TENERIFE | FEBRUARY 2018

TENERIFE | FEBRUARY 2018 

I've been to Tenerife multiple times over the past few years, but I've never visited Mount Teide. I'm becoming more of a person that has to go sightseeing or learn something historical on holiday, Tenerife is very popular with British holidaymakers, especially getting some winter sun. It is my favourite of the Canary Islands because it is very welcoming and friendly, also I think it caters for all ages. Anyway, I asked my parents if they'd want to go up Mount Teide, as they've been before but I've never, as I said before been up it. Also I am really interested, when I go to somewhere new the history of the country, island or area. Since I only really visit the holiday resort, I often wondered what the villages and towns closer to the mountains and higher up the island live, and what it looked like.
We awoke quite early really (half past seven) for people that are on holiday. We waited for a bus on the corner by our hotel, and made our way up the incline of the island. It's always fascinating how the area is so quiet when it is early in the morning; there's only really a couple of people rambling around, people getting their daily dose of endorphins by running, or local residents going to work. Anyway we made our way up in to the clouds and mountains, occasionally stopping for toilet and food breaks. The  first stop was a lovely little cafe with an arrangement of food and drinks, and a gift shop. As Mount Teide is an active volcano so there's a lot of gifts involving volcanic lava; bracelets etc. This specific stop was in the middle of the forest area of conifers which reminded me of the landscape of Canada. The sun was just rising so you also had the full glare of the sun amongst the trees it was beautiful. The altitude had kicked in because it was a little bit more chilly where we were, but it was only going to get colder the higher up we go (obviously not as cold as the Baltic conditions in the UK). We carried on up the incline of the island until we finally arrived within the Mount Teide National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You firstly arrive in a massive crater, surrounded by rifts and dykes as you can see from the images, accomplished with the blue sky and the crisp air it was really lovely. We stopped off to view the Roques De Garcia in the crater, which was eroded from a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago. 

Roques De Garcia 

View of the crater edge.

Within the crater.

 Carrying on through the ginormous crater you got to the base of the volcano, which there is a cable car offered to up to the top of the volcano. We decided not to go up to the top because frankly it was around 54 euros for two people, and we had already paid around 70 euros for the bus trip up to Mount Teide. Also on the day we went up it had snowed up on the top of the volcano so you couldn't actually walk around the top of the volcano because of the ice and obviously people could fall, so it wasn't really worth it anyway. But my Mum and I decided to sit in the cafe because we had around an hour and a half to wait at the base of the volcano, until we had to go back to the bus. There was an amazing view for the cafe or the crater below, and there's also some trails you could walk just below the base of the volcano, on the crater. But we decided to get a drink and browse the area. It wasn't as cold as I expected it to be, maybe because we arrived in Tenerife after having (I think) the worst, coldest, darkest winter I've ever experienced, so anything above freezing was worth whipping off the jumpers and popping on the shorts and flip-flops (can you tell I'm ready for Spring?). 

View of Mount Teide from Roques De Garcia 

View of the crater from the base of the volcano

After browsing the gift shop and gazing at the amazing views some more it was time to make our way back to the South of the Island and back to our hotels and apartments, but not without on more stop-offs in little villages and towns. The shop was full of lava chocolate (basically chocolate covered almonds), we had a taste of local sweet almonds, and sugared figs which were nice. There was jars of jams, the speciality of Mojo sauce (try it if you ever get the chance to), a lot of ornaments, gem stones, wine. Whilst we were up there, we realised we were practically above the clouds, and because I'm such a nerd about Planet Earth and get really excited about seeing beautiful natural things of the world, I thought this was SO cool! We travelled through the clouds as we were going down, and could see a clear view La Gomera (the nearest island to Tenerife), it was so beautiful. As always trips can be quite expensive, so I recommend you look around for the best deal if you want to go on an Island Tour or on  tourist trip where you are staying. For this specific trip it cost around 24 euros per person, but that was what was offered in the hotel. I suggest you take a jacket of a hoodie, and wear trainers, because the crater and up the volcano can be cold and if you want to walk up the rifts and dykes you will need trainers on. 

Happy Travelling!

Rose x