April 7, 2025

Who knew there were a large number of volcanic islands with huge mountains off the northwest coast of Africa? I expected the Canary’s to be like desert atolls since they are off the coast of the Sahara Desert. WRONG! In fact, it couldn’t be farther from the truth as they are home to the tallest mountain in the Atlantic. At 12,000 feet Mt. Teide towers over the port of Santa Cruz where we landed on Monday to a sunny, 63F morning. Concerned we’d be cold because of what the thermometer said, we dressed in long pants and took our lightweight down vests as we boarded a massive tour bus.

Our guide introduced himself as Carlos Garcia (of which he said there were at least 60,000 Carlos Garcia’s in the Latin world) and gave us some back story on the Canary’s. They were first inhabited by people called the Guanche in about 1000 BC whose language is related to the Berbers. Then came the Romans, Arabs, Moors and then the Spanish elbowed everybody out in the 1400’s. Of course, the usual suspects tried to run the Spaniards out at various points in history and Carlos was very happy to point out that the English had tried 3 times and failed each time including the last time that cost Lord Nelson his arm. There are 9 islands in total and on Tenerife, the largest, there are 300 volcanoes. He said that the island locals they don’t really consider themselves as Spanish, unless of course Real Madrid (soccer team) happens to win a championship. The population of the island is 1,000,000 and they get 8,000,000 tourists a year.

The origin of the name is not from the little yellow birdie (who is native to the island) but from the large dogs (canes in Latin) that were found here when the island was discovered. So much for my vision of tweety birds on every tree. Regardless, he said that geologists had been arguing forever as to why these very volcanic islands even exist because they are not near tectonic plates. He often made comparisons to the big Island of Hawaii because of there volcanic similarities.

We headed up the massive slope where most of the population lives to a winding mountain road to the Mt. Teide National Park. We passed the airport where the worst aviation disaster in history occurred in 1977. Tod and I both remembered the tragedy well however we didn’t recall the details. Apparently, a terrorist had bombed the airport on the neighboring island of Grand Canaria, so all flight traffic had to be diverted to Tenerife. It was a tiny airport on a foggy day, and a KLM 747 pilot mistakenly thought he was cleared for take-off and broadsided a Pan Am 747 from LA that was sitting on the runway. The death toll was 583 people, including everyone on the KLM flight and all but 60 some on the Pan Am. When I saw on our itinerary that we would be stopping at Tenerife, that tragedy was the first thing that came to my mind.

We continued on our way with incredible views of the coastline below us. Carlos said that what we were looking at was the site of a massive landslide into the ocean that occurred ages ago. It generated a tidal wave that was felt as far away as the coast of north America. No doubt that it was pretty impressive when we stopped in the middle of the forest to get a better view of where the landslide had occurred. He also said that only 6% of the vegetation on the island is native having a bunch of Eucalyptus brought from Australia, cactus brought from Mexico and pine trees brought from California. He lamented that most of the natural fresh water on the island was going to a big (non-native) banana plantation, so they were always short on water.

I don’t think we could have had better weather. Despite what the thermometer said, we were quite warm and had a cloudless sky to see volcano after volcano with of course, Mt. Teide being the center of all the attention. Soon we were above the tree line and continued to climb, our gigantic bus on this tiny road. The higher we went, the more “other worldly” things became, and I mentioned to Tod it reminded me of a “Life” magazine book I had as a kid with colorful pictures of flaming volcanos and angry, drooling dinosaurs. We came around one bend to see a enormous planetarium and several telescopes where apparently Stephen Hawking liked to hang out. Carlos said he saw him one day several years ago when he was taking a tour group through.

On we climbed feeling very alone and like we were in the land that time forgot when we came around a curve to see a massive line of cars parked by the side of the road. Then we could look up the side of the mountain where we saw the stanchions for a cable car to the top. He said from the bottom of the tram to climb to the top would be about 10km and would take about 5 hours round trip from this point. My knees ached with pain at the thought! We carried on and came to the turn around spot for our out and back trip. It was the “Roques de Garcia” which ranked up there with the Grand Canyon as a wow factor, particularly because we weren’t expecting it. Carlos started to rattle off all the movies that had been made here including Clash of the Titans, Lord of the Rings and the best and most famous of them all….1,000,000 Years B.C. with Raquel Welch! He says his grandfather still talks about her visiting the island although Carlos said doesn’t remember because he wasn’t born yet. HAHA!

We had about a half an hour to wander around before we got back on the bus to begin our bloodcurdling 2-hour descent back to the ship. The bus driver navigated the 2000-foot sheer drops on one side and the 6” clearance with buses coming the opposite direction on the other side with the casual confidence that comes from doing this daily. I just hoped that the brakes held where Tod was more concerned about the guard rails, which he said were only there for looks or maybe just to prevent a scooter from going over the side.

Despite our anxieties which we had given up to fate about a half an hour into the trip down, it was an astonishing and memorable day for us who had entered into the trek with no expectations. What impressed us most about the island besides the scenery was the tourism infrastructure, and the gorgeous facilities in the national park. It was truly a hiker’s paradise! Ahh, if only to be 40 years younger…

Tenerife, Canary Islands

Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Sea Day #9 Atlantic Ocean