Adventures up a Volcano

As it is only right to do, we thought that during the week long laze-a-thon in Tenerife, we should go and do something 'cultural'. There was much argument about whether or not the Drago tree warranted a vist. Reports varied, placing it anywhere between 800 and 3000 years old and near a village that had perished in a previous volcanic eruption. In the end, the mixed histories convinced us that it was a tourist trap and that we should instead go and see the volcano, El Tiede.

So, we got on a coach at some ungodly hour on Thursday morning and spent an hour listening to the booming voice of the tour guide explaining the local history of the island and the volcano, first in Spanish and then in English. I don't know why he bothered with the Spanish version - the five girls for whom it was intended spent virtually the entire tour sleeping with their curtains closed, obscuring the views from everyone else on the bus.

So, now I'll bore you all with photos rather than write anything, as it's hard to sound interesting when you're talking about rocks.


We got ripped off by a cable car like this one, which only takes you near the peak. We were expecting to hover precariously in a tin can over firey lava.


This is as close as we got. Unless you had a special permit and hiking boots, you had to stay down with the plebs.


Over 3000 feet above sea level, low lying clouds hang off the side of the volcano.


The valleys of the National Park.

I'll stop there but if you'd like to see more, check out my stuff on flickr.com