery
The Canaries draw in plenty of northern Europeans looking for a winter retreat, ensuring that a walk through the southern hills of the island takes place under a clear sky with temperatures in the 20s Celsius. The Tenerife hiking season comes to an end by the close of spring. This latitude, just 100km west of the southern tip of Morocco, doesn’t call for boots in July. The climb from El Palmar leads through neat rows of prickly pears, now harvested for their fruit, but initially introduced during the colonial era as cochineal plantations, producing the lucrative red dye favored by beetles.
The soil and climate variations give each slope a distinct character. Walking along a ridge, one can see lavender, wild oranges, and cheerful red Canary bells before encountering a sloping desert with candelabras of succulent euphorbia and a single splendid Canary Island dragon tree. The silhouettes of La Gomera and La Palma, Tenerife’s closest neighbors, are visible in the distance. Approaching Masca, the hills rise in jagged, green peaks, and the trail becomes progressively less lonely as it moves towards the small town, which is hyped as the “Machu Picchu in Tenerife.” Despite the crowds and exaggerated publicity, the panoramic view is breathtaking. A taxi waits for an unforgettable climb to Masca’s stunning scenery on a road shared by holiday drivers and anxious locals.
To end the adventure, Villalba, a slow-paced and old-school hot springs hotel in the slopes of Teide, serves as the perfect base. The hotel is adorned with framed cycling jerseys donated by professionals who have come to train on these high-altitude slopes. The visitor enjoys watching the sunset illuminate the surrounding pine trees from the hotel’s balcony. A visit to Soul of Trevejos, a local winery run by a talkative Chilean at 1,450 meters, offers the chance to taste the fruits of ancient vines that escaped the phylloxera plague. The hotel’s menu introduces the visitor to almogrote, a cured cheese pâté served with every meal, and leads them through an otherworldly valley of death. The chaotic black lava fields surrounding Mount Teide have made its namesake national park the most visited in Europe, and the morning ride to the cable car station involves maneuvering between squads of tourist motorcyclists and road cyclists.
Unable to walk around the Teide arids, the visitor embarks on a journey across the Martian plateau, feeling breathless due to the altitude. The rocky plain resembles Utah crossed with the Icelandic interior, where the sun is intense, but in the shadow of the orange cliffs, it’s bitterly cold. The desolate surroundings and dead silence contrast sharply with the stormy forces that shaped them, leaving the visitor breathless and slightly panicked. Nevertheless, the distant roar of an airliner draws their gaze upward, and they continue walking with light feet and a smile.
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