Here’s part 2 to the Tenerife trip! There are tons of pictures, so I hope you enjoy.

Monday – Island Tour

On Monday we decided to take the Mt. Teide and Masca Valley Tour in Tenerife, which was my favorite part of the trip. It was just over 30 pounds and the tour lasted about 9 hours. If you’re going to Tenerife, staying in the south, and have a day available, I highly recommend you take a tour to see the entire island. The south looks kind of like the planet Mars, but the more north you go, the greener it gets.

The tour started pretty early in the morning. We were the first stop, so we were on the bus before the sun was even up. After everyone loaded up, we hit the road to go to Mount Teide (an active volcano!). On the way to Mt. Teide, we stopped at this little hole in the wall restaurant so everyone could use the bathroom. The tour guide mentioned this drink that’s, for the most part, only served in Tenerife. It’s called Barraquito, and is a liqueur coffee that uses Licor 43.  We continued our travels to the volcano and made it past the clouds. We were literally above the clouds! When we finally made it to the volcano, we got out and took plenty of pictures. The tour gives you a little while at each section, so you don’t get to do too much. If you want to do any of these places for long periods of time, I’d suggest renting a car or something. It was really cool being next to it and I kept thinking to myself, if this thing were to erupt right now, we’d be goners. Luckily for us, it hasn’t erupted since 1909.

We then went to a town called Garachico. This town was hit badly by an eruption hundreds of years ago, but that created a whole new culture for it. Everything looks like volcanic debris, so it’s a charcoal-like colored area. The eruption created some really cool natural rock pools that people swim in. We didn’t get to dive in because the tour was short, and because it was raining. Not like we would have anyways – no one wants to be wet on a bus.

The bus stopped at a little restaurant where we had lunch for pretty cheap. I want to say we ordered beef or something, but I can’t remember. The island is also known for its bananas, so they passed them out for dessert. I would have preferred them a little riper, but hey, it was an experience. Also, we got extra food thanks to Gian and Davoo speaking Spanish! The tour guide was extremely happy to hear they were from Puerto Rico and wanted them to have a good impression of Spain. It stuck!

We briefly stopped at Vilaflor, a small little town, but only to go to a souvenir shop. We didn’t buy anything there, but they did have tons of samples that we tried. All kinds of salsa made from exotic fruit. Afterwards, we went to El Drago (the Dragon Tree), a really..really old tree (looked more like a bush). Apparently it’s somewhere between 650-3000 years old. That’s a really big difference though ha. It was raining and I think we were behind on time, so we only saw it from the road. We got out and took pictures though (yes, on the road while cars were in motion.)

The coolest part of the trip was going to Masca Valley. It’s by far the most beautiful part of the island with stunning sceneries, rainbows everywhere, and one heck of a drive to get there. There is one road up and down, and typically, the locals go up one way and down another. When you have tourist that aren’t familiar, they go the wrong way causing messy traffic. There were plenty of people who couldn’t maneuver their cars, so they had to get out and let the bus drive move the car out of the way for them. It was a lot of work!

Anyways, we made it to the top and it was gorgeous. You can see out to the ocean from certain angles and the sun shines so brightly up there. We went to a gift shop at the top which wasn’t too ridiculously priced, so I was happy about that. Check out the photos because they were awesome.

Tuesday – Check out

By Tuesday we were worn out. We really took the time to relax, catch up on sleep, and stuff our faces with the remaining food we had left over. We really lucked out because the Airbnb host was super nice. She allowed us to keep our stuff at the place after checkout while we searched for a printer. There were no stores that could print our boarding passes and the local library had closed down. Fortunately for us the host offered to take Gian and Davoo to a store that printed. It wasn’t walking distance, so we were grateful.

#Lessonslearned – If the country is safe, try not to stay in the touristy areas. Vacation spots aren’t as authentic, and you may not get the full experience and culture of the country.