Mirador de la Montaña de Arucas

The Mirador de la Montaña de Arucas occupies the top of a pyroclastic cone some 300,000 years old, 412 metres above sea level and directly above the town of Arucas. The crater was shallow and was filled in during the nineteen fifties to build what stands there now, with four stone balconies oriented to the four cardinal points. Between them they take in most of northern Gran Canaria: La Isleta and the capital to the east, Montaña de Gáldar to the west, the green sheet of banana plantations below and the central summits closing the horizon to the south. On clear days Teide appears across the water. A blue stone cross crowns the mountain, donated by local quarrying firms after the wooden one was brought down by tropical storm Delta in November 2005.

A surfaced road climbs all the way to the summit, and the walk up from the centre of Arucas takes around forty minutes, an uphill stretch best repaid at sunset. There is a restaurant and parking at the top, and the stroll between the balconies is level and easy. Wind and calima decide what you get: with clean air the panorama reaches Tenerife, with dust haze it stops at the edge of the municipality. The southern and south-eastern slopes hold the prehispanic settlement of Arehucas, inhabited since at least the fourth century, with natural and cut caves and dry-stone houses. The viewpoint belongs to the island's official mirador network and pairs easily with a visit to the town and its stone church.