Garachico

Garachico was the island's main port and its richest town, shipping the Malvasia wine that Shakespeare's characters drink, until the night in May 1706 when a fi…Garachico was the island's main port and its richest town, shipping the Malvasia wine that Shakespeare's characters drink, until the night in May 1706 when a fissure opened above it and a lava flow ran down the mountain, filled the harbour and destroyed most of the town.

What happened next is why it is worth the drive. The town rebuilt itself on the lava, and the flow that ruined it left a jagged black shelf out into the sea. That shelf now holds El Caleton, a set of natural rock pools that fill and drain with the tide and are the town's swimming, with ladders and walkways added and nothing else changed.

The sixteenth-century harbour castle survived the eruption because the lava split around it, and it still stands at the water's edge. Behind it the old town is a grid of narrow streets, convents and a plaza of laurel trees, small enough to walk in an hour and almost entirely free of the development that reached the rest of the coast.

It is about forty-five minutes west of Puerto de la Cruz along a coast road that is worth the time in itself, and it is one of the few places on the island where a visitor is clearly the minority.