Created by 3GoExploring.
The largest of the Canary Islands, this volcanic island formed nearly 12 million years ago is located off the coast of Southwest Spain and is home to the highest peak in Spain, Mount Teide. Standing at 3718 metres it splits the island in half, with its lush green tropical north side and golden beaches to the south, you can't miss this still active volcano.
Mount Teide is the third-highest volcano in the world, beginning its life some 170,000 years ago, last erupting in 1909 from the
El Chinyero vent. The indigenous Spanish inhabitants known as the Guanches called it ‘Echeyde’, home to Guayota, an evil entity from local mythology, who was represented as a black dog. The area surrounding the volcano is known as the Teide National Park, a World Heritage Site with an area of 47,000 acres.
No trip to Tenerife would be complete without a visit to Mt Teide and a journey to the top by cable car, a highlight of our visit. Due to time constraints on the day and the departure time of the Ship to Madeira, we decided to take an organised excursion.
Boarding our coach we left the port making our way through the busy streets of the city, it isn't long before you reach the suburbs and the road begins to climb. The journey by coach continues through the vast forests of Canarian pine trees, a marvel of the island.
The island is susceptible to wildfires, however, these trees have a clever trick up their sleeves. When most trees would be devastated by wildfires the Canarian Pine due to the thick layer of cork has the ability to regenerate and fully recover in a few years. You will often see these forests shrouded in clouds, the pine trees are vital to the island water supply, the long needles of the trees trap droplets of water that drip to the ground and percolate down to the underground aquifers. As your journey takes you through the forest, the devastation of the wildfires back in August 2023 is clearly visible.
As the altitude starts to rise the road weaves its way through a series of bends and you leave the pine forests behind you, the landscape changes from lush green to rocky moonscape. The next stop is Mirador de La Tarta, a geological formation, the name Mirador represents the layers of red, white and black similar to that of a cake, created by volcanic eruptions. From this location, you also get an impressive view of Mt Teide.
Our next stop was the Teide cable car lower station standing at 2356 metres above sea level where we boarded our cable car, we made the eight-minute journey to the upper station and found ourselves 3555 metres above sea level.
A word of warning about altitude sickness, yes people do get lightheaded or have known to faint, it didn't affect us but was noticeable, please take this into consideration. We spent around an hour exploring the different paths, the views as you would expect are phenomenal.
Making our way back down to the lower station, yes ears did pop! We rejoined the coach and continued on to our next location, Roque Cinchado and also known as ‘god's finger’, part of a rock formation. At twenty-seven metres this impressive rock structure was created by successive layers of volcanic activity.
With time against us it wasn't long before we had to board the coach for our return visit back to the ship. Returning back on the same road the views of the forests from high made for a different perspective with the coastal backdrop and definitely highlighted how high we were.
So if you are in Tenerife we would definitely recommend a visit to Mount Teide and its National Park. We only touched the surface on what the area had to offer and would love to return to explore more in depth.
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