Tenerife Return

Since we were flying home from Tenerife, we came back and chose to stay on the south end of the island, both for proximity to the airport, as well as to hike in Teide National Park. Mount Teide is the conical peak of a volcano that is visible from some of the other Canary Islands, like Gran Canaria…

we saw it on the horizon when we hiked up to Roque Nublo

… and very easily from La Gomera (the last island we just came from) -

The peak is at 12,188 ft and is the highest point in Spain, as well as all the Canaries. We had not planned on hiking that mountain, but one near it, for some awesome views. I had read reviews that sunrise light on Mount Teide is beautiful, so I dragged Steve’s butt out of bed, and we drove up very curvy roads in the dark. As we got near, the horizon was lighting up -

As we came around the corner and saw the volcano for the first time, we found that we had timed it perfectly -

It was really cold (35 degrees), and we sure weren’t used to that on this sunny island trip!

We got to our trailhead and found a sign saying it was closed on Mon/Wed/Fri because they were hunting/culling wild sheep. Yep, we were there on Wed.

We scouted around for another trail and found a 3 mile hike around Roques de Garcia. I hadn’t read anything about it, so it was to be a novel exploration for us.

This turned out to be a fantastic consolation prize. Mount Teide was always in the background…

… and the roques themselves were gorgeous…

… especially in the early morning light -

Initially, we thought they were fairly small formations in a compact space, but then we got to walking around them. Wow!

can you find Steve for scale?

I just loved how Teide would peek in from time to time -

This was an amazingly varied landscape -

(the trail in the bottom right was where Steve was standing when I used him for scale)

When we started our walk, the rocks were in shadow, and there were very few people around.

As we finished, the sun was warming us nicely and lighting up the rocks as well -

Here’s a brief video to show the extent of the volcano (and just a hint of the crowds swarming the park) -

As always, use the link at the end of this post to open it in your browser, so you can watch.

As we drove back down to the coast, we found a veritable sea of clouds -

And thus, another one of our adventures comes to a close. Hope you all have happy and peaceful holidays!

from our lodgings on the coast

La Gomera

This was our seventh Canary Island. Boy is it vertical! It took a long time to get anywhere since you had to drive up and down ravines through numerous switchbacks. Hermigua is the town we stayed in -

As we drove to various hikes and destinations, we’d pass many “roques”, like Roque de Agondo…

(note the road in the pic for scale)

… Roque Cano…

… that stands guard over the town of Villahermosa -

And then there are “rocks” that you have to take a boat to see. We went for a “3 hour tour” to see Los Organos…

… so named for the pipe organ they resemble -

This was the back side -

Now to talk about hiking… which of course we did. The center of the island is criss-crossed with innumerable trails. Many Europeans come here specifically for a hiking holiday.

Our first hike was quite the undertaking - over 8 1/2 miles with 2300+ feet of elevation gained. I really wasn’t sure what all we were going to see, but the terrain was quite varied. We passed by abandoned farms…

… and through small villages…

… before reaching the literal pinnacle of the hike -

La Fortaleza

The name means “fortress”…

… and the only way to the top is a narrow, steep path…

… that made even me a little nervous…

… and reminded me of Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park.

That staircase part was made even more hairy by the presence of our two mascots who decided to follow us, and be right underfoot at times -

The views from the top were epic!

As always, to view that video, click the link at the end of the post to open in your browser.

Our second hike on this island was much more sedate…

… but no less gorgeous, in a dripping greenery kind of way -

My parting shot today was taken from the ferry as we left La Gomera, for our last stop before heading home -

La Palma

… the beautiful isle. That’s its nickname and it certainly fits. This is Santa Cruz de La Palma, the capital, and where we stayed -

The historic area of the city had some beautiful homes and balconies…

(sorry it’s tilted; there was construction along the street in front of them)

… while the island as a whole is mostly lush and green, and very mountainous -

That picture was from our hike to the top of La Nieve. We started in a pine forest…

… and ended above the clouds -

Before you go being too impressed, know that clouds seemed to come in every day over the coast, and are pretty low. The peak tops out at 7,325 ft, and we started about 1,000 ft lower. I liked looking at the “sea” of clouds -

There was a nice wall of different colors (that we could see at the top of our hike) across the Caldera de Taburiente…

… which is a massive volcanic crater in the center of the island, ringed by peaks and fabulous viewpoints.

