The prettiest volcano in the Canary Islands

Day 13 (February 14, 2011)

Itinerary: Errands in the morning, pizza for lunch in Los Llanos, visit Fuencaliente and the southern tip of the island, walk around Volcano San Antonio, watch the sunset on the salt flats, leftover pizza for dinner

Happy Valentine's Day. I thought I'd make french toast for breakfast this morning, but once my bread was already soaking in egg, I realized I had no butter for the pan. I didn't have any syrup or jam for flavoring either, so we ended up with egg-flavored bread for breakfast. Haha, oh well.

This morning we drove into town to run some errands. It was time to hit up the grocery store again, hit up an internet cafe for faster service to buy our Barcelona soccer tickets, and various other things. We found a nice little cafe in a plaza to have pizza for lunch as well. The pizza was large enough to take home leftovers for dinner tonight or lunch tomorrow.

Now that the errands were out of the way, we chose to drive to the southern portion of the islands. A line of several volcanoes runs from the center of the caldera and center of the islands down to the southern tip of the islands. If we were to hike this path, it would be the 19km Ruta de los volcanos. We didn't hike. But we did find ourselves in Fuencaliente, an area named for several hot springs. We found the visitors center for Volcan San Antonio and learned that La Palma has the newest volcanoes of all the Canary Islands. In fact, several of the ones down here in the south last erupted in the 60s and 70s. No one was hurt, but the islands did grow a little.

We were one of the few visitors here and the staff on duty showed us their introductory film in English. It was definitely a very cheesy film. It was fun to watch like watching a bad movie and commenting along with it. Luckily we were alone.

Back out in the visitors center, we found some interesting maps that showed the path of lava flows from many different eruptions from many different volcanoes in the area. We learned that the volcano right outside, Volcan San Antonio, was the prettiest example of a cylindrical volcano....at least in the Canary Islands. The diameter was only around 300 meters and it was indeed very volcano-shaped. We took the walk around a portion of the rim from which we could see down into the cone of the volcano were some trees were now growing, out over the ocean, and down to the very southern tip of the islands where there is a little farm of salt water pools too collect the salt.

Outside we also found about 8 or so camels sitting with saddles to be ridden. The saddles went over the camel's hump with a seat on either side of the hump so 2 people could ride one camel. Interesting. This looked very much like a tourist attraction, so we skipped it, but later we found a map that the camels do have their own little path to a different part of the area. Only camels are allowed on this path and no hikers. It was called Ruta de los camellos. Amusing, indeed.

With sunset only about an hour away, we decided to drive down to the coastal town of Las Indies named mostly due to all the Europeans and Americans who used to come to this spot to soak in the hot springs. The hot springs supposedly had magical powers that could cure anything and even lepers would come looking for a cure.

The town wasn't much to stop and see, so we drove along the coast looking for a good spot to park for the sunset. Instead we found ourselves buried in tall banana plantations. All were fenced in cinder block and some were completely covered in a netting of sorts over very large areas. We had seen these rectangular blocks of white netting from the views at the top of the mountain and weren't sure what they were. I guess the netting is to keep the birds out? We had no view of the coast in the maze of banana trees and had to drive a little while to find the coast.

We found a little spot to park, but sunset was still probably 30 minutes away. So we kept driving to see where we'd end up. Well, just a little further down the road we found the salt pools and the lighthouse on the very southern tip of the islands. There was even a little self-guided walk through the salt pools where we learned how the salt was harvested. It was similar to the salt pans we found in Peru, though these were much less salty as the salt isn't harvested until May when the water could evaporate faster.

Here we found a great spot to watch the sun set behind the waves crashing on the rocks below us. A perfect end to a great day.

Back at "home" in our apartment we heated up our leftover pizza for dinner and played some Wii to round out the day. We are really loving our stay on La Palma and so glad that we were able to find this apartment.

A Walk in the Clouds

Day 12 (February 13, 2011)

Itinerary: Drive to La Cumbrecita parking lot in the center of the island's caldera or Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente, Hike a loop trail and the trail to/from Pico Benjado

I had a little surprise this morning when I realized I had been looking at the wrong guage on our SUV to see how full the gas tank was. We were pretty much empty, rather than half full. Rental cars around here do not provide you a car with a full tank. So, the first order of business today was to get some gas for our big diesel SUV.

