In the municipality of La Orotava is perhaps the most famous national park in the Canary Islands, the Teide Reserve. It was formed in 1954 and covers two peaks of Tenerife - the volcanoes Teide and Pico Viejo, as well as the surrounding area.
The national park covers an area of 18900 hectares. The most interesting object of the reserve is considered to be the Teide volcano, which is 3,718 metres above sea level. In fact, the base of the volcano is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, so if you find yourself on its summit, you can congratulate yourself, for you have conquered a mountain of 7,500 metres. It is possible to climb to the crater of Teide, and for this purpose it is not necessary to persistently and long walk up the steep slope. To the mark of 3555 metres rises the cable car. Further up, the way is closed, unless travellers have taken care of a special permit issued by the Teide National Park office in La Orotava, which allows them to walk a little further to look into the volcano. From the point where the cable car takes you to the volcano, you can see the island of Tenerife and the other islands of the Canary Archipelago.
The park, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, was once a sacred place for the Guanches, a people who lived in the Canary Archipelago. The aborigines believed that the vent of the Teide volcano was the entrance to hell.
The volcano is now asleep. The lava that formed during its last eruption has mixed with the soil and contributed to the rapid growth of many native plant species. Among them are 33 species of endemics, i.e. those flora that grow only on Tenerife.