We continued driving around the crater, near the top of the ridge, and stopping frequently to admire the colorful rock formations -

This was quite interesting, but we couldn’t go inside -

Around the next “corner” we found multiple observatories and the MAGIC telescopes …

… near the high point of the island, and this beautiful wall -

Now, shifting gears, we headed south to check out the Volcan San Antonio…

… and then headed up the west coast to survey the damage caused by the eruption of the Tajogaite volcano in 2021 -

They are still moving literal tons of rocks and ash from roadways and fields -

And the volcano is still smoking -

The next day we did an easy hike within the Caldera de Taburiente, luckily getting there early enough before the daily clouds poured in (as shown at the end of the video) -

(as before, click the link at the end of the post to open this in your browser to see the video)

Can you tell the direction of the prevailing winds from the angle of the trees? -

As soon as we started walking, we could see the first clouds sneaking in -

… so I grabbed a shot of the far wall…

… before it was gone. Thirty minutes later, this is all we would have seen -

We definitely enjoyed this pine forest stroll -

For my parting shot, I got a close up of the bark of a Canarian pine, showing its resilience against fire -

El Hierro

The next island we visited is the smallest of the seven, and the farthest south and west. The population of the whole island is about 11,000. It was really rural and laid back, and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the topography.

That picture above was taken from a viewpoint near the NE corner of the island, and when you turned and looked down the north coast you saw:

The village we stayed in, La Frontera, was tucked in against the base of the ridge near the upper left edge of the above picture.

After we left that viewpoint, we checked in on Pozo de Las Calcoses -

Pozo means “well”, and this area was used by fisherman during the summer, and the houses had volcanic stone walls and thatched roofs. The natural pool has been reinforced with concrete, and has steps leading down to the water. (we didn’t get in)

Natural pools are a big deal in these islands, but I think even in summer the water temp is chilly. [I just looked it up - Aug. water temp is 75 and air temp is 86.]

I loved this coast -

We rounded the north end of the island and drove down the east coast about as far as the road will take you. Our goal was Roque de La Bonanza -

At first I was a little underwhelmed, but then as we walked up the abandoned road, we marveled at the geology -

Talk about secluded beaches!

We then headed back up into the interior of the island…

(this reminded me of Ireland!)

… to the Mirador de Las Playas, overlooking where we had been at the Roque. Do you see it down near the point on the right?

I just loved the colorful layers in the rock wall.

Down near the southern end of the island, we drove past a lava field with cool formations…

… on our way to Tacoron…

… and its very rustic “pool” -

The colors in the rock walls were spectacular, especially in contrast to the water and pine covered hills in the distance -

The next day we headed across the north coast, passing through Sabinosa…

… along roads that were fun for Steve to drive (no comment from the passenger) -

La Laja natural pool…

… was another unique iteration of a “swimming hole”…

… with interesting denizens -

Continuing further to the NW end of the island…

… we visited Arco de La Tosca…

… on our way to Playa del Verodal -

I was mesmerized by the designs formed by the water and the black sand -

We ended that day looking for examples of the windblown junipers that El Hierro is known for…

… and the best one I found by scrambling up a hillside. :)

The morning we left, we hiked in La Llania, which is a nature reserve “just up the hill” from La Frontera. We started in a moist laurel forest…

… with shaggy trees…

… before passing by a mini-caldera…

… and ending in a pine forest!

That single 3 mile walk had nearly all the types of flora we had seen over the entire island.

I want to close with one of my favorite pictures from this island -

Lanzarote

Lanzarote is a fascinating mix of agriculture and volcanoes.

The valley in the middle of the island was a very rich agricultural region until devastated by the Timanfaya volcano that erupted for 6 years between 1730 and 1736. After the people dug back out from under the “ash”…

… (which actually looks like tiny pebbles), they found that in places, the still rich dirt was only slightly covered by ash…

… but in others, they had to dig deep to find dirt -

There are 3 main ways that grape vines are grown and protected here. The walls are hand built of native stone that provide a wind break, but also have spaces between the rocks to allow some air flow. Both the large rocks and ash have tiny holes that collect dew overnight, that then runs down to the plant, providing the only moisture. There is no irrigation of the vines on the entire island.

The straight walls are used in the valley where the ash wasn’t so deep, and the semicircular “terraces” are needed where the dirt was found deeper. The third area where a small amount of grapes are grown, usually Muscat for sweeter wines, are natural ravines surrounded by large blocks of broken lava -

Harvest is July - Aug., so there were no grapes for us to see on our tour. The white wines made with Malvasia Volcanica grapes are only fermented for 15-20 days in steel tanks and then bottled. They are meant to be drunk the year they’re produced, and they are quite tasty!

