HUMBOLDT WATCHTOWER

This viewpoint offers a spectacular view of the valley of La Orotava and Teide. The landscape, which opens in front of the traveller from the east and extends up to 3 700 m, is particularly beautiful in the morning, when the volcano is in sunlight. The clouds of the trade winds make the landscape blurred. From there, we admire the extensive banana plantations in a vast circus, probably due to a huge landslide, similar to the one that formed El Golfo Bay on the island of El Hierro. This lookout bears the name of Alexander von Humboldt, the geographer and German naturalist who, in 1799, wrote enthusiastically: " I saw hot areas where nature is more majestic, and its richer forms, but, after wandering along the banks of the Orinoco, cordilleras of Peru, beautiful valleys of Mexico, I confess that I never met, in any part of the world, a more varied, more attractive, and more harmonious view of the disposition of rocks and green spots. " Today, La Orotava Valley has lost a bit of its charm, invaded by urbanization in the th century, but nature still offers a beautiful panorama.