TEIDE VOLCANO'S IN TENERIFE, SPAIN

Monday 17^th December, 2007

Two days trip to the Summit of the Volcano Teide, Tenerife, Spain

Altitude: 3.718 mts.

First day Starting Point: Fork of Montaña Blanca, km 40,3 (road from Puerto de la Cruz, stop at la Orotava municipality at 9:30 am, arriving at starting point at 10:45 am aprox.)

First day Ending point to sleep over at the Shelter AltaVista (www.refugioaltavista.com) at 3.260 mts. Be prepared to reserved your spot in advance and pay 20 € (half a price for Montañeros Card holders and Euro Youth).

Duration: 5 hours (slow walk and scenery track)

Randomly I meet my travel partners and this is one example my faith in fate, Sali and I have met at Manfred’s place an stick to each other during our stay at Tenerife’s historical jewel called ‘La Orotava’ a historic district full of ‘Molinos de Agua’ and world heritage architecture; We started our day at 6 am in the morning having breakfast at the Orotava Old Town about 1.600 meters above sea level at Manfred’s home, an Austrian man that allows staying at his place and shows us around the old town of Orotava, which is located in one of the volcanic valleys at Tenerife’s northern side; as we were leaving the house we got time to meet another backpacker, Christ, a Canadian from the Yukon Territory, whom was in his way to ‘Gran Canarias’.

We took the ‘Guagua” autobus # 348 which leaves ‘Puerto de la Cruz’ at 9:15 and stop at ‘La Orotava’ at 9:30, the autobus is quite punctual so we were on time since there’s just once a day bus going up the mountain and coming back at 4 pm.

In the way up the mountain and out of the town be prepared to experience some dizziness since the way up is a zigzagging road, with a very nice view of the ‘Orotava’ valley as we went up on the road the landscape changes from farms and small gardens into country houses and magnificent forest of Canarian pine trees, Pinus Kanariensis a millenarian tree that grows up to 60 meters of height and which needles leafs condensate the water out of the mist, so in this way the tree can survive without need of rain.

So we set ourselves for this adventure, two occasional hikers ready to explore a sleepy volcano of 3.718 meters height

Our destination is the ‘Montaña Blanca’ we tell the driver to drop us there. After about an hour we are in our destination; the White Mountain is the third highest pick of the Island with 2.743 meters; this first walk is an easy warm up for us, since good physical condition is demanded, but a moderate walking rhythm needed. The landscape is dominated by the Black lava balls that are found around the mountain they are called the Eggs of Teide, they are lava balls formed when the lava rolled down the hill adding layers to itself in the same way a snow ball will grow in size and end in the small valley around the base of the Teide at the ‘Montaña Blanca’. Almost no vegetation is around the area, where the Poméz covers the entire place, this volcanic rock is one of the lightest rocks of all, it gives to the mountain its coloration grading from white to light yellow and some times orange. The Poméz rock is created by the circulation of gasses during the formation of lava.

We arrived to our first stop at the base of the Teide at 2.724 meters, the Shelter is about 500 meters in the vertical but in the very sneaky road that zigzags from the base of the volcano to ‘AltaVista’(3.260m) we’ll have about 1.500 meters walk in steep rocky hills cover by snow and ice. We arrive to the Shelter about one hour and a half later, to find a wonderful little house painted in terracotta with red ceramic roof, and natural wooden ceilings; Alta Vista will host us for a night.

Lorenzo, our host is a young engineer who has switched his profession for his passion in life, adventure and outdoors, not just for the wonderful view but also to acquire a better life quality, having time to spend with his family, and educate his children, he is a very proud father that celebrates life in every achievement of his sons.

At the same place we meet Rafael who agrees to guide us in the morning; having been in the Teide’s hiking trails several times before. So after a nice talk under the stellar sky in good company we said good night and go to have a rest.

Second day we wake up at 5:30 am take a quick cup of coffee, leave the shelter at 6:00 a.m. and walked about 2 hours in a slow but constant pace, we arrived at the very summit of Teide and a breath away taking view gives us that sense of awe and worthiness that just physical activity and outdoors could gave, all this with the impressive sunrise and the gigantic shadow of the Volcano projected on the Atlantic ocean.

I took the mandatory pictures of Sali, Rafa, and some random hikers; then we observed in silence the huge shadow of the volcano projected onto sea and clouds, this was another worldly view, sulfur steaming out of the rocks covered by snow and sulfur crystals, the sunshine on our faces and that particular feeling of an accomplished achievement make all the walking worth the try, at lease it was my thought meanwhile I was lingering sizing the moment.

The way back was faster, descending to the car cable at 9 am, then going back to the shelter; Rafa took the cable car back to the main road promising to meet us again on el Portillo crossroad, Sali and I walk our way down to ‘AltaVista’ Lorenzo greets us exchanging short views of his life with Sali; on his kids, his passion for scuba diving and how he had made a choice between the depths of the sea or the heights of the mountain. Then we start our trip back to the base of the mountain. Taking this time a relaxing panoramic road, the way to ‘El Portillo’ drives us toward the Visitor center, we found Rafa on the way, entering the gardens of el Portillo and the volcanic lava tunnels in the information center we learn about the formation of the island, and we were just in time to catch the only bus back to town at 4 pm. We say goodbye to Rafa promising to see him sometime soon, maybe in Finland if he agrees to visit me in late spring.

Friends, Wonderful views, and amazing times are left as valuable memoirs of this amazing trip.

Thanks to Sali for her help and patience, to Manfred who host us at ‘la Orotava’, to Rafa for his guidance before the sunrise on the snowy dark path, and Lorenzo for being a host of altitude.