Once we were finally on our way, we made it to the El Paso visitor's center and entrance to the park after 9am this morning. So, we needed to go inside and request a ticket in order to park at La Cumbrecita parking lot. Apparently it's a very small lot and they keep those waiting for a parking space down at the bottom of the hill and at the visitor's center. When someone comes down off the mountain, the next person is called to go up and take the parking spot. While it can be a little time consuming, it's not such a bad system for busy days. Well, there was no wait for us, so we got our ticket and headed on up.

This is certainly a tiny, tiny parking lot and if more than just the few cars were here, I'd have a tough time parking. Luckily there was room to turn around and back into a spot. First, we set off on an easy loop hike that was only about 2.5miles long. The signs along the way listed the plans in Spanish, so we didn't get too much information. However, there were two good miradores, or view points that looked out into the caldera.

The caldera is in the shape of a U with a mountain in the center of the opening of that U. That mountain is Pico Benjado which will will hike later today. If we were to hike one way along the ridgeline of the U-shaped caldera we'd be hiking for about 18 hours. Our loop hike took us down along the inside of the caldera a little ways. The most impressive views are the steep sides of the caldera and ridge lines that come down from the top of the all the way inside. The trees grow on top of these ridgelines that look only just wide enough to hold one tree's width.

The loop was fairly shady, so a fleece kept us warm. Along the path we found what must have been a very old water well and piping system or maybe some sort of mine. We found a date on a crumbling foundation of 1902. There were doors into the sides of the trail that looked just like hobbit doors.

When we got back to the car, we ate our lunch, toasting in the sun. The car lot was on a low spot between two mountains, so we could see the trade wind clouds blowing in clouds on the northeast side of the caldera. Inside the caldera, the clouds were still sparse.

Our next hike was about 10 km in length and nearly 5 hours long. We climbed the Pico Benjado mountain in the center of the caldera. We climbed about 600 meters straight up. The climb was grueling and since we started in the afternoon most of the hike was in the fog and mist of the clouds that were dumping into the caldera from the northeast. The fog kept us from seeing much except the next switchback up the mountain and we trudged on.

After 2 hours of hiking, we reached the cloud line. All of a sudden our heads popped out from the clouds where the sun was shining brightly. Time to take off some layers! The view was absolutely fantastic and we couldn't remember the past 2 hours. Here, above the clouds, we could see the tips of the various mountains that surrounded us as well as out to the ocean where the clouds thinned to reveal the sea. We could even see the snow-capped peak of El Teide on Tenerife. We were only there a few days ago.

At this point in the hike I started snapping hundreds of photos. We hadn't even reached the peak yet! The sea of clouds beneath us rolled and twirled revealing different parts of the surrounding mountains for just seconds at a time. If you've ever hiked above the cloud line, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Finally, we reached the peak of Pico Benjado, nearly 1900 meters above sea level. What a marvelous view. From here we had a 360 degree view of the entire caldera. The clouds filled the caldera and we could see the U-shape clearly above the clouds. We could see across to where the famous observatory sits on the north side of the caldera. We could see down to where our car sat under a blanket of clouds. We could look out and guesstimate where our apartment sat under a blanket of clouds. We could see where the clouds dissipated over the sea and the sun shown yellow reflected in the ocean. We could see several more volcanoes that follow almost a linear path down to the south tip of the island. And of course we could see El Teide peeking out on Tenerife.

We spent nearly an hour up here. The only reason we had to leave was to be able to hike down in the light of day. Otherwise, I could have just stayed here forever. Sunset would have been phenomenal from this vantage point. I filled my memory card with photos.

Knowing that we would reach the car just as the light disappeared behind the horizon, we finally started hiking back after 5pm. To our amazement, the top of the clouds was now at a much lower elevation, and seemed to be dropping as we hiked. The hike back was completely different from the hike up and not just because we were going downhill. We could see that we had been hiking along a ridgeline with views on both sides. This was truly an amazing hike back. Only when we were 30 minutes away from the car did we finally dip beneath the clouds again.

