For a prolonged stay the Monte is preferable to Las Palmas. It is reached by the Carretera del Centro (comp. Pl. A, 5), the best road in the island. Ascending from the suburb of San Roque, and soon affording splendid views, the road at first follows the Barranco de Guiniguada (p. [45]), and then winds up the slopes of the Pico del Viento (820 ft.).
3¾ M. Tafira (1230 ft.; Hotel Victoria; James’s Boarding House), the first village on the *Monte, a colony of villas and a favourite winter resort of the English.
8 M. Santa Brígida (1572 ft.; Hot. Santa Brígida, in a fine open situation with a beautiful park, pens. from 10s. 6d.; Quiney’s Bella Vista, ½ M. below the other, pens. 8–10s.), a finely situated village with 500 inhabitants.
The road, still unfinished, goes on to Telde (p. [47]), passing the curious cave-village of Atalaya (1720 ft.), which rises in terraces on the hill-side. The tufa walls of the cave-dwellings are hung with mats. The industry of the place is the manufacture of pottery, notably the porous water-jars so common in N. Africa.
The ascent of the *Pico de Vandama (1838 ft.) may be made from Atalaya or direct from Santa Brígida (there and back 2 hrs.; mule 3 p.). This hill, overgrown with pines and tree-like broom, overlooks the grand mountain landscape of the E. coast. Very striking is the view of the *Caldera de Vandama, a huge crater-basin of about 550 yds. in diameter and 683 ft. in depth. Its floor is planted with vines and cereals, and it is worth while to ride down into it.
The Carretera del Centro leads, beyond the bifurcation for Atalaya, to (13 M.) the little town of San Mateo (2575 ft.; fair inn), superbly situated among the mountains. Rough mule-tracks lead thence to the Pico de las Nieves (6400 ft.), to the village of Tejeda (3160 ft.) in the *Barranco de Tejeda (p. [43]), and to the cave-village of Artenara.
Scarcely less attractive than the Monte road is the *Carretera del Sur, which leads from Las Palmas, at first passing the cemeteries, then skirting the rocks of the E. coast, and at length turning inland, piercing the lava-rock by a tunnel, to Ginámar and (8 M.) Telde (394 ft.; inn; pop. 4000), a picturesque little town amidst beautiful orange-groves.
The Carretera del Norte, crossing the Barranco de San Lorenzo and the road from Puerto de la Luz (p. [43]) at Tamaraceite, and farther on, beyond a long tunnel, the Barranco de Tenoya above the village of that name, leads to (10 M.) Arucas (1017 ft.; two inns), an industrial little town of 2900 inhab., at the foot of the Montaña de Arucas, a hill affording fine views. The sugar-cane is cultivated in the vicinity.
A by-road diverges from this carretera, beyond the Barranco de San Lorenzo, to (12½ M.) Teror (1936 ft.; dirty inn), a little town with the famous pilgrimage-church of the Virgen del Pino (16th cent.).