The big draw here is the Teide (Tay’ day) volcano. Tenerife means “white mountain” and Teide means “hell”. Teide does get snow. Ron took an excursion to ride a cable car almost to the top (over 11,000 ft) and I joined a tour that was intended to do star gazing. As measured from the sea floor, Teide is 24,600 ft which makes it the 3rd highest volcano in the world after Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Last eruption was 1909, there’s a major observatory, and the Mars Rover was tested here.
The Canary Island pine forests through which we passed reminded all the Californians of Lake Tahoe – including large swaths of burnt trees from their most recent forest fires. The trees are quite adapted to fire given the amount of volcanic activity they live in – most had resprouted. It was clear that the fires pass through very hot and fast – there’s not a lot of ground cover.
It does appear as if the volcano is erupting – but just clouds at the right moment.
It was quite bizarre to get above the cloud cover and end up in the landscape that you see below.
The layers were fascinating and beautiful.
At a famous viewpoint, these sections of an information billboard explained how the rock formations in the following pictures are formed.
The one with the very narrow base is so famous it appeared on the 1000 pesetas note (about $6 today).
We stopped for sunset photos and a glass of Spanish cava (sparkling wine) before star gazing. The bus driver enthusiastically posed us for pictures.
Not sure about the source of the green light – something with the camera. I’ll figure out a good conspiracy story eventually.
Unfortunately, the star gazing mostly didn’t happen. Mother nature didn’t cooperate – mostly cloud cover. Add to that a full moon. However, the guide was ready with 5 large telescopes so we were able to see a few constellations and he had some creative ways to explain astronomical concepts so we weren’t bored.
While I was looking for stars, Ron was on his way back from riding on a cable car up Mt. Teide. If you look closely, you can see the cable station close to the top. He did say he was a little light headed (they went to almost 12,000 feet) but the cable car was so crowded he wouldn’t have fallen down – just slumped a bit.
Day 2 in Tenerife found us on an easy walk through town – a delightful beach-side location that’s really popular with European tourists. The beach itself is quite hazardous – last year, more people drowned swimming there than died in car accidents. Not coincidentally, water parks are very popular – we saw one of the oldest, built in 1977 and subsequently enhanced over the years.
We were stopped by a teacher who was on a field trip with a group of kids. She asked where we were from – she herself was from San Diego and taught at an international school for English. She had a couple of them read, in English, from cards that described a nearby cathedral. Another teacher videotaped the lesson. We were happy to comply.
The people watching was great, as usual. This scene reminded me of an Edward Hopper painting.
Back to Portugal tomorrow.
We’ve been following you right along and enjoying our virtual trip!