We had some amazing moments where we would hike into the low of the ridgeline and feel the clouds rushing over us as they passed from one side of the caldera to the other. We saw some gorgeous sights of the sun shining through the fog. I wish I could post all the photos I took, but I would need a much faster internet connection for that. So, you will just have to imagine and wait until I get back to Houston and process some of these hopefully magnificent photos.

It was nearly dark when we reached the car and we found that we were the last ones here. At least I don't have to worry about the tiny parking lot and my large vehicle. =) On the drive out of the park, all light finally disappeared and we crept out along the winding road.

As we headed back to our apartment in Los Llanos, we were happy to find a restaurant along the way that was open this early at 7:30. The food was great. Mark really loves the Mojo verde sauce served here to dip fries into. We both had a yummy pork steak covered in onions.

Today was a magnificent day. If we were to leave La Palma right now I'd be happy. Tomorrow morning we'll probably sleep in and spend some time being lazy on the porch before finding another spot on the island to explore.

rolling blanket of clouds

From inside the clouds looking at the sun.

Lazy vacation

Day 11 (February 12, 2011)

Today was an amazing day for us. It means a short blog post for you, but for us it was amazing to do absolutely nothing today. We spent the whole day just sitting on the porch chatting and using the wifi. I was able to finish booking the rest of our trip. Mark was able to happily play some of his ipad games. With the sun on our backs and the view in front of us, I can't think of a better way to spend a day of vacation.

For breakfast this morning we simply walked outside to the orange trees and picked several oranges for some freshly-squeezed orange juice to have with our meal. I could certainly get used to this.

Eventually we did go out and drive the 10 km to Puerto Naos down on the eastern coast. La Palma is not a touristy island, but if there had to be a tourist town, this would be it. It didn't feel touristy at all, but we were able to find a good restaurant to eat at. In fact, La Roca was right on the shore of a small little cove. The tide was coming in and smashing into a large rock that was the center point of this cove. The crashing waves and good seafood made this dinner special.

Tomorrow we'll head to the center of the island where the national park protects the caldera of the island and do some hiking. Today we just had fun being lazy.

Oranges picked from the trees outside, lemon cookies, and avocados picked from the trees outside all by Mama Rosa who owns these apartments.

4 hours to the best view on the island

Day 10 (February 11, 2011)

Itinerary: check out of hotel, pickup rental car, visit visitor's center for park info, drive to Los Llanos and check into apartment

This morning started off really cold as both Mark and I realized there were not enough covers on our bed overnight at the Rocamar Apartments in Santa Cruz, La Palma. We got in late last night. The ferry trip ended up taking about an hour longer than we had originally thought because it stopped at La Gomera island. Also, we found out that Mark does and can get seasick. I was very happy my Dramamine worked. We didn't get to our room at the Rocamar until after 10pm where we found the Reception closed. Boo. we had just booked the room that morning, but low and behold, there was a note and keys to our room sitting on a table. Awesome. Points for Rocamar.

It is too bad we are only staying one night as we are passing through Santa Cruz. The apartment room we had was lovely with a balcony opening up to the ocean just down below. There was a kitchen/sitting area separate from the bedroom as well. The breakfast here was rather lacking in variety, but I was surprised there was any breakfast at all since this is an apartment rental building.

We warmed up with the rising sun over the ocean into our room and used the free wifi to book tonight's stay at some apartments in Los Llanos. We only spent a few minutes researching this location, but it seemed decent enough. We will stay here for 6 nights while we visit La Palma, the beautiful island.

The rental car we had booked yesterday showed up at our hotel just as we asked them to online. This trip is really working out! They were downstairs waiting for us with our automatic transmission car. I had booked a very small car, but apparently they were all out because a big SUV sat parked downstairs. Oof. This was all they had and there was no extra fee of course. But, boy does this make me feel like an American now!

The plan was to drive across the island to the west side where Los Llanos sits just on the west side of the park that covers the center of the island. We drove straight up the mountain and through various tunnels before we reached the Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente in the center of the island. The island was of course formed by volcanoes, and there are several volcanic craters on this island. This is the biggest and has many hiking trails through it.