The yield in the vineyards are low due to having to space the vines at least 3 feet apart, so that they don’t compete for the precious moisture. We were told that one vine produces only enough grapes for one bottle of wine!

Now, moving on from wine to hiking - our next favorite topic. :)

The first hike we did on this island was quite the challenge. The viewpoint at the top was killer -

That panorama showed everything very well, but the tint was off. This is what it really looked like -

The water was really that blue. It kept me going as we hiked down over a thousand feet in just about a mile (and remember, we had to repeat that back up at the end!).

That island is La Graciosa, and it was declared the “eighth” Canary Island in 2018, but it has no paved roads, only 2 small towns and a few hundred residents.

I liked this colorful end of it -

Once down at the shore, we walked along Playa del Risco…

… but the pictures don’t really do it justice, both in the length of beach and in the color of the sand. Because it was such a daunting task to get to, it was as empty as you can see.

The next day, we gave ourselves a break and did an easy walk. On our way, we continued to pass sights that were super unique to us, but everyday for the residents here -

We headed to the land of volcanoes -

When we reached the trailhead, we concluded that we were definitely going to have an easier day :) -

We learned tons of info from signboards while walking around Montaña Colorada…

… like the fact that lichens are the first life form to colonize an area after an eruption, but they can only grow on the sides of rocks that face the trade winds that bring moisture -

There are such things as “lava bombs”, which are huge projectiles hurled during an explosion, that can cool and solidify before they land. This one was roped off, so I couldn’t get anything next to it to show scale, but just know that it was quite large -

As we walked around the volcano cone, I was admiring the varying hues…

… as well as the strings of cones in the distance…

… and just the amazing number of cones all around us -

… Now for a bird’s-eye view -

This was from our hike on our last day on the island - to the top of Caldera Blanca (because, why not?!) -

diameter is 1200 meters (almost 4,000 feet across!)

From here we could see the Timanfaya volcano complex that wreaked so much havoc on the island in the 18th century -

It was really interesting to see how the older, paler volcanoes stood out from the black lava that flowed from Timanfaya -

See you on the next island!

Fuerteventura

This island is the second largest of the Canaries (behind Tenerife), and is only 100 km from the coast of Africa. It is much drier than Gran Canaria, as we quickly noticed when driving down to the SW end of the island -

On the way to Punta Jandia, the blue of the ocean was captivating -

The contrast was gorgeous…

… and I don’t think I’d seen waves coming in from so many different directions. Enjoy the next video of this wild point out in the “middle” of the Atlantic by being sure to open this email in your browser -

As we headed back up the island…

… we passed numerous secluded beaches…

… and beautiful colors in the hills -

Our accommodations on the NE end of the island, in Corralejo, were right on the water, and granted us beautiful views of Isla de Lobos (named for the monk seals that were found there)…

… as well as our next destination, Lanzarote -

We drove up into the interior…

… and did only one hike, but boy was it a doozy! It started out innocently enough, with a variety of plant life…

… then skirted a ravine…

… with a few little buddies…

… before culminating in a rocky scramble trying to follow a trail -

Around the large rock in the picture above, we found…

… Arco las Pinitas!

As we headed back “home”, we visited Betancuria…

… which, as you can see from the plaque on the building, was founded in 1404 -

The next day we took it easier and had a beach day.

However, the first beach, La Escalera (“the staircase”) took a bit of work to get to (135 steps, to be exact) -

But to have a beach this gorgeous with only a few other people was fantastic.

The other beach we checked out was Playa La Concha, and it was full of Brits and Germans…

… with sugar-fine sand and clear blue water that was freezing! Needless to say, I just waded for a short while.

On our last night on the island, we had a waterside table at a great fresh fish restaurant, and thoroughly enjoyed the sunset -

Adios!

Gran Canaria

This island is amazing with its variety of microclimates. On the south end are the dunes of Maspalomas -

It was so windy when we were there, we opted not to walk out on the dunes, as the windblown sand really stung!

We headed up into the interior hills, and found “Rainbow Rocks” (Los Azulejos de Veneguera)…

… and a fantastic lookout -

These were just beautiful…

… and we could walk right up to them -

Heading further into the hills, we reached Canarian pine forests…

… mixed with palms!

It was a gorgeous, albeit curvy drive -

Near the center of the island, we watched a bank of clouds pour over a ridge, and dissipate quickly. (I tried to capture it on video, but it didn’t really show it well).

