Tenerife - Benijo & El Draguillo

        Benijo - El Draguillo - Benijo - is a hike of medium difficulty that starts at the bottom of the mountains, in the village of Benijo, crosses the mountain on the other side, and then descends to El Draguillo hamlet, continuing along the coast until reaches back to Benijo. The hike lasted 2h 40m including our stops to catch our breath and take pictures.

        It is very important to remember that the route should be done in a counter-clockwise direction (start from the right side by climbing the mountain, not from the left side along the coast). In this way, you will walk uphill only in the beginning, for the first hour. Admittedly, it is a very difficult and tiring climb and we even had moments when we wanted to give up after the first 20-30 minutes. We were asking ourselves why did we listen to the advices found on the internet and why we didn’t start the route from the left instead of the right 😂. But later I understood why: after the first hour (the first quarter of the way) of climbing very steeply (at 500m alt.), the rest of the way was a constant descent. If we had followed the opposite route, it would certainly have been much more tiring to climb for probably 2 hours and much harder to descend the very steep path.

        We started the ascent at 5PM and finished at 7:40PM. I don't know what the weather was like the rest of the day, but it was cloudy throughout our hike. Even when we climbed close to the top it started to drizzle very lightly, but most likely it was only because of the altitude. In any case, 90% of the road is without shade, so I will list some absolutely necessary things to take on this hike: suitable shoes, plenty of water (at least 2l/person), sunscreen, hat and sunglasses.

        The Hamlet is called El Draguillo due to the presence of specimens of the dragon tree Dracaena draco. On the hike we encountered many of them, along with other interesting things such as sheeps hanging around, (heartshaped) cactuses, mini-watermelons - I have no ideea what they really were but they looked so cute I took one home and it's still intact 😂.

        The scenery is worth all the effort! The first part (the climb) is done directly on the mountain leaving Benijo behind. After the climb, you will pass on the other side of the mountain where you will start to descend on a path surrounded by trees. Later on, when you’ll pass El Draguillo, the whole landscape turns into a coastal picture, with the Atlantic Ocean hitting the rocks which are so randomly thrown into the water. 

        If you come here earlier in the day, you can finish the hike by cooling off with a swim in the ocean at Benijo Beach.