Chinamada Cave Village: Inside Tenerife's Living Troglodyte Hamlet

What Chinamada Actually Is

Chinamada is not a ruin, a reconstruction, or a folklore exhibit. It is a working hamlet of approximately 30 cave houses cut directly into the volcanic tuff of the Anaga massif, and a small number of people still live in them year-round. Officially known as the Caserío de Chinamada, it sits at roughly 600 metres above sea level in the northeast of Tenerife, within the boundaries of Anaga Rural Park, one of the oldest and most biodiverse corners of the Canary Islands.

The dwellings are not primitive holes in a cliff. From the outside they look like modest whitewashed village houses, but their rear walls and sometimes their entire interiors are the rock itself. Many have been extended and modernised over generations, with electricity and running water added in recent decades. What makes Chinamada remarkable is not spectacle but continuity: people have been carving shelter into this particular ridge for centuries, and some still choose to stay.

The hamlet sits in the broader context of Anaga Rural Park, a biosphere reserve classified as a protected nature park in 1994. The park preserves some of the last remaining laurisilva forest in the world, a subtropical laurel forest that once covered much of the Mediterranean basin and now survives only in the Macaronesian islands. Chinamada lies within that canopy, which means the trail approach is cool, green, and dramatically different from the arid south coast most visitors know.

The History Behind the Cave Houses

Cave dwelling in the Anaga mountains predates Spanish colonisation. The Guanche, the indigenous people of Tenerife, used natural and excavated caves extensively for shelter, storage, and burial. The volcanic tuff that makes up much of the Anaga ridgeline is soft enough to carve with basic tools yet stable enough to hold a dwelling for centuries. Chinamada is among the clearest surviving examples of this tradition continuing uninterrupted into the present day.

After the Spanish conquest in the late 15th century, peasant farming communities adapted and expanded the existing cave structures. The hamlet grew organically along the ridge, with each dwelling shaped by the available rock rather than any formal plan. The result is an irregular, layered settlement that looks almost grown into the hillside rather than built upon it.

This ethnographic depth puts Chinamada in a different category from most Tenerife attractions. It is not a church, a park, or a beach: it is a piece of pre-colonial architecture that is still in daily use. For context on the broader indigenous and colonial history of the island, the Museo de la Naturaleza y Arqueología in Santa Cruz holds one of the most significant Guanche archaeological collections in existence.

Getting to Chinamada: The Trail Experience

There is no easy way to reach Chinamada, and that is part of what makes it worth the effort. The most common approach follows the marked trail PR-TF 10 from Cruz del Carmen, a rest area and visitor point on the Anaga high road (TF-12) reachable by TITSA buses 273, 76 and 77 from La Laguna. The trail winds through dense laurel forest before emerging onto open ridgelines with views over the northeast coast.

The alternative start point is Las Carboneras, a small hamlet accessible by a narrow mountain road from the TF-12. From Las Carboneras, the walk to Chinamada is shorter and less forested, crossing more exposed terrain above the Barranco de Chinamada ravine. Some hikers combine both approaches into a linear route: bus to Cruz del Carmen, walk through the forest to Chinamada, continue downhill to Punta del Hidalgo on the north coast, and return by bus; official route guides put this full traverse at around 10.4 kilometres and 5–6 hours, so allowing four to six hours depending on pace is sensible.

Drivers can reach Chinamada via the TF-12 and onward mountain roads, but parking near the hamlet is extremely limited and the final stretch is narrow enough to require reversing if another vehicle appears. On weekends and in summer, parking spaces fill early. The vast majority of visitors arrive on foot, which is the intended approach.

What You See When You Arrive

Chinamada appears gradually as you come along the ridge: first a cluster of white facades against the dark rock, then the full settlement spread along the crest of the hill. The houses face outward, their frontages neat and domestic, but the rock face behind them is visible at the edges, and in a few places you can see where the living rock simply becomes the back wall of a room. There are chickens. There are vegetable plots cut into terraces. There is, remarkably, a restaurant.

Restaurante La Cueva is the one establishment in the hamlet, operating inside a cave house at the centre of the settlement. It serves local Canarian food, reportedly including traditional stews and the island staple of papas arrugadas with mojo. As of available reports it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and hours can vary, so it is worth checking locally or online before you plan your arrival time around it. On a clear weekday morning it is often quiet enough that you can sit outside with very few other visitors.

The physical village is small and you can walk the length of it in a few minutes. What takes time is the viewpoint. Chinamada sits on a promontory with unobstructed sightlines north toward the Atlantic and the coast at Punta del Hidalgo far below, with a drop from the village edge of several hundred metres to the valley floor. On clear days, La Palma or La Gomera may be visible on the horizon.

Time of Day and Seasonal Considerations

The Anaga mountains generate their own microclimate. Cloud frequently forms along the ridge through the morning, burning off by mid-afternoon on most days, but it can also roll in and stay all day in autumn and winter. The laurel forest is at its atmospheric best when low cloud moves through it, turning the path into something from a fairy tale, but the viewpoint from Chinamada becomes meaningless when fully socked in.

Arriving mid-morning on a weekday gives you the best combination of light, cooler temperatures for the hike, and low visitor numbers. Weekend afternoons in summer can bring a noticeable increase in hikers on the PR-TF 10 trail, though Chinamada never becomes overcrowded in the way that beach resorts do. The hamlet itself is a quiet, residential place and should be treated as such: residents still live and work here, and wandering into unfenced properties is not appropriate.

For a broader sense of how to plan walking in the Anaga area alongside other trails, the hiking in Tenerife guide covers trail conditions, difficulty ratings, and practical logistics across the island.

Photography and Practical Details

The main photographic interest at Chinamada is the juxtaposition of ordinary domestic life with extraordinary geology: laundry hung out to dry against raw volcanic tuff, a television aerial attached to a cave facade, neat curtains framing windows cut into stone. Shoot from the public path and avoid framing private interiors or photographing residents without their acknowledgement.

The viewpoint north of the hamlet gives wide shots across the ravine and toward the coast. Early afternoon light falls directly on the cave facades, which are largely north-facing, making midday better for the architecture than is typical. For the forest sections on the approach trail, overcast conditions actually produce better results than harsh sun, as the canopy is dense and direct light creates heavy contrast.

Bring water: there is no reliable public supply on the trail and the restaurant may not always be open. Wear layers, as temperatures on the ridge can be noticeably cooler than the coast even in summer. The hamlet has no phone signal on several networks, so download offline maps before you leave. The Anaga area is covered in the Anaga mountains guide, which includes practical notes on the full park.

Who Should and Should Not Visit

Chinamada rewards curiosity and a willingness to move slowly on foot. It suits hikers who want a cultural destination at the end of a trail, history enthusiasts interested in Guanche and rural Canarian heritage, and photographers looking for something beyond the island's volcanic landscapes and beach scenery.

Visitors who are primarily interested in beaches, nightlife, or resort amenities will find nothing here for them. The site is not accessible without a significant walk or a narrow mountain drive, there are no facilities beyond one restaurant, and the attraction is genuinely subtle: you have to be interested in what a living cave village means to get much from it. If your base is in the south of the island, the travel time is also considerable. In that case, a day trip that combines Chinamada with the nearby historic city of La Laguna and the Anaga high road makes better use of the journey.

The trails are not suitable for young children in pushchairs, visitors with mobility impairments, or anyone who is not comfortable on uneven mountain terrain with exposed edges. This is not a criticism of the place: it is essential information for planning. If the physical demands are beyond your current fitness or condition, the Anaga high road itself (TF-12) offers viewpoints over the park that require no hiking at all.