“Wooooow!” Andrii declared for the twelfth time in the last ten minutes. It had become a strong catchphrase for him on these road trips of ours, and I didn’t blame him one bit. The thing about working on a cruise ship is that while you can almost achieve ‘local’ status in the immediate vicinity of each cruise port, it can be difficult to head further away, so these moments always come with a bit of the ‘wow’ factor. In this case, six years after I first docked in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, I was finally heading inland on a Mount Teide road trip. And let me tell you now, it was glorious.
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Hiring a car for a Mount Teide road trip
Throwing caution to the wind, we’d opted out of pre-booking a car in the hope that a vehicle would just miraculously be available. And would you believe it, we were in luck! The little Cicar hut at the port was open for business, and although we weren’t the only group rocking up and crossing our fingers that day, we managed to bag ourselves a cute little car to head away in.
Before long we were heading out of the city- which is a wonderful but fairly industrial-looking affair- and up up and away into the distant mountains, in search of Mount Teide. It was a fairly warm day in late November, and although there were clouds lingering overhead, we kept our fingers crossed for clear skies ahead.
What is Mount Teide?
Well folks, Mount Teide isn’t just the highest point in the whole of Spain (although truth be told, the island of Tenerife is closer to mainland Africa than Europe), but it’s also an active volcano. Unlike more famous active volcanic sites, the last time this goliath of a volcano erupted was over a hundred years ago- so it’s been a while since any lava and ash was spouted from its snow-capped peak.
Before the Spanish arrived in the 1400s, Tenerife was home to the indigenous Guanche people- who believed that the sacred Mount Teide held up the sky. (Which is fair enough- it’s tall enough, after all.) They also believed that the fiery mountain was home to an evil god named Guayota, who was the cause of any eruption.
Tenerife is a great island to visit for lovers of the great outdoors, and whilst there are hiking paths all over Teide National Park, it’s also possible to climb to the summit of Mount Teide in around four to six hours- although you’ll need a permit to complete the final 200m of the ascent. Alternatively, there’s a cable car which runs from partway up the mountain to the summit. (Check tours to Teide Cable Car here.)
But in our case, our only real goal for the day was to get as close to the mountain as possible, before we had to turn round and get back to work. If that just meant a glimpse from afar, then so be it.
Snack time at La Pinochería
We hadn’t got very far on our uphill drive, before we collectively decided we were all starving hungry. Road trips simply cannot continue with a famished posse of roadtrippers, and the little village of La Esperanza seemed like the perfect place to stop; I mean, the name translates to ‘hope,’ so what better prospects could there be!?
As we got out of the car we discovered the weather had taken a severe dip in temperature, the sky had turned completely white, and the air had that icy damp feeling of being within an actual cloud. Our shorts-and-t-shirts attire had us sticking out like a sore thumb in a restaurant which was frequented only by locals. Although- the fact that it was a restaurant frequented by locals at least meant that our food was guaranteed to be great. La Pinocherìa gets a 10/10 from me if you ever happen to be driving through La Esperanza, and with the gigantic mural emblazoned on its outside wall, you really can’t miss it.
The Tenerife wild fires
We continued the drive onwards and literally upwards into the pine forests of Teide, and I’m telling you now, it was absolutely glorious. To regular holiday-makers in the Canary Islands, this mountainous landscape densely packed with pine trees might come as a surprise. These Atlantic islands are the land of package holidays and winter sun, aren’t they? But the nature that’s waiting to be discovered further inland is nothing short of stunning.
After a brief period of mysterious mistiness, the fog cleared and we were driving on a perfectly smooth tarmac road that felt as if it had carved its own path through the trees on the mountain slopes; steep walls of earth on either side of the road housed the deep roots of the pine trees. The thing about pine trees is that they’re evergreen, so although the brown needles looked very autumnal, I was mildly confused at the lack of greenery as we got higher into the mountains.
We parked in a little lay-by at the side of the road, and when we clambered out into the fresh air we realised very quickly that the trees weren’t brown because of an autumnal change. A forest fire had obviously swept through the entire area. The bark of the trees in that area were char-blackened, and the spindly needles were dried to a crisp, all the freshness singed out of them.
