Way back in February, following some invaluable customer feedback about walking in the Teno Mountains, we resolved to re-walk the El Palmar to Teno Alto route, which is part of our West World Island Walks, and to improve it by making it circular. Already a firm personal favourite of ours, the down side to the El Palmar to Teno Alto route has always been its linear nature, so an opportunity to make it circular was too good to miss.
Unfortunately, on the day we undertook to re-walk the route, the weather decided to throw just about everything it had at us over the course of our walk. From sunshine and cloud to horizontal rain and buffering winds, we re-mapped the route, adding a whole new section which took us onto the ridge of Teno National Park with views down the deep barrancos that characterise its northern coast. Despite the tricky weather conditions, we were blown away (figuratively as well as almost literally) by the lovely displays of lavender, thyme and blue tajinaste that accompanied us and we vowed to return again in a few weeks.
It was late March when we returned and the hills and valleys had burst into a cacophony of colour like no other I have seen on the island in all the years we’ve lived here. Entire fields were vibrant with violet tajinaste and white wild radish; hedgerows bowed under the weight of Canary Island bell flowers, St John’s Wort and wild fennel, and valleys sprouted carpets of lilac cistus.
Photographing endlessly, we were completely caught up in the beauty of our surroundings until we suddenly looked up and saw a sight that stopped us dead in our tracks. Above the village of Las Portelas, a view which is habitually cloaked in cloud, today was crystal clear and mighty Mount Teide, still flecked in the snows of winter and flanked by Pico Viejo, filled the horizon. It was a jaw dropping sight and one that must rank amongst the very best views to be found anywhere on Tenerife.
Today, after months of travelling and of walking terrain ranging from the splendour of the Swiss Alps and the perfection of the Pyrenees to the scented meadows of Croatian islands, we have finally updated the West World walks to include the revised route.
El Palmar to Teno Alto in West World Island Walks, a 10km, 4 hour circular walk which is guaranteed to slip straight into your top ten of the best walks on Tenerife.
West World Island Walks are part of our Real Tenerife Island Walks PDF sets, available for immediate download for only €9.
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