Barranco Hondo, the Deep Ravine, and Salinas de Tenefe

Impressive cliffs

The second walk we’ve done in a very short stretch of time — we are all worried that our long awaited freedom will be suddenly taken from us again — is another one that was new for me. The south of the island is full of deep and steep ravines, and one of them has a double arch, called Arco del Coronadero. Of course, we had to go, because, as the famous saying goes, “it’s there”.

Euphorbias large enough for all the King’s horses and all the King’s men to get lost in

Barranco Hondo, The Deep Ravine, opens to the ocean between the small village Juan Grande and the coastal resorty place Bahia Feliz. The number one bus has a stop at the beginning of the walk, at the stop La Machacadora, a rock crushing place right in the mouth of the ravine. We went by car, because the bus makes all the stops and is excruciatingly slow. The bus stop is close to a roundabout, and there is a parking space next to it used by fishermen and hikers. You can park even closer to the start of the hike, if you go towards the rock factory.

That moment when you suddenly come to the edge

So, after parking or getting off the bus, you go along the road that goes towards the center of the island, and passes through a short tunnel under GC-1, the main motorway. Immediately after you go under it, turn left into a dirt track, and then turn right, into a very dirty plain full of spiny plants where a lot of plastic bags end up caught up. This is a quite exceptionally ugly place, but don’t panic, it gets better quickly. You are already in the mouth of the Barranco Hondo, so, although there are no obvious paths, there is no chance of getting lost either. A rock wall, still quite low at this point, starts on your left, and La Machacadora is on the right. Start walking inland, and in less than a kilometer, you hit a dirt track going into the ravine, which by then already has its two walls present and correct.

Star attraction, sort of

As you go deeper into the ravine, it gets quite interesting, with a lot of caves and grottoes on both sides. Considering that they continue to find new sites of archeological value in much better explored places, like Barranco de Guayadeque, I am sure there is a lot still to find in Barranco Hondo.

There are various points of interest in this walk, and one of them is a tunnel dug between two ravines, which you need to go through to get to the arch. Of course, there are alternatives, if you are claustrophobic, but if not, it is just a little adventure to add to the whole experience. You will find the tunnel on your left, at about 3 km from the start of the walk. The tunnel is meant to catch the rainwater, but the rains are far and few between, so we found it completely dry. The length of it is about 200 meters, it gets low in some points so you need to hunch down a bit, and the floor is not even. Bring a torch and mind your head and where you go at the same time. The exit of the tunnel is always visible. The entrance of tunnel itself is unmissable. I am writing that here because I was somewhat worried about missing it myself. As an additional reference point, right after the tunnel there is a metal mesh barrier across the ravine, so that a vehicle can’t get past. Hikers can, however, as the path goes to the right of the barrier, so if you are not in the mood for tunneling, you can walk along the bottom of the ravine.

Maybe a less than perfect day to photograph the arch, but at least now I know where it is.

So, right after the tunnel, start looking for a path, rather steep initially, which goes to your right and up. If you are not sure, keep in mind the the arch is on the top of the wall of the ravine you just left via tunnel. So you have to sort of double back a bit, while continuing going up and inland. Once on the top of the wall, things get clearer, because you find Barranco Hondo, a spectacular, near-vertical drop at this point, on your right, and relatively flat space with quite a few visible paths on your left. Find a path which runs along the ravine and follow it, at some point some branches will go right to the drop, and that’s where you find the arches. The distance from the start is about four and a half kilometers.

Now the arches. There are two, one considerably bigger that the other. To obtain the classic view similar to this one you need to go through both and down. However, when we got there, it was drizzling, and what with a sheer drop to the bottom of the ravine and with the stones being slippery, we decided to leave it for some other time.

We have a completed Sagrada Familia project right here, don’t you agree?

Now, the next point of uncertainty. Not to retrace our steps completely, we wanted to go down somehow. In all the routes we looked at, this particular bit of the hike, whether done in ascent or descent, is always marked as tricky. I can report that when you start from the top, as we did, finding the path doesn’t present a problem. As you stand facing the barranco and to the left of the arches, it is clearly visible to your left. The pass where it starts is about twenty meters away from the arch.

It was marked as tricky, and tricky it was. The path is steep and full of small loose stones. In retrospect, I would have preferred to make it as an ascent, taking the whole route in reverse. At the same time I think it would have been much more difficult to find the start of the ascent from the bottom of the ravine. Having said that, there are cairns, and there is no getting lost here either — you need to get to the bottom of the ravine, that’s all there is to it.

The number of caves is astonishing. Combined with the height of the walls, they create a “skyscraper in ruins” look

Now, once you are (hopefully) at the bottom of the ravine, you just follow it down, eventually coming back to the metal mesh barrier and the tunnel and starting to retrace your steps. Don’t forget to look around you and behind, however, because I believe this was the most spectacular part of the whole hike. Try as I may, my photos don’t give this place justice. You should go and see with your own eyes.

Salinas de Tenefe

After we finished our hike, and since we were there anyway, we went to Salinas de Tenefe, salt evaporation pans very close to Pozo Izquierdo, famous for its windsurfing center. The salt pans are maintained in very good conditions and Dunaliella salina algae give them a peculiar pink-orange color. They are a pleasure to photograph. The first time I was there they were completely open, that is to say, you could go down right next to the pans wherever you liked, but now there is a sign asking not to do that. You can still approach the salt pans from a stone terrace in front of a cute white and blue building which houses a salt storage place/visitors center and a shop. We went there to do just that, but a funny episode made us forget the original intention.

Another angle

Once in front of the shop, I asked a guy who was hanging around under which name the salt is commercialized. I do that, you know. Ask questions, that is. He started expositing about the various types of salt they make and we ended up in their small shop. There were two guitars on the benches there. So I asked, as I do, what’s up with the guitars. While continuing to explain, the guy called his companion, who entered the shop, picked up one of the guitars and started playing and singing. The song was all about kisses he would like to give to his beloved, so singing was accompanied by very loud kissing sound imitations. After this unexpected performance I totally lost the original aim that I had in mind, and who wouldn’t. And I now have a pack of quite expensive sea salt, multiple award winner and all, to give to somebody “when it is all over” and travel is possible again. I keep accumulating those little gifts, hoping and waiting, hoping and waiting.

Route that we followed — here. There are others, of course, and you can omit the tunnel and/or tricky ascent and descent.

More photos from The Deep Ravine — here and from the salines — here