Cueva del Viento Lava Tube

Underground, the first thing you notice is the air. It moves through the passages, and that draught gave Cueva del Viento, the Wind Cave, its name. Lava from Pico Viejo left the tube behind, and it runs for more than 17 km on three levels stacked one above another like the floors of a building, with lava pits and terraces along the way. That layout makes it the most complex volcanic tube known.

The rock has kept older things too. Bones of Gallotia goliath, a giant lizard, and Canariomys bravoi, a giant rat, have turned up here, and so have traces of the Guanches at several entrances. Naturalist guides take groups through and explain how the tube formed and what lives in it. The visit covers only a small part of the system.

• Wear shoes with firm soles: the lava floor inside is rough and uneven.
• Bring a jacket. The cave stays cool whatever the weather outside.
• Off the main road, the lane up to the cave is narrow and steep. Take it slowly.
• Tours run in several languages, English among them.
• The information centre where the visit starts explains the cave before you go underground.

Most visitors come by car. Once you leave the main road, the lane up to the cave turns narrow and steep, so drive it slowly. There is plenty of parking at the top: two car parks for customers lie within about 75 m of the cave, and there is free parking along the street as well. The visit begins at the information centre.

Without a car, the nearest bus stop is Los Dos Caminos, about 940 m away in a straight line, and the rest of the way is on foot.

Best: a grey or wet day on the north coast. The tube holds the same cool temperature all year, so rain outside changes nothing below ground.

Avoid: summer and school-holiday weeks without a booking. Group sizes are capped, and at the busiest times of year the tours fill ahead.

Cueva del Viento is a protected Natura 2000 site, and visitors enter the tube on a guided tour. Stay with your guide and the group. Leave rock, bones and lava formations where they lie: the fossils of extinct Canarian animals and the Guanche remains found here are part of what the protection covers.