La Entrada - Malpaís de Güímar - Tenerife

Every year, around September or October , spring tides and underwater currents bring large amounts of sand, from underwater deposits off the neighboring hamlet of El Socorro, to La Entrada beach, which in a few days grows into a huge black sand beach.

From there they are slowly dragged inland from Malpaís by the dominant trade winds, until the tides tear away the sand again and the beach returns to its most usual appearance. Therefore, the beach can be sandy for one or two months a year.

The wind-blown sand moves centimeter by centimeter until it reaches the foot of the Montaña Grande and covers a wide strip that has given rise to a unique ecosystem of great importance, inhabited by a fauna and flora very different from those of the rest of the country.

It is impressive to walk the border between this strip of sand and the lava.

Willem Vandenameele