Agaete Valley

From the mirador you look straight down the valley, the whole of it, with pines around you and the farmland falling away towards Agaete. Terraced plots step down both slopes, and the white houses thin out the higher the road climbs.

The valley floor is a patchwork of farms. Coffee grows here alongside mango, avocado and citrus, which is rare anywhere in Europe and gives the lower valley its dense green colour against the bare rock of the ridges above.

The view costs almost no effort. You park beside the lookout and step out to it. Further down the road, the winery Bodega Finca La Laja looks over the same stretch of valley.

• There are no toilets and no drinking water at the viewpoint or nearby — bring water with you.
• The GC-231 is a dead end: the road stops further up the valley, and you return the way you came.
• There is no wheelchair-accessible parking or entrance.
• A waymarked path, the S-97, passes about 270 m away, with a guidepost for El Sao further on.

From the town of Agaete, the GC-231 heads inland and climbs up the valley through farms and scattered houses. The viewpoint stands beside the road high up, among the pines, and the free parking sits right next to the lookout, so there is nothing left to walk.

A second parking area lies about 320 m away. By bus, the nearest stop is El Valle, about 315 m away in a straight line, with another stop about 360 m away.

The road does not go through to anywhere else. Past the viewpoint it ends further up the valley, so plan to drive back down the same way.

Best: a clear morning, with the sun behind you as you look down the valley.

Avoid: late afternoon, when the light comes from the sea end of the valley into your eyes.

The valley opens towards the coast to the west, so the morning sun falls on the slopes you are looking at, and later in the day the view turns hazy and backlit.