The one place we really wanted to visit in more detail in La Orotava is Casa de Los Balcones, a magnificent mansion from the 17th century. It gets its name from the beautifully carved wooden balconies, they are quite special to see from the outside and we wonder how it really looks from the inside.
We enter and soon start exploring the rooms, well from the outside. Most of them are sealed in but at least we can see the items inside through the windows, really the rich of the time knew how to live.
As most buildings of the rich of the time they have an interior courtyard, like a small castle with many more interior covered walkways overlooking the courtyard.
We continue exploring the rooms with a very fancy dinner table and the nearby servants room or so we assume. It might be the masters room but it is too small and we assume that the masters were on the second floor which is not part of the self guided tour.
The mansion is quite beautiful really with lots of intricate wooden carvings and beautiful woodwork, we really like exploring it.
Next is the kitchen and the bath situated right next to an exit, quite weird but i guess that is how they were building at that time. And then it is time to descend into the courtyard from which we can return outside.
Downstairs there are a few artisanal shops but they are full of tour groups so after admiring the art from outside we finish our visit as it is time to continue exploring the interesting La Orotava downtown area.