The heat in Europe that summer had been intense, and only six weeks before we’d been in Sicily- where the fires had finally stopped, but the air was still speckled with tiny flecks of black ash that stuck to our skin. We’d seen similarly blackened trees in the mountains near the little town of Mijas in Spain. But I hadn’t realised that the heat had been just as intense in the Canary Islands, in fact so intense that the wildfires had only just stopped blazing, in November.
The 2023 fire in Tenerife began on August 15th, and within five days it had spread into the National Park and across 12 municipalities on the island. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated, and although the fire was considered to be under control about a month later, it continued to burn in some areas. When the weather got unseasonably hotter again in October, and the wind picked up, the fire picked up as well and began to rage back across Tenerife. It was only on November 10th- ten days before we happened to be on our road trip from Santa Cruz de Tenerife- that the wildfire was officially declared as extinguished.
(Here’s an article from The Guardian, if you’re curious.)
Call me crazy, or just plain ignorant, but I had no idea that a wildfire could continue to burn for over twelve weeks.
Amateur rock climbing
We drove on, stopping the car further up the road so that we could head away from the road on foot, scrambling over sandy rocks and boulders to get the best views of the north of the island. And I’m telling you now- the silence was spectacular. There wasn’t even a hint of a breeze, although despite that, the clouds still seemed to be rolling towards us from the direction of what should have been Mount Teide. (Except we couldn’t actually see it.)
Mapped out in front of us were the black and brown slopes of the mountains, looking as if someone had shaded them with charcoal pencils, patches of them still bright green against all odds. In the distance was the shimmering blue of the Atlantic Ocean. How different it would have looked six months ago.
Eventually the clouds crept even closer to us, and rain drops began to patter down onto the dry rocks. We were also beginning to shiver again, and Slaven (who didn’t even have a jacket or a hoodie with him) was wrapped in a towel for warmth. It was time to get moving again.
Spoiler alert: we never made it to Mount Teide
This mountain range, being actually very high up indeed, also gets a little bit scary when the fog starts to appear, even by the time that we’d got to a plateau. We continued along the road while the rain fell harder and all we could see on either side of us was volcanic earth, speckled with the odd pale green shrub. It was still all very spectacular, if a little bit nerve-wracking.
Driving at approximately 20mph, we had to come to a decision: continue in search of Mount Teide, or make our way back to the ship? We got out of the car again in the freezing cold and deliberated. Even without the mountain, the eerie landscape was kind of beautiful. There were no longer any trees in sight, just very low-level hardy green and yellow plants, and the white fog shrouded anything other than our immediate vicinity in complete mystery. The mountain was surely miles away, although we had no way of knowing for certain as our data had also stopped working. Anything outside of a 2 mile radius seemed to be simply a grid.
How awkward.
We opted for heading back down, and decided to fork away down the mountainside towards Puerto de la Cruz on the north side of the island at the next possible opportunity. Which is when the rain truly began to pummel us with utmost ferocity. The atmosphere was truly aggressive, although I’m glad to say that our spirits remained jolly despite the hard-hitting weather.
(We still said ‘wow’ at every opportunity, so that says it all.)
The journey seemed to take forever, as the road snaked back and forth for a lifetime to reach a lower altitude- where the weather was once again bright and sunny, and we sat in traffic for a second lifetime, to get back to the port.
How far were we from Mount Teide?
Pals, it turns out that we were really not far from the mountain at all- in fact, if visibility had been better, we’d have seen it pretty much as soon as we reached the forest. In all the photos above, had the fog not been there, we would have had a backdrop of the volcano. Mount Teide is so very high, and so very visible, that you can see it from basically every single other Canary Island. But in all fairness, we couldn’t possibly have gone on: the weather clearly didn’t want us to, and there’s no way we could risk being late back on board.
Still, I deem this Tenerife road trip a resounding success. It was spontaneous, we only had a vague idea of where we were going, and we had the best bunch of road trippers that you could ever hope for. We may not have actually spotted Mount Teide, but it was one of the most memorable days I’ve had in Tenerife and for that I am truly grateful!