Canarian waterfalls aren’t common. There are lots of temporary waterfalls after heavy rain, but they tend to be very short-lived. But La Palma has two, pretty much year round.
This one is in the Los Tilos biosphere reserve. From the visitor centre, you follow either the ravine or the water channel upstream. (If you follow the ravine, be prepared for some scrambling. If you follow the channel, bring a torch because there are dark tunnels) It only took me about 20 minutes to get to the waterfall – and you hear it long before you see it.
The waterfall’s been here since the 1950s. Before then, the water used to run down the ravine, but when most of the water was channelled for agriculture,they diverted some into the waterfall, just to be beautiful.
In the eastern Canaries, that would be conspicuous consumption.
There’s a very steep path up beside the waterfall, so steep that I didn’t feel safe scrambling up there alone, out of mobile phone coverage. You can also carry on up the ravine, but I’d run out of time and had to go home and produce lunch.
