Vertical And Brutal: On the island of La Palma expect to encounter vertical / steep trails almost everywhere. Tazacorte is not expection. Its vertical trail happens to be the Vertical KM of the Transvulcania (the Ultra trail event of La Palma) as well as the Paris Chiquito and Paris Chiquitito (the local trail race of the village). The name "Paris Chiquito", the small Paris, goes back in time when Tazacorte was an oppulant village thanks to the trading of sugar cane.
The Short Training Route: Vertical Run El Time, one of the most popular short training spot. Starting from the beach of Puerto de Tazacorte, on the GR 131, within 2.5km you will reach a first mirador at 250 meters, where you can just return down to the beach. From this first mirador, you can keep going up to the main road and the Mirador of El Time at 3.5km. You can also keep going on the GR 131 up to La Traviesa ( PR LP 10) at 1200m and complete a full vertical Kilometer (1km of Elevation).
The Paris Chiquitito or The Wall, the local race of Tazacorte has two distances 16km and 8km. Paris Chiquito is used for the 16km. Paris Chiquitito is the name of the original loop of 8-10km with +/- 650 meters of elevation. Starting on playa de Tazacorte, this route goes into the barranco (river bank) de Las Angustias up to a walking bridge. Take the left and cross the bridge to climb on the GR 130 up to El Time. When you finally reach the top at 650 meters of altitude, you can turn left to run down by the GR 131 back to Puerto de Tazacorte. You can turn right to run up on the GR 131 to Roque Los Muchachos (alt 2450 meters). You can keep straight on the GR 130 to reach the village of Tijarafe.
Map of the Routes between Tazacorte and El Time: For my morning usual wake-up routine, I run down from the village to the beach, run on the GR 131 vertical up the first mirador and then down to the beach for a swim and the a coffee before going back home. For a longer run (in blue on the map), I do The Wall, which is the second route by the barranco de las Angustias, up on the GR 130, when I reach the GR 131, I turn on the left to run down back to Playa de Tazacorte.