We stayed in the historic center of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria…

… and of course we had to go up in the bell tower of the Catedral de Santa Ana -

We walked by, but didn’t have time to visit, the museum of Christopher Columbus (still decorated for Halloween!). Columbus was reported to have stayed here during his stop on the island in 1492 -

Another day we drove through a very lush area in the center of the island…

… and through Llanos de Ana Lopez (the plains of Ana Lopez), a cool breezy recreation and picnic area…

… on our way to our hike to Roque Nublo.

Rather than just walking 30 minutes from the parking lot with tons of other tourists, we chose to walk about 4 miles roundtrip to it…

…. having the trail nearly to ourselves, along with gorgeous vistas -

As we got closer, we started hiking through pines…

… and then found our quarry -

(can you see the person at the base of the rock on the R in the red shirt? nice scale!)

The expansive view to our west even included Mt. Teide on Tenerife!

As we neared the top…

… people became much more frequent.

Roque Nublo is pretty spectacular, rising 250 ft from the surrounding landscape…

… and the surrounding panoramic view was pretty impressive -

On our way back to Las Palmas, we stopped by a few towns, like Tejeda…

… and Teror…

… after passing through yet another microclime of moist eucalyptus forest -

I’ll close with this imposing neo-Gothic church in Arucas - Iglesia de San Juan Bautista -

It definitely reminded me of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

We’ll leave the beauty of this relatively lush island for the arid volcanic one of Fuerteventura. See you there!

Tenerife

Yes, we did have a much better day on our second day on the island. For most of it we had clear blue skies. We started by exploring La Orotava, the town on the north coast where we stayed. There were some beautiful gardens in town…

… and I was mesmerized by these church towers -

There was a Dragon tree in a nearby garden…

… and I just loved its gnarly trunk and roots -

These are native to the Canary Islands, and when the bark or leaves are cut, they secrete a reddish resin - “dragon’s blood”.

I liked the bright colors on the houses in the old town -

We then drove along the north coast -

That picture may look a little odd, but I wanted to share it, to show the different types of palm trees here, as well as the stalk and bloom of the “century” plant (agave) that we saw all over the island. I took that picture above as we turned a corner along the road heading west.

It was very interesting to see how dry and volcanic most of the island was -

Our goal for our drive that day was Los Gigantes - rock cliffs that are 1600-2600 ft high -

The boat gives scale -

On the opposite end of the island (in the NE), Anaga laurel forest stands as a unique area. After climbing out of a very dry area, we rounded a corner and found this…

(please forgive the windshield sticker in the corner - cropping it out would have ruined the composition)

… and as we climbed, the air became cooler and noticeably moister. After the cacti disappeared…

… the laurels took over -

As you probably know by now, we love to visit wineries wherever we travel. The siting of this one was quite stunning…

… and I loved the cacti at the edge of the vineyard!

That’s Mount Teide, and we plan to hike around it when we return to Tenerife at the end of this adventure.

See you on the next island!

Canary Islands

Hi everyone! Yes, it’s been a minute since we were out and abroad. We’ve spent the last 4+ months traveling domestically, to visit family and friends. We chose the Canary Islands because it’s usually warm and sunny here year round, and November in TN is pretty dreary.

I just wanted to send out a quick post so you can go to your favorite place to look at a map, to find out just where in the world we are. Any of the maps I found on the Internet didn’t translate well to a small picture, so I decided to let you look us up yourselves.

Of the 7 main islands, the closest one to Africa (Fuertaventura) is only 100 km from the western coast of Morocco.

(until I posted this, I didn’t realize I got a shadow picture of us!)

The first island we’re exploring is Tenerife, and it’s the largest of the lot. It’s in the middle of the archipelago. I don’t have a lot of pictures, but I do have a story to tell…

This turned out to be another one of those trips with an inauspicious start. On our first morning, we were walking back from breakfast, and Steve lost his wallet to pickpockets! Thinking about it, we’re quite lucky it’s never happened before, given some of our choices in itineraries. :) We were cleverly distracted by a driver in a car blocking our way across a street, as a young couple passed us by. We were just a few doors away from our accommodations, and as we got inside, Steve noticed his wallet was gone. Soon after, we started getting notified that his card(s) were being used to try and get cash withdrawals but were denied. So, we then spent a good portion of that first day on the phone and computer getting cards cancelled, and ensuring that we still had access to cash from ATMs with a card that I had. Nice way to start a vacation, huh?

Some of the buildings in La Orotava were built in the 1600’s! And the streets are pretty steep -

I hope to post again about Tenerife… after we have a better day tomorrow.