La Palma, Volcano Route, Ruta de Los Volcanes

Absolutely spectacular and very, very black ashes on Cráter del Duraznero, formed in 1949

The Volcano Route, Ruta de los Volcanes, on beautiful La Palma, is one of the most famous hiking routes of the Canary Islands, the other equally famous one being the ascent of Teide. The latter can be done in various ways (1, 2) though, whereas the Volcano Route is singular, running along the crest of the island north to south. The path forks a little sometimes, but the signs always and unambiguously point to the main path.

I was planning to do it for a while, and decided to go now-now, while the weather is not too hot. Let it be said right away that it is very beautiful, very worth going, but needs reasonable physical form and some preparation.

Spectacular Caldera de Taburiente, the morning clouds are still floating inside

La Palma: Mirador El Time to Puerto de Tazacorte

During our short visit to La Palma, we didn't do much walking - partly because it really was short, partly because our kids are still not that keen on walking any distances at all, especially where going up is involved. And there is an awful lot of ups on La Palma - balanced by the eventual downs, but still. So, when we found ourselves on the top of the extremely steep cliff called El Time, and I saw a pointer to Puerto de Tazacorte, saying "3.2 km", I thought "yeaaah! finally, let's go, it's down and it's really close!".