2025 – Canary Islands: Tenerife Chill Out
After returning from the southern climes just before Christmas 2024, Blighty’s low temperatures and dismal skies pushed us to seek some sunny warmth. Frances checked out the weather in the northern hemisphere and concluded that the best place for some winter warmth was the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa. A last-minute short holiday was booked in Tenerife – Los Cristianos.
Besides chilling out, we managed three trips: a boat trip to see pilot whales and dolphins, a trip to the capital, Santa Cruz, and finally a trip to Mount Teide.
As this was a chillout holiday, I kept my iPhone camera more in my pocket than out. The highlight of this trip was visiting the plateau of Mount Teide. We hoped to ascend the volcano, but alas, the windy conditions at the 12,188 ft summit meant the gondola closed for the day.
Our trip to Mount Teide included a visit to see the impressive Los Gigantes Cliffs and then the most challenging road trip we’ve ever had, to the old pirate village of Masca. Originally an aboriginal Guanche settlement before the Spanish conquest in 1496. Situated at an altitude of 2,130 ft in the Macizo de Teno mountains, which extend to the northwesternmost point of Tenerife. Today, the village is home to approximately 90 residents and free-range avocado trees!
The volcano Teide was a sacred mountain for the aboriginal Guanches; its summit at 12,188 ft makes it the highest point in Spain and the highest above sea level in the Atlantic islands. Teide is the world’s third-highest volcano.
Teide started forming 170,000 years ago and remains an active volcano. The volcano and its surroundings make up Teide National Park, which covers 147,000 acres. Teide is the most visited natural wonder and national park in Spain and Europe and, by 2015, the eighth most visited in the world, with some 3 million visitors yearly. In 2016, it was visited by 4,079,823 visitors, reaching a record high.
An astronomical observatory sits on the mountain’s slopes, taking advantage of the good weather and altitude, which puts it above most clouds and promotes stable Astronomical seeing.
Regretfully, the gondola to the summit was closed for the day because of the wind strength, which is not uncommon at the top of the volcano. I had to settle for ‘plugging it’ so we could explore the area.
On our return, we visited the tree huggers at Pino Gordo, perhaps the largest pine tree east of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a well-known Canarian Pine (Pinus canariensis) in the village of Vilaflor. It is close to 32 feet in circumference and 147 feet tall.
Finally, on a walk from Los Cristianos to Costa Adeje, we gazed up at the Hard Rock Cafe guitar and magnificent facade. We also noted that you can take the pie eaters out of Wigan, but you can’t take Wigan out of the pie eaters!