The visitor's center was full of information about the park and the island. We were impressed with the amount of displays and the sculpted relief drawing of the whole island. We picked up maps in English and had a picnic lunch here as well.

We figured that after lunch our goal should be to find our apartment for the next several days and then head down to the western coast and check out Puerto Naos. That was the plan, anyway. First we got lost. We got very lost. Our google maps printout did not help at all, and I had to back up our boat of a car and make multi-point turn-arounds down many tiny and steep streets. Eek indeed! Finally, we stopped at the information center in Los Llanos to get a map and better directions. well, we got a small map and the gist of where we were going, but our apartment was off the map, so good luck to us.

Amazingly we found the street where our apartment was supposed to be. It was of course a steep street and we drove up and down, up and down, up and down slowly looking for it. there were several tiny, narrow streets off to the side and we finally just parked our boat and took off on foot looking for this place. We found lots of barking dogs, several places that might have been holiday rental places, but nothing with the sign for our apartment.

Very discouraged, we finally gave up and headed back to the small town to find an internet cafe to book a different place. By now we'd been searching for this place for nearly 3 hours. I checked my email and sure enough, there was an email from the apartment people telling us to meet them at a store in town and they would drive us up to the apartments. Awesome. So, no need to book a new place. We shall persist!

Oh....but the store was closed because it's the afternoon and time for the Spanish siesta. Well, that was fun. But at least inside the store, we did see a sign that advertised our apartments so we knew we were in the right place. An hour on a shady bench later, we entered the little shop and they took our info for the apartment. A lady came down and has us follow her car up the same street we had driven up and down. Well, if we had hoofed it just a couple more tiny streets up, we would have found it. Oh well. Here we are now and the apartments look amazing. We are on the side of a mountain with unobstructed views all the way down to the sea down below. To our left we can see the rim of the caldera of the park and in front of us the sun will set over the ocean. The apartment, Casitas Rosheli, has a pool, free wifi, a kitchen, laundry facilities, and pretty much everything we will want in a place to stay for 6 days. We are glad we didn't give up. This looks like a perfect place.

Finally, we can relax and unwind. The balcony area has the best wifi access and several chairs so we can watch the sun set while we do some travel research for the rest of our vacation. It was so wonderful to sit and watch the clouds roll over the mountain and then turn pinks and purples as the sun dipped close to the horizon. The weather got chilly once the sun went down and it was time for dinner.

Our only plan for today at this point is dinner and groceries. Luckily we accomplished both this evening down in the town of Los Llanos. Most of the tourists that come here are German, and I'm sure that the restaurant we found was mostly German. They had a selection of corn pancakes or sweet corn crep. We weren't sure what we'd get so we ordered one of each with some fries. The corn pancakes were like a hamburger with the filling of your choice, but the bun part was a corn based pancake. The sweet corn crep was much larger and can only be described as a burrito of the filling of your choice. The tortilla part was a flat corn cake. Everything was yummy, though different.

And now it's time for bed. Tomorrow is a new adventure. We'll be at the Casitas Rosheli until we leave La Palma on the 17th.

View from Rocamar

View from Casitas Rosheli

Road block

Day 9 (February 10, 2011)

Itinerary: Book tonight's ferry and hotel, drive to Los Cristianos, ferry to La Palma island

Talk about a winter wonderland! We got about 2 inches of snow last night on top of yesterday's snow, so this morning, the view outside our hotel room was amazing. The whole area is white and the sun is shining. We admired the white Teide mountain while eating breakfast and then headed outside to see how buried the car was. I would guess about 2 inches on the car.

The hotel staff told us the roads were closed, so we spent time with all the other hotel guests outside snapping photos and cleaning off the car. Luckily the sun helped melt away the snow and ice as we brushed the car clear. While we were outside we saw two snowplows going down the road to the south. This was very good news because we were supposed to turn in our rental car on the south side of the island in Los Cristianos this afternoon.

