On day 3, the weather was much warmer, perfect for a climb up to a volcano.

We took on the route from Alltrails from Garachico to complete the circuit around the Chinyero volcano.  The caveat is that we started and finished at La Montaneta, as we didn’t fancy the steep climb out of Garachico (the drive is tricky enough).

There is parking on the left side of the main road in La Montaneta and it is marked as ‘senderos’, specifically for hikers.  It starts at a beautiful church with outside seating (you can tell how often it rains, you would never see this in the UK).

The track is pretty steep and relatively taxing as it meanders through pine forests and through the lava flows, but technically it is not challenging for the majority of the route.  If anything, the trail is a little too manicured with rocks marking the route and next to nothing to trip over (although it is dangerous to underestimate Nick’s ability to trip over her own shadow). 

The volcanoes of Chinyero and El Teide loom in the distance, with our plan to complete the circular route around the base of Chinyero.   Once you start the route around the base of the volcano, it is very well signposted and is approximately 7.8km in length.  The views are fantastic.  The size of the lava flows was unexpected and the baron black sand landscapes are otherworldly.  Having seen no-one during the 90 minutes to the circular route, suddenly groups of people appeared (mainly the older generation – you can still do these things), as there are easy access points just to complete the route around the volcano.

It is probably a good job that we didn’t walk all the way up from Garachico. As you can see from the elevation, it was still a tough walk. You can see all the details here. 10 and a half miles in total with just over 4 hours on our feet.