The main attraction in ICOD DE LOS VIÑOS is the giant yucca-like dragon tree , El Drago; and though the town is one of the oldest inhabited sites on the island, only a small portion of it is particularly historic. Luckily for visitors, this area of sixteenth-century houses with ornate balconies is right beside the tree, making exploration of the most interesting parts of town an easy one-stop trip.

 

El Drago , the world's largest and oldest specimen of the endemic dragon tree, stands above the main road at the western end of town. Though its dimensions make the tree commanding enough - seventeen metres high and with a six metre trunk circumference - its true impressiveness arises from its age. In the late eighteenth century the German scientist Humboldt proclaimed it to be the oldest living thing on earth, and estimations of its age have ranged from about 3000 years to around 500 years - the last the best current estimation of its age. Even at a sprightly 500 years old, it pre-dates all the buildings that surround it.

The tree stands in a garden, to which admission is charged (¬3), but many visitors satisfy themselves with looking at it for free from an elevated shady square nearby, next to the late sixteenth-century lglesia de San Marcos . The church is worth a look, too, for its Baroque interior, fine Canarian pine ceiling and the two-metre high filigree silver cross on the altar.

For a closer look at a dragon tree, albeit not the oldest on the island, head a short way up Calle de San Antonio past stylish sixteenth- and seventeenth-century buildings to the Drago Chico . This old town district also contains the Mariposa del Drago (daily 9.30am-6pm; ¬4; tel 922/815 167), a tropical garden swarming with butterflies, and the Restaurante Carmen , Avda de Las Canarias 1, a reasonable-quality Canarian restaurant with fairly moderate prices whose menu includes a good local stew, the Puchero Canario (¬5).