If yesterday was my first time driving in snow, today was my first time driving in snow with a small layer of ice under the snow. Luckily going slowly works. It helped that there was no traffic to speak of. We first paid a visit to the visitor's center at the base of El Teide mountain where the cable car starts. The point was to pick up the free wifi so we could book tonight's accommodations. The road up to the cable car was still snowy, so we left the car at the bottom. We got in a little trouble with the local police for leaving our car where we did later on, but luckily they didn't do anything but scold us. Oh well.

By the time we headed down the mountain the snowplows and the sun had done a good job of clearing the road and there were only a few small spots of slushy snow in shady areas. Only about a kilometer down the road we started seeing lots of people hiking on the road. We were wondering where their cars were. They were all going the opposite direction. Strange. Next we came across a road block of 2 police cars and about 6 or more police standing out on the road. This is where the police stopped me to look at all my various documentation and scold me for parking where I did up the mountain. They said the road past us was closed, but that we were free to drive around the yellow closed signs if we so desired. This was a rather odd statement, so we drove off curious what else we would find.

Now it truly felt like we were fleeing a natural disaster because groups of people were hiking along the road giving us strange looks as we drove down and they hiked up. I felt like we weren't aware of an evacuation or something. If we were in a disaster movie, at this point they would have been storming the car to get in. Soon we came to the actual road block consisting of a ribbon strung across the road and a cone in the middle. As everyone stared in wonderment, Mark hopped out, moved the cone and held up the ribbon for me to exit. Here we found about 10 cars parked and realized why everyone was hiking along the road. They were coming in and were stuck here. They were wondering how we got up there and how we were coming down. We got many strange looks.

From here down, we only had snowy/slushy roads for several more kilometers. We had to pull off the road for a snow plow, but he was pretty small and was able to squeeze by. Down, down, down, the mountain we went. I was surprised at the lack of miradores or scenic pulloffs on this side of the mountain. We drove the sun, we drove through intense fog, and finally we reached a second road block much farther down the mountain. We were surrounded by various people hiking up the road here as well.

Eventually, and not too much later, we ended up in the towns of Los Cristianos/Playas de Americas/Costa Adeje. These 3 tourist towns are so close together they might as well be one town. Here is where the northern Europeans come to vacation. Our tour book said it best. Paraphrased from the Lonely Planet: You'll need your sunshades for the blinding sun, blinking neon signs, and red-lobster colored northern Europeans laying out in the sun.

We found a lunch spot that served fajitas. Though they weren't quite like the Tex-mex fajitas we are used to, it was still a treat for Mark. We wandered around on the beach for a while killing time and watching the surfers. Probably 50 surfers were sitting out in the ocean waiting for the perfect wave. Every now and then, one would catch a wave and crash down again. The clouds were coming down from Teide as well, and our 80 degree afternoon got a little chillier in the shade of the clouds.

Returning the rental car proved to be a challenge. We had printed out some Google map directions earlier, but we had no idea where we were going. I kept driving up and down the same street, around the same round-abouts looking for the Cicar rental car return. It did give me good practice on the round-abouts and perhaps driving in Ireland in April will be a little easier. There was one large round-about where I missed my turn off and did the Simpons-style drive around the round-about one more time to catch the exit.

Finally we parked the car and found a pay phone to call Cicar and figure out what to do. The rental car desk had staff that spoke English and gave great directions so that we could return the car easily on the dock where our ferry would depart later that day Thank goodness we called because there was no signage what-so-ever.

We were able to drop off our luggage to be stored until we got off the ferry and we spent some time on the beach, soaking in the sun and watching the people walk by. Probably the most interesting part of the people watching was noting that this is a very handicap accessible area. It seemed like one in ten people was on a scooter or other type of wheelchair, zooming around having fun.

Now we are on the ferry headed towards the island of La Palma which is the most northwestern island of the Canary Islands. The ferry is about 2 hours and has free wifi access. Sweet! We will arrive after 9pm tonight and hopefully will have no problems getting a taxi to our hotel in Santa Cruz de La Palma.

Tomorrow we shall rent another car and head over to the west side of the island to stay for almost a week.

