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Los Silos – a town in Tenerife’s Isla Baja |
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Written by Steve Andrews
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 Los Silos is a charming coastal town and a municipal borough found in the northwest of Tenerife in the area known as Isla Baja (low island) and is often described as the “Secret of Tenerife.” Garachico, Buenavista and El Tanque are also included in the Isla Baja area.
Los Silos gets its name from three silos that were made around the year 1509, and were needed to store the abundant cereal crops that were harvested in this area of Tenerife. Los Silos, today, has stayed very close to its agricultural past and has many banana plantations surrounding the town. It also boasts an excellent organic fruit and vegetable shop on the roadway signposted for paths to El Monte de Agua and Las Cuevas Negras.
 Los Silos is unspoiled by the tourism sector of Tenerife and still has quiet cobblestone streets, although it also offers plenty of shops, bars, restaurants, a post office and other local businesses. Los Silos has a very pretty square with a bandstand and café bar.
 Los Silos boasts a very beautiful Tenerife church that was built in the 16th Century and restored in neo-Gothic style during the early 20th century and is known as the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Luz (Our Lady of the Light). The church has white outer walls that gleam in the Tenerife sunshine and is a focal point of Los Silos.
Our Lady of the Light is also represented on the Tenerife coat of arms of Los Silos, which shows a tower, built on the mountains to defend against pirates, as well as three caves in Mount Aregume.
 Not far away on the Los Silos coast of northern Tenerife is La Piscina, a large public swimming pool that is right next to a restaurant that looks out over the sea back towards Garachico some 6km away. On the other side is a beach of mainly pebbles and rocks and just a bit further along is a natural swimming pool made by a very large rock-pool.
 The rocky coast in this part of Los Silos is popular with Tenerife anglers. The low-lying countryside on the coast is equally popular with naturalists and botanists who can find many rare endemic plant species that grow there including the Leafless Spurge (Euphorbia aphylla), a short succulent spurge known in Spanish as Tolda.
 Between Los Silos and Buenavista, which is the next neighbouring town on the Teno peninsula, stands the towering volcanic cone mountain known as Montaña de Taco.
Regular Tenerife buses run through Los Silos with the 363 from Buenavista to Puerto and the 107 Santa Cruz to Buenavista.
Los Silos is well worth visiting and is part of Tenerife’s secret that shouldn’t be hidden away if you really fancy discovering all that the island has on offer.
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Tenerife Island 
