{"id":4715,"date":"2024-04-15T16:35:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T16:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:48:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:48:31","slug":"4-tenerife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4715","title":{"rendered":"4. TENERIFE"},"content":{"rendered":"

As usual, I’m getting impressively behind.\u00a0 As this is being written, I’m watching the African coast glide by some 8-10 miles off the starboard side.\u00a0 And although there is a bit of a swell, we are heading more or less straight into it.\u00a0 So the floor (and the walls and ceiling) are all behaving properly!<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the “present”, and Tenerife!\u00a0 Another massive steep-sided ex-volcano.\u00a0 And the main volcanic mountain, Mount Teide, is basically where we are going on our excursion.\u00a0 Arriving at the island in the early morning, we were greeted by a quite forbidding looking landscape.\u00a0 \u00a0Severe rocky cliffs rising straight out of the sea.\u00a0 Not a road, track or house in sight.<\/p>\n

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As we approached the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, we started to see little settlements clinging to the hillsides.<\/p>\n

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Today was going to be another long day on a coach.\u00a0 We were heading for the Mt. Teide National park, close to the South-west end of the island.\u00a0 Our boat is at the North-eastern end of the island – for everyone’s convenience!<\/p>\n

We were told about the different vegetation zones.\u00a0 Basically, bananas below 300 m altitude, then grapes and sugar up to the tree line.\u00a0 Then the trees and, above that – not a lot of anything at all.<\/p>\n

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There was a lot of evidence of the extensive forest fires which hit the island last summer.\u00a0 But also a lot of evidence of the rejuvenation of the native pines which are adapted to withstand fires.\u00a0 Unlike the introduced (fast growing) pines which were not going to come back to life.<\/p>\n

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After a rain shower in the woods, we rose above the clouds, and got our first clear view of Mt Teide…<\/p>\n

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A quick photo stop to show we were really there …<\/p>\n

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… and we were off over a lunar landscape.\u00a0 \u00a0Jumbled lava blocks and tubes.<\/p>\n

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And at the visitor station (approximately 2,500 m altitude) we were able to walk among the rocks, the weird intrusions and the minimalistic vegetation.\u00a0 However, the peak of the volcano is still over 1200 m above us.\u00a0 An enthusiastic six hour hike – which we plan to leave for another day!<\/p>\n

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There were calderas, lava plains and “recent” vents all over the place.<\/p>\n

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Pretty phantasmogorical!<\/p>\n

Some facts about Mt Teide…<\/p>\n

Its summit, at 3,715 m (12,188 ft) is the highest point in Spain and the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic.\u00a0 If measured from the ocean floor, its height of 7,500 m (24,600 ft) makes Teide the third-highest volcano in the world.\u00a0 Teide’s elevation above sea level makes Tenerife the tenth highest island in the world.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s enough mountain stuff.\u00a0 Time for lunch!\u00a0 At El Monasterio de San Pedro.<\/p>\n

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…and then, just to prove they have a sunny promenade and big waves on Tenerife too, we stopped at Puerto de la Cruz for a stretch of legs on the way home.<\/p>\n

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Theres a quaint little (locked up tight) 18th century chapel, the Ermito San Telmo.\u00a0 (San Telmo is also known as St Elmo, of St Elmo’s Fire fame.)\u00a0 This chapel was founded in 1780 and it is located next to the sea on the promenade of San Telmo.\u00a0 Devoted to the patron saint of (Spanish) sailors.\u00a0 I always thought St Nicholas was in charge of fishermen’s fate!<\/p>\n

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After 90 coach miles we were ready for “tea and biscuits!\u00a0 The ship has two bookable restaurants.\u00a0 The French “Chartreuse” and the steakhouse, “Prime 7”.\u00a0 The main dining is in the “Compass Rose” or La Veranda (breakfast).\u00a0 With smaller options at the “Pool Grill”.\u00a0 Part of “La Veranda” transmogrifies into an Italian restaurant, “Sette Mari”, in the evening.\u00a0 There is also a coffee cafe and an afternoon tea lounge, plus an icecream bar at least one self-serve coffee and cookies station.\u00a0 Then there’s 24 hour room service.\u00a0 So it’s quite possible to be eating 24 hours a day.\u00a0 Possible, but not healthy!<\/p>\n

I mention all that for my own reference when I read back over these messages!\u00a0 And to remind ourselves of why we are in severe need of a diet when we get home.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow, it’s Gran Canaria…<\/p>\n

… but we have just heard that Spain will, on Thursday, deport more than 60 travellers who arrived last week by cruise ship in the port of Barcelona with dodgy visas!<\/p>\n

I just hope all our paperwork is in order!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As usual, I’m getting impressively behind.\u00a0 As this is being written, I’m watching the African coast glide by some 8-10 miles off the starboard side.\u00a0 And although there is a bit of a swell, we are heading more or less… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regent-seven-seas-cruise-travels-in-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4715"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4747,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions\/4747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}