Dialog - Teneriffa

Our first vacation this year took us to Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands located off the coast of Morocco. We'd originally planned for this trip back in October last year to get some sun, but then delayed it due to family reasons.

After driving south along the island's west coast, we decided to cross the island by going uphill until we reached the Teide National Park, a plateau roughly 2000m above sea level. This area contains the Pico del Teide, the highest mountain of Spain and the third largest volcano in the worls from its base on the ocean floor.

On Friday, we decided to take a tour once around the Island. We started out by heading north to the Anaga mountain region.

Visiting the new and the old capitol cities of Tenerife. In the 18th century, the capitol of the island of Tenerife was transferred from La Laguna, located on top of the Las Lagunetas heights, to Santa Cruz, located on the oceanside. Both cities have since grown together.

Following a recommondation by a lady in the tourist information spot, we started a hike toward the chinyero cinder cone on the slopes of the Pico del Teide. The roundtrip took us around four hours.

On Tuesday, we decided to spend a day at the beach. The place we'd originally wanted to go to, Punta de Teno, was not accessible due to road closure, so we settled in for a small beach along the route.

In the early afternoon, we arrived in our homebase, Puerto de la Cruz. In retrospective, we think this is one of the nicest towns on the island. The city center around the Plaza Charco has a vibrant life with a variety of restaurants and shopping places.

After picking up our car at the airport, we headed south, driving towards the Los Gigantes cliffs, took winding mountain roads over the hills towards Masca and then headed north.