Icod Cueva del Viento

This is a circular tour based on Icod. I reached Icod from Puerto de la Cruz and returned to it using the #363 guagua. The best place to start and finish the tour is the bus station. The #363 guagua runs every 30 minutes.
The route out of Icod is via San Antonio and it’s a steady climb for about an hour and a half along tarmacced roads with houses becoming more infrequent before you reach the Canarian pine forest and feel your cares and worries melt away as you enjoy nature. In many places the climb is very steep.
Once in the forest, yellow and white blazes on rocks or trees signify the trail PR-TF-42. Occasionally, they will have a cross through them to indicate it is not the trail.
I had not realised that Cueva del Viento is only admissible with a guide on a paying visit. I decided to skip visiting the cave. However, the area near the cave is really quite pretty with rocks marking the edges of the path. At one point there were low walls, like the remains of houses and a big circular structure which I gather had been used for growing wheat.
After leaving the wood, the path seems to go around people’s back gardens. Eventually the path came out by big house with its own drive. This is still on the trail PR-TF-42 but there was a gate at end of the drive that was locked; fortunately, the holiday makers staying there were home and unlocked the gate for me. I hate to think what would have happened had nobody been there.
Having survived that test I had to descend an incredibly steep road where I could only sidestep my way down. That was slow going, but eventually the gradient become more manageable as I reached the outskirts of Icod.
The way back was through San Antonio leading to the pretty Plaza Constitución: here are two museums and close by is the church. From here it was five minutes back to the bus station. It is certainly worth making time to see this part of Icod.