Casas de Chinamada

"Casas de Chinamada" is a tiny troglodyte village in a remote part of Anaga in the northeast of the island of Tenerife. It is a place characterized by its virginity. A rugged environment. A hundred percent natural. A show of ravines, rocks, cliffs, terraces of subsistence agriculture and endemic vegetation, all chaired by the majestic Mount Teide in the distance.

It is a place dominated both by the mountains and the closeness of the sea, a magical place to unwind. And a unique place from which to access the vast color range that Tenerife landscapes deploy. Brown, ochre, red, black, cinnamon and grey, the volcanic land tones subject to intense erosion. A wild and untamed terrain.

You should visit Casas de Chinamada on a clear day to truly and fully appreciate the immensity of its beauty and the depth of its solitary and extreme landscapes.

As so often happens in this exciting and beautiful Atlantic jewel, this island of Tenerife, Casas de Chinamada marks the end of an asphalt road.  A weekend route, it starts at the Cruz del Carmen in the rainforest mountain of Las Mercedes, and continues deep into Anaga, until you reach the village of Las Carboneras, and by following an increasingly narrow and wild way, you eventually arrive at a roundabout where you can park by a humble chapel, where a handful of houses carved into the rock, form the tiny village of Chinamada.

Once in Chinamada, you need to continue to walk for ten minutes along a tiny goat´s path that will take you to the very impressive viewpoint of Aguaide.

Aguaide is a natural lookout tower on a 500metres cliff, which overlooks a high sheer drop into the immense blue of the Atlantic Ocean.

There is probably not another point in the island where the blue of the Atlantic has the beautiful and indescribable tone that can be perceived from Aguaide.

Aguaide is an eyrie from which to observe the unabashed and exuberant Father Teide, the highest volcano and pick of Spain. A watchtower over the town of Punta del Hidalgo. A new Cape Finisterre in this mythical island, of which the traveller will end up needing to explore every corner.

For those of you who love long trekking routes, the excursion would not end up in Aguaide. You would walk back half way to Chinamada to the point in which another small path would take you all through the impressive ravine until the shore at the Punta del Hidalgo area in the North Coast of Tenerife. A two hours exciting walk through a region of great natural beauty.

For most of us, the contemplation of the fabulous turquoise ocean forming the base of the cliff would have been more than enough reward, so would return to Chinamada to get some fresh goat cheese and wine from the village.