Around The Islands
For a small island, only 86km long and 56km wide, Tenerife has a startling range and number of distinct ecological zones arising from the island's mountainous topography which is dominated by a huge and barren volcanic backbone centre on Mount Teide . The island's mountains stand in the way of prevailing cool northerly trade winds, forcing them to condense as cloud and bringing moisture to the island and keeping its northern side damp and green, while having little effect on the southern side - which is left to bake in the sun. At the northeast end of the island the capital and largest city, Santa Cruz , is at the heart of a large sprawling urban area that also encompasses the old university town La Laguna , and houses around half of the island's population of 650,000. Preventing the expansion of this urban area further north is the steep, wildly rugged, forested and impene-trable Anaga region where modern infrastructure has only recently arrived to its remote villages which remain great gateways for quiet hikes through the area's mist-smothered laurel forests or along its beautiful unspoilt rocky coastline. There are more good hikes through the thick forest of Canarian pines on the north side of the island. This is at its thickest on the old volcanic ridges surrounding the island's most verdant region, the heavily populated, fertile, terraced and thickly planted Orotava valley , where the island's first resort, the stylish Puerto de la Cruz , became fashionable over a century ago. Further west along the coast pines give way to the deforested dry, rocky and steep-sided Teno massif, an ancient volcanic area. And though there's more good hiking here, the area is best known for the presence of the giant cliffs Los Gigantes , from which a quiet neighbouring resort has taken its name. Like the African continent only 300km to the east, the island's southern side is dry and dusty. Only a few hardy shrubs and cacti can take hold in this sun-baked desert, although the ubiquitous sunshine has resulted in the construction, from scratch, of the lion's share of Tenerife's big resorts. Lining the coasts of the south and attracting thousands of tourists are Playa de Las Americas, Los Cristianos and the Costa del Silencio - strings of hotels, restaurants and bars, many of which line the island's major (artificial) beaches. A much more stunning and memorable island landscape, though equally barren, is that around its central volcanic plateau . The massive 3,718m volcano Mount Teide , the highest point on Spanish territory and symbol of the island, is at the centre of this region and surrounded by Las Canadas , a vast beautiful tree-less volcanic wasteland containing gnarled and twisted lava contortions which are protected as a national park. There's another national park on Tenerife's closest neighbour in the Canarian archipelago, the small round and much less visited island of La Gomera , 28km away. But in complete contrast to Tenerife's national park the Parque Nacional de Garajonay , a UNESCO world heritage site, is a haven for the world's premium remaining deep green and misty laurel forest. Also in contrast to Tenerife, the resorts in La Gomera are remarkably small-scale.
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