It’s a funny thing being on two continents at the same time. I am on Tenerife, an island in the Canary Islands, which are politically and culturally part of Spain and therefore Europe, but geographically, I’m in Africa. These eight islands, formed by a volcanic hot spot like Hawaii, are off the coast of Morocco at the border with Western Sahara. Many of the pictures you see below are murky because there is a dust storm in the Sahara Desert, making the air quality poor. Tenerife is 186 miles from the coast of Africa. The last land Cristopher Columbus stopped at was in Tenerife before he sailed across the Atlantic and discovered the New World.
I arrived at Tenerife South on a 6-hour flight from Oslo, Norway. The weather change for me was extreme as on Friday in Oslo, it was raining hard most of the day and was cold enough for a winter jacket but the dry, sunny weather here was pleasant sufficient for bikinis on the beach on Saturday. No wonder the signage here includes English, German, French, and one of the Scandinavian languages. (I can’t differentiate between them yet so I can’t tell you if it is Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, or Icelandic.)
I didn’t know what to make of the place when I arrived. I’m still deciding what I think of southern Tenerife. The reason I came is because I saw a program on PBS about the Canary Islands. The natural aspects of the islands are what drew me here, but the first impression I got was of overdevelopment and Europeans overindulging in cheap food and drink. I’m getting a strong whiff of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, crossed with Barcelona, Spain, and Puerto Rico.
After I arrived by public bus from the airport, I wandered down toward the beach to hear some fantastic music. There was a multipiece band singing and playing guitars and drums. I was blown away by their talent and enthusiasm. They got the crowd involved and everyone was clapping and singing along.
On Sunday, I happily looked around the town of Los Cristianos and did my laundry. I cooked for myself and relaxed.
On Monday, I rode a 50-minute ferry to the island of La Gomera. I was winging it for the day without a solid plan and when I missed the last tourist bus to the interior of the island, I nearly rode the same ferry back to my apartment on the island of Tenerife. Instead, I walked by the taxi stand and a driver there happily took me all over the island for a fixed price.
We saw the cloud forests, the national park, small villages, and black sand beaches from on high. The island was pretty magical, going from what looks like Arizona to Hawaii in about 45 minutes. We stopped at the national park station and I read about the nature of the island, from volcanos to plants to birds.
We stopped for a short hike in the cloud forest and had a beverage at a restaurant. I had conveniently brought a cheese sandwich, which I ate standing up in the parking lot which is sometimes a shallow lake. Ramon delivered me to the ferry port in plenty of time for my return trip to Tenerife.
On Tuesday, I relaxed and got ready for my tour of Mt. Teidi, the 12,000 ft volcano, the tallest mountain in Spain and easily higher than anywhere in the UK.
I walked to the bus stop to be picked up and right away met a nice lady from North Carolina. We visited the whole trip. After an hour of picking people up, we started driving up the mountain and stopped for dinner. It was supposed to demonstrate Canarian cooking. I’m not sure what they were showing off because it was a slab of pork, a slab of chicken, and two salted potatoes. We used up the pepper sauce on the table trying to make the dish taste like anything. There wasn’t even salt and pepper on the table.
We got back on the bus and rode up the volcanic mountain and stopped for a glass of cava and to watch the sunset.
We continued to the highlight of the evening – stargazing – but the clouds had come over the mountain and they called off the tour and took us back to our hotels. Everyone was super disappointed, to say the least.
On Wednesday, I had to pack, clean up, and relocate to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. I pushed my suitcase through the town and rode the public bus to Santa Cruz. It took an hour and it was a fantastic ride. On the left was a real-life volcanologist’s textbook and on the right was the deep blue Atlantic Ocean.
I took a taxi to my Marriott hotel and it’s so nice I think I’m in heaven. I’m so ready to sleep in a bed bigger than a twin bed for the first time since Ohio, about a month ago. There’s a pool and a fitness center.
I took a walk in lovely Santa Cruz and could be in any Spanish coastal city. The port was tidy and impressive, the tree-line pedestrian streets filled with shops and restaurants were busy, and everyone, including me, was enjoying the “eternal spring” of the climate of the Canary Islands. It’s almost always 75 here. Sorry San Diego.
I have to rest up because my all-day tour of Mt Teide leaves starts 35 miles away from here tomorrow at 8 am. Ugh!
Mt. Teidi Tour
I booked this tour because they said it was, “from the north”. Well, to them that means Puerto de la Cruz, not Santa Cruz de Tenerife. When I worked out that it was 35 miles away from where I was staying and I had to be at the pickup spot in Puerto by 8 am, I looked for another tour. No luck. I only had this day to go and this was the only seat available.
Mt.Teidi is the highest mountain in Spain and from the sea floor, one of the highest in the world. The national park there is one of the most visited parks in Europe. There was a hotel, a restaurant, and a series of hiking trails.
So, I got up at 5:45 am and took a taxi to the bus station. After he agreed to take me to the station, the taxi driver yelled at me (I think) because he thought I should have walked 1.5 miles in the dark. Whatever. I took the bus to Puerto de la Cruz. I waited for the tour bus near a shopping center and took the tour. I loved it.
I was on a smaller bus with a group of German speakers and English speakers. The guide was trilingual and was fun and enthusiastic. We started off up the mountain and right away, the stunning views of the ocean and towns below started. Like sky islands in Arizona, the plant life changed every couple of thousand feet. After passing through a cloud layer into the crystal clear sun, we first saw green plants, banana trees, and flowers. Then we passed Canary pine groves, many of them burned but regrowing already after a huge fire in August 2023. See the photos below of trees with little green garlands of new growth. Soon the scenery dried out and the trees were gone and I saw desert plants. At this point, I could have been in numerous places in the US Southwest. We stopped at a bar and restaurant highly skilled at quickly serving a tour bus or two folks sandwiches, pastries, and their signature spiked coffee. Since I hadn’t had time to eat with my long commute, I was starving so it was very a welcome stop. From there we got some of our first views of Mt. Teidi. It’s absolutely massive. It’s a strato volcano, which means it has erupted many times over the eons and is essentially a big triangle rising from the sea. Tenerife used to be three islands and Mt. Teidi erupted enough to join them into one big island. It’s the biggest island in the Canaries.
We bolted up the one road to the base of the cable car, which I had purchased with the tour. I only waited a little while to start up the mountain. It was a substantial cable car arrangement and soon I could see the ocean and the other surrounding volcanoes that make up the island.
Our guide had recommended we follow Sendero/Trail 12 at the top, which allowed views of several of the islands. It was about 40 F at the top and the wind was blowing but I managed the hike to the end and was rewarded all the way with views of Tenerife, the other islands, and of course the giant Mt. Teidi on the other side.
I returned to the base, gobbled some lunch, queued for the toilet, and ran to the bus with two minutes to spare.
We made another stop at these special rock formations below the cable car station.
We returned to the town, I waited for the bus back to Santa Cruz and was at my hotel at 4 pm.
My flight the next day from Tenerife North was at 7:10 am, so you know what that means. I had to get up at 4 am. Insert exhausted face emoji here. But everything worked out great and now you can get ready to visit Northern Spain.
