Good day to you, Hivers! Today, I'm bringing you a story from a very unusual place: a place called Mil Ventanas de Güímar (a thousand windows of Güímar).
Güímar is a town located in the east of the biggest of the Canary Islands: Tenerife. To me personally, the town isn't very special and is located in a very windy, dry area of the island. But there is one interesting thing about it: the mountains that surround the valley. They are as high as 2300 m and super steep! And it's there, on their steep slopes, where the extreme adventure awaits.
What are the Mil Ventanas de Güímar?
Mil Ventanas (a Thousand Windows) are basically holes carved into vertical rock hundreds of meters above the valley floor. They were built as ventilation and a means to dispose of excavated material in the tunnels that are the main deal here.
Why build tunnels like this, you might ask? Drinkable water has always been a problem in Tenerife (as is, in general, on islands in the middle of the ocean) so its inhabitants would need to transport it to their villages somehow. High, steep mountains always provided these means: their tops are very often in the clouds providing humidity and rain. The people of Tenerife would very often build channels to transport the water wherever they needed it. But in this particular case, they also needed tunnels to accommodate these channels, as there was nothing to build them on on a vertical rock going hundreds of meters up and down. And that's how these tunnels came to be.
Are Mil Ventanas de Güímar safe to hike?
Absolutely not. I'm not kidding: this is the most extreme/dangerous thing I've done in Tenerife (I'm sorry, mom). Not even the volcano climb was as dangerous. Here's why.
First of all, and you can see that from the first glimpse: the path next to the water channel is very narrow and slippery in some places. One wrong step and you might end up hundreds of meters down on the valley floor. Probably not much alive. For that, I think that proper hiking boots are an absolute necessity if you decide to hike there.
Second, even more serious thread, are landslides. This danger is present throughout the whole island: the rocks are steep and constantly exposed to the powers of nature tormenting this island, mainly strong winds. I am no geologist, but I dare to say, erosion here happens pretty fast. Only two days ago, part of a cliff collapsed into the ocean on the northern coast (off Icod de los Vinos) and before that, part of a cliff forced the Bollullo beach to close for several months. In Mil Ventanas, proof of this power of nature is an abandoned and partly wrecked excavator (yes, an excavator, I'm also mindblown) laying by the entrance into the first tunnel that apparently fell here in 2005 thanks to a rock collapsing into the valley.
The thread is constant: I got goosebumps reading some reviews where people admitted witnessing rocks falling onto the path. So how can you protect yourself in case you decided to hike there? Obviously to take a helmet. It’s also going to come in handy in the tunnels because some of them have very low ceilings. The last thing you want in a dark, dark tunnel is to hit your head.
As you can see, this really is an extreme place to go to. Maybe that’s why it’s officially closed and entering here is at your risk and responsibility only. So why would anybody want to do that? Maybe out of curiosity. Maybe out of their thrill-seeking needs. Maybe to see a unique place and avoid crowds of tourists. Maybe for the views. Why did I? For a little bit of all these.
My trip to Mil Ventanas
I’ve read about this place multiple times, so I wasn’t coming there completely unprepared. I was wearing proper hiking shoes, had a lot of water and food with me… but forgot a headlight, which I wanted to take with me. Well, at least I had a phone and power bank to recharge it in case it ran out of battery. I knew about the risk of slipping and falling down the slope, and I also knew about entering on my own risk and responsibility. I didn’t realize there was such a high risk of landslides, otherwise, I might’ve rethought this whole thing.
I came with a group of friends on a very hot day. The adventure started the moment we left the highway and continued on a steep mountain ridge to where the TV antennas are. Our car’s engine was almost boiling and I think that if the slope was a little steeper, the car would’ve flipped over (also not kidding here). But somehow, we managed to park quite close to where we originally wanted and started walking from there.
The first section of the path is very steep so by the time we reached the turn heading to the tunnels, we were sweating like animals. The turn is hard to miss: in front of it, on the right side of the road, there is a big yellow sign forbidding the entrance. But well, what can you do since you’re already here… We obviously continued.
In the beginning, the path is nice, leading between bushes on both sides, with views over the mountains and the valley. But then, as you progress onto the edge of the mountain, It gets a little more dangerous. Sometimes you walk next to the water channel that appears on your left side, sometimes on it, sometimes in it (when the top layer is collapsed). Then you come by the excavator mentioned before, and that’s where the first tunnel starts.
This first tunnel doesn’t have any windows and is the longest of all of them. I felt pretty claustrophobic entering it as I was the first of the group, and I didn’t know what I would find inside or on the other side of it. But with the next tunnels, it got better, and in the third one, we came upon the first out of many windows.
Not everybody in our group was touristically experienced, so it took us a lot of time to reach tunnel no. 4. It was the prettiest one we saw: the windows were closer to each other, there was more light, it was warmer and generally much more pleasant. To the extent, that some plants were growing in it. It was also the last tunnel that we entered. It took us a lot of time to get there, and we needed to go back to return the cars we rented. So we snapped a group picture and returned.
Even though we didn’t reach the most popular (and probably most beautiful) part of this path, the views were beautiful and the whole experience was thrilling. This whole life on the edge (literally, haha), adrenaline pumping like crazy… I kind of enjoyed it. But was it worth the risk? Absolutely not.
In conclusion
To be honest, I don’t really know how to conclude this experience. I would tell you not to go, but at the same time – I did just that so why you should listen to me? I just felt like there wasn’t enough information about this place when I was searching for it. And I would’ve appreciated knowing more, so here it is.
It is a beautiful place. Wild, thrilling, with amazing views. But other, much safer places around the island offer just as beautiful, and even better, views. Without risking half the mountain falling onto your head.
What do you think about it? Would you like to try it for yourself or you absolutely wouldn't enter the tunnel?
Wow, tak tomu říkám dobrodrůžo! :) Já v Guimaru nebyl, ale slyšel jsem jen o těch pyramidách, o tomhle ne :) Zajímavá "podpultovka" :D Každopádně jsem rád, že jsi to ve zdraví přežila a mohla se o to všechno s námi podělit skrze tenhle parádní post ;) Jo a gratulka k opětovnému umístění v Top 3 u Pinmapple! ;) Tady ještě něco málo ode mě...
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Děkuji a děkuji! ;)
Wow, I would have gone there too hahaha, it looks quite intriguing!
I didn't hear about that place when I was traveling in Tenerife years ago, I went to Güímar to see the pyramids hehe, did you visit them?
I get it, I was also very intrigued and that's why I went there in spite of all of this :D
It really is unofficial path and it's hard to find because there are no signs or anything else as the officials really don't want people to go there :D
I didn't go to the pyramids as I've heard they are quite boring :D did you like them?
I'm glad you wrote your review of the place here, maybe other people will find this info and dare to challenge the authorities as well hahaha
Yes, I did like the pyramids, because their history is quite mysterious and that attracted me :)
Maybe I will give it a go then... thanks for the tip! :)
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #1631.
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Thank you! I'm honored!
Perhaps in my youth this would have been appealing, crawling through dark tunnels, excitement of views at the end.
Enjoyed seeing it through your lens, adventure is good, stepping out ones front door could be hit by a bus so taking a chance in unusual places always well worthwhile in my mind.
Thanks for review!
!LUV
Thank you for this comment! Yes, you can indeed get hurt anytime anywhere but why take too many risks, right? Well, it sounds so wrong, me writing this after admitting to having crawled through these crazy tunnels 😂
Weigh up the options of danger then scale through them, always fun to test ourselves. Have a great weekend.
Thank you, you too!
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