Day 11: Tenerife by car

The car rental guy fetched us from our hotel at 8.30 and brought us to his rental store. We got a red VW Fox. We fueled the vehicle and headed northwards, with Icod de los Vinos as first target.

We parked our Fox in a parking garage and went to the famous “1000 year old” dragon tree. We thought that the Casa del Drago was the entry, but it turned out the be the exit of the dragon tree’s park. We were heavily impressed by the dignified appearance of the ancient tree. It was downright breathing the history of centuries. It was also interesting to see some younger dragon trees at that site. Once again we saw bizarre plants that are typical for the Canary Islands. There’s also a volcano cave in that garden.

Whenever there was a rustling in the grass, one could be sure that it was caused by geckos. I somehow fell in love with those animals. Their grand population on this island made the gecko an icon for Tenerife. By the way, the largest feral animals on the Canary Islands (and probably at the same time the most dangerous ones) are—bunnies.

Our journey led us to Garachico, where we were absolutely overwhelmed by the 300 year old black lava formations at the coast. A volcanic eruption buried the ancient harbor beneath it. The pristine cliffs are still visible at the water, and they were partially formed into seawater pools. The crystal clear water surged at the rocks. We saw crabs, living as well as dead ones. After a snack we took a walk to the ancient harbor gate that was obsoleted by the volcanic eruption. It is located in the town at a significant distance to the coast.

We proceeded to the headland Punta de Teno in the northwest of Tenerife. Near Buenavista del Norte the road became narrow, and large signs warned us to not take that way during rain or wind. They also said something about access to a building site for authorized personnel only. But other cars just continued going that way, and we did as well. We soon noticed that those warnings haven’t been put up for fun: The road was a real adventure. Small stones were scattered over the narrow and winding road, warning us to bargain for larger pieces to come down. We didn’t feel too relaxed, because we didn’t see anyone else driving there. But as we finally approached the lighthouse after the mountains, we were relieved when we saw that several other people had already discovered that place. There was a strong wind, but it was sunny. We went to the coast and enjoyed the view. Slowly it became cloudy, and finally it started to rain. But the rain didn’t last long, and we were rewarded by a beautiful rainbow. Watching the sunset might be really romantic there, but one shouldn’t think of the drive back in darkness.

The rainy drive to Masca was accompanied by several narrow serpentines. The sun was breaking through the clouds, but it kept being cold. The sunset threw light on the town Masca through the canyon, and we saw another rainbow. Driving homewards it was getting dark slowly, and then quickly. I had another photo DVD-ROM burnt, and once again we went to the La Gran Paella for dinner.