Cookies and Cream ice cream

Day 8 (February 9, 2011)

Itinerary: Cable car to the top of El Teide, drive along the west side of the park, drive to Los Gigantes, attempt to drive to Masca, drive back to the hotel in the snow

Brrrrrr, it is a cold day today up on the mountain. Our room at the Parador just south of the base of El Teide is nice, but mostly it's great to be able to stay in the park. The included breakfast included a variety of items and we were satisfied with our choices. We drove the 5 minutes up to the base of El Teide to take the cable car to the top.

Unfortunately, we found out that all the trails at the top were closed due to -8C weather and extreme winds. We still went up and nearly got stuck. The winds were indeed extreme. I nearly got blown over and boy was it frigid up here as well. We wore all our layers, but of course we really weren't prepared for below freezing temps. Soon, though, we were informed that they were closing down the mountain for the day. The winds were just too extreme. We waited for the cable car to take us back down and were surprised to see it coming up the mountain swinging in the wind. They moved very slowly and we could see why they had to close the service down. The car was filled with cans of sand each weighing 30kg to help get the cable car up. We went down the mountain with most of the workers that were up here.

It was cold and windy and the base, too, and we realized we weren't going to be very happy hiking today or spending much time outside. Luckily we have a rental car and we can do as we please. Time to be spontaneous. We opted to drive down the west side of the park and end up in Los Gigantes which is famous for it's tall cliffs on the ocean. It was really too bad that on the way down we encountered rain and clouds. So, the views of the cliffs were rather dull. We moved on and decided to drive to the northwest portion of the island and stop in a town called Masca. Pictures of this area reminded me of the Manchu Pichu. We soon found ourselves on a one-lane road up a mountain with cars and tour buses coming down in front of us. We had some exciting turns and eventually found a good pull out to stop and see if the rain would let up a bit. It didn't. Instead it became incredibly foggy and we decided to wait longer.

After the fog lifted some and the rain calmed down, we turned around and started driving back to the park. The drive without all the rain and fog was very pretty due to the flowered trees lining the roads and fields. I can only describe them as cherry blossom trees, but I'm sure they were actually another species.

The sun came out! The day turned into a gorgeous day. We drove through the forested area on the west side of the park with the sun shining and the area looking just amazing. We started seeing the cars coming towards us covered in snow. We stopped at a scenic pull out to admire a big hunk of snow that must have fallen of a car and to check out the sound of the rain water dripping through the layers of pumice and other volcanic rocks. Soon, we started to see snow on the side of the road, and then on the road.

All of a sudden I've hit another first on this trip. Today is the first time I've ever driven in snow. Drive very very slowly. The rental car actually handled it quite well and we were able to inch up the mountain. We stopped at one of the places we had stopped on the way down to take before and after pictures of the landscape. Brown before and white after. As the day got late and we inched our way back to our hotel we passed many police and other emergency vehicles coming down. one did stop us to ask where we were headed and make sure we drove slowly. I guess the closed the road to the north, but we were able to make it all the way back to the hotel with no problem.

It was impressive to see the area covered in white. Just earlier today Mark was wondering how snow got to the top of El Teide since it seemed as though the area didn't get much precipitation. Well, just for that, Mark, here's the snow. The snow on the volcanic rocks reminded me of cookies and cream ice cream spread over the whole landscape.

We didn't have much choice about dinner and ate at the hotel again. They have a great pumpkin soup and the entrees aren't so bad either. We did try use the internet at the hotel after dinner, but the computer that accesses the internet was really one of the staff computers and the staff tonight was not so happy to let us use it. so, we were unable to book anything for tomorrow night. Hopefully, tomorrow we can book our ferry and accommodations in La Palma island, or maybe we'll just stay a night in Los Cristianos. I can't say that I enjoy being this spontaneous. It is fun, but I do prefer knowing where I'm spending tomorrow night without trying to find some internet access.

We shall see what tomorrow brings and if there is so much snow overnight that we are stuck at the hotel tomorrow anyway.

