Tenerife Part 3

Another day in the car exploring the island.  I'm sticking to the green, wild north side today, I learned my lesson yesterday.  My first destination of the morning was the picturesque mountain village of Masca, located at the furthest west point of all those green squiggles.  It's set in an incredibly steep gorge, and was incredibly remote up until 13 years ago when the first road to the village was finally built.  My reading warned me that the "narrow road can be hairy" with blind, steep curves (ergo=green squiggles) and "can be packed, come early or late".  I have to say, I do have some experience driving curvy, steep, narrow roads but I do get worried about other drivers who don't!  So I had an early-by-Spanish-standards start of 8:30am and reached the start of this newest motoring adventure by 9:30am.  I was lucky to have only 3 cars coming up in the other direction to get around and the sun hadn't yet made it over the pass so in the end it wasn't too overly harrowing.

Heading back to the south coast

Overlooking part of the road to Masca

I made it! Masca!

Looking back at the valley Masca is in

The setting was stunning, the village charming, but I was a bit antsy about traffic and I didn't relish returning the same way I came like a little minnow trying to fight its way upstream, so I took a few snaps and headed on up and out thru the far side of the gorge.

Okay, so I beat the hordes of tourists at Masca but I could not outrace the wind. It was raging up at this elevation! I tried to stop at a viewpoint to take the next photo but my little Fiat was literally rocking back and forth and I was truly scared that it was going to be flung out over the precipice! So I drove a few hundred feet further and stopped in the (empty) oncoming lane of traffic where I felt safer! ;-)

What are those big scars in the little hill? I drove right by them, so someone was digging something out but what? And why so neatly spaced?

After such an exciting morning the rest of my planned stops seemed a bit tame - to see a 1000 year old tree and some seaside swimming pools built out of volcanic rock.  The weather over here was dark and cloudy and I thought: wouldn't it be lovely to stop driving, return the car, and have a long leisurely lunch back in Puerto? So I did!



And that was yesterday.  Today I'm flying back to Madrid, then tomorrow back home to the desert. ¡Qué gran viaje ha sido!