Tenerife Part 2

Day 1 of my two day driving tour of Tenerife.  There was a little kiosk right outside my hotel so I rented a little Fiat Panda and set off up into the mountains!  I couldn't see Mt. Teide from my hotel room so I wasn't sure what the conditions would be like on top but as it's extremely high and one of the best astronomical viewpoints in the world, I anticipated I'd end up being above the clouds and in the bright, clean high air.

I outlined in blue my route on the map above and you can see the squiggles I had to deal with on the way up, dozens and dozens of hairpin curves.  I started to feel a bit nauseous - and that's pretty rare when you're the one doing the driving!  I was right (and alright) in the end, as I progressed up from the tropical seafront to pine forests, then through the misty cloud layer and up into the startling clear air on the volcanic plateau that formed the National Park of Mt. Teide.

Cooled volcanic basalt columns that had been turned sideways at some point during their formation and 'burst' open to form this flower shape. Pretty neat.

The volcano is still active though it hasn't had a major eruption in a hundred years or so. Evidence of the different flows can been seen in the different colored rocks and shapes of the flows

Can't really see but over my left shoulder there's a cable car that goes up to almost the top of the volcano, from 2356m to 3,555m (top is 3718m)

Heading over and down the other side of the park to the south end of the island.

I have to say, the bicyclists around here are legendary!  I saw dozens riding the roads up to Teide - this has got to be at least 20-30 miles going UP without any relief, and UP to the tune of 6500'+!  And then another 20-30 miles DOWN the same hairpin curves.  In fact, one lady cyclist passed me, passed me while I was driving my car!  Incredible.



Just as I reached the ocean I stopped for a photo op overlooking Los Gigantes and their famous sea cliffs. It's supposed to be pleasant and peaceful with a good selection of English bars (so says TripAdvisor) but I wasn't hungry or thirsty so I turned left to continue driving down to the South bit of the island.  Remember, the south is the touristy side.  So much so that I couldn't bear to stop: people, cars, hotels.  Besides, my ankle was getting a bit cranky from working a stick-shift for so long so I headed to the highway and did a drive-by of the whole rest of my route.  Barren, arid, dry, windy. Just like home! Ha!  I don't even have any photos to share as nothing seemed photogenic.