La Garita is one of the cosiest and most popular beaches in the municipality of Telde. It is shaped like an open sea shell, with fine dark sand. It is 260 m long and has an average width of 25 m. It is a quiet, family oriented beach packed with a fine choice of restaurants and ample parking for those with restricted mobility. It also has specially adapted bathing and first aid facilities in the high season and at weekends.
The oldest recorded name of the present day beach at La Garita is Puerto Madera. Its origins are linked to the past activity of wood importation brought in for the construction of houses and sugar mills during the 16th century, which thrived around Vega Mayor de Telde at that time.
![Views from the "Playa de La Garita" Viewpoint](http://www.grancanaria.com/turismo/fileadmin/user_upload/_imported/LaGarita260_.jpg "Views from the "Playa de La Garita" Viewpoint")
![Views from the "Playa de La Garita" Viewpoint](http://www.grancanaria.com/turismo/fileadmin/user_upload/_imported/LaGarita260.jpg "Views from the "Playa de La Garita" Viewpoint")
Over the last decade we have seen how the Salina de La Garita has all but disappeared. Speculative construction on a large scale has led to the demise of these Salinas, or salt works, which used to be of high cultural and ethnographical relevance in the region.
A little further southwards along this promenade, we come across a quite unique landscape: the multi-shaped basalt rock formation of Corral de las Yeguas. As we move along, we arrive at the “La Garita Blowhole”, an underwater sea cave. Here the foam that comes crashing in with the great tides has shaped some spectacular little cascades as it falls into the interior of the blowhole. The compressed sea in this lava hollow then spurts out like a geyser through a tiny orifice in the rock, representing a truly marvellous natural volcanic phenomenon along our coastline.
Text: Álvaro Monzón (environmental writer)
