The storey goes that in the Villa de La Orotava, there were up to 13 gofio mills, where people from all over the Valley and even from distant lands came in search of this highly revered food. This blessed powder has relieved countless labours and brought joy to times of great hardship. Ditches, arches, buckets, hoppers, horns, chabocos, tanks, troughs, jets, and laundries are the guardians of a not-so-distant past, a way of living and subsisting where water played a key role since the 16th century.
On this route called 'A los molinos de la Villa, a moler gofio se vino', we're paying tribute to the water heritage that still breathes in these streets of northern Tenerife and to the essential food of the Canaries, after five centuries of history. The mills, using the power of the water, generated the energy needed to do the magical job of grinding the roasted grain. Ten of these mills are still standing, all along an imaginary 'water path' - the canal that links them. Back in the day, there were also public laundries and drinking troughs here, which are now seen as ethnographic treasures.
During our tour, we'll uncover its secrets and curiosities, discovering a part of the splendid Villa de La Orotava that seems to have fallen into a sweet lethargy, but that wakes up every morning with the sound of the wheels of the two mills that still dance in their work and where we'll have the chance to taste this delicious delicacy and visit one of its mills exclusively.