Mmmm, cookies and cream ice cream

Pumice rain

Day 7 (February 8, 2011)

Itinerary: Check out of Hotel Rural Victoria, rent car in Puerto de la Cruz, drive to Teide, stay in the park (Parador)

I am a little sad this morning to leave our hotel in La Orotava. The free wifi access has been wonderful and the spacious room leaves little to be desired. But, we must move on with our vacation. Next stop is Parque Nacional del Teide and the Parador hotel located at the base of the mountain.

The park takes up most of the interior of the island and has several roads that climb up to the base of the mountain. El Teide is the tallest mountain in all of Spain at over 3700 meters tall. It is also the volcano that formed the island of Tenerife way back in the day. We've been looking at the snow covered peak from down in La Orotava and are curious to see what the park looks like and how much hiking there is.

First step is to rent our car. Thank goodness we were able to secure an automatic car from Cicar yesterday. I don't think i've seen an automatic transmission on the island yet! We left our bags at the hotel and took the bus down to the coast and Puerto de la Cruz. From the bus station it was an easy walk to the rental car office. we were happy to have booked in advance because all the other people in line were turned away because they were out of cars.

We were told to follow someone to our rental car and were surprised to be led to a car that was not the one we rented. No, this was the car that would drive us about 5 minutes to the garage where our car was. We were surprised at the long drive, but happy to actually see the automatic transmission. Of course this meant that we had a Volvo S80 large sedan that seemed enormous compared to all the other cars on the island. We barely fit in parking spaces and I felt almost too wide for the road. Haha.

We drove off to the hotel and hadn't gone more than about 2 minutes before I got lost. That was fun. International driving is a little challenging especially with all the round-abouts and the fact that the middle line is white instead of yellow. I kept feeling as if I was on a one way road and was worried about going the wrong way on a one-way road. Spain drives on the right side of the road at least, so while I couldn't read the street signs, at least I could stay to the right.

Finally at our hotel, we picked up the bags, hit up the grocery store for future lunches and headed up, up, up to the park. La Orotava had some roads so steep I don't think my Prius could have made it up, but this car had no problems.

The miradores or scenic pull offs were indeed picturesque. We could see all the way down to the coast almost all the way up the mountain and in the park. We stopped at one to eat our delicious nutella and peanut butter sandwiches while simultaniously looking down to the coast and up to the snowy peak of El Teide.

The visitor's center was able to provide us with maps, but they hiking trails didn't have any description, length, or duration of the hike. The signage was very good at the trail head of each hike, though. We just had to drive up to the trail heads and decide if this was the hike for us.

Most of the information signs taught us about how the landscaped was formed with the volcanic flows and pumice rains. The signs seemed all the same, though even in different areas. We spent some time walking through a pumice rain field taking photos and watching some kids start up a little game of soccer.

Eventually, we passed the base of El Teide where the cable car can take visitors up near the summit and found our hotel, the Parador. The Parador has several hikes leading out from the hotel, so we dropped off our bags in our room and headed off to do the Roques de Garcia hike. We hiked about 3 or 4 miles around several rock formations that reminded me of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. These rock formations were mostly formed because they were one of the eruption points of the volcano. The soft rocks and soils had eroded away to leave just the various cones of harder volcanic rock sticking up in the air.

The weather was chilly enough at the start of the hike for a fleece layer, and by the end was a little too chilly for both a fleece and a rain/wind jacket. We found ourselves mostly alone for most of the hike climbing around the rocks. It was interesting to see all the various kinds of volcanic rocks that showed clearly how the lava flows cooled as they came down the mountain. We could see the darker paths of what was once a slow moving lava flow and the flat areas full of pumice from the pumice rains.

We watched the sunset at the trail head and then found our way back to the hotel for dinner. My favorite part of dinner was the starter pumpkin soup. Unfortunately, though the dessert options didn't really cover anything chocolately. We were interested to see that the bike team Liquigas was staying at our hotel. We had seen team HTC Columbia out on the road as well. It is neat to see teams training and when we watch the Tour de France this year we can say that we've seen them train.

Tomorrow we plan to ride the cable car up El Teide. There is a permit process in place that only allows for 150 people a day to climb/walk to the summit and we were unable to get a permit. The website kept saying it was closed due to snow and ice, so we'll see the conditions when we get there. There are a couple other hikes from the cable car that we'll try take.