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Flying into Tenerife
On a road trip around the island. See the little door in the wall there.
Something to explore
Or maybe not
Driving high up above the cloud cover on Tenerife
Looking own towards La Gomera, the island where Complexity is moored
Trees are a little scrubby high up in the arid mountains
This is the volcano in the National Park we're going to explore today
Me and Teide Volcano
Teide Volcano, what made Tenerife
Driving up to Teide
Countries world wide have observatories in the very dark skies above Tenerife. Agreement is they have to share time with the Spanish scientific community.
Our little rental car heading up into the National Park
Pano view of Tenerife with Teide in the distance
Volcanic landscape
Small town in the distance along the shore
Closer look at the observatories right before a cloud rolled over them
Lots of great hiking trails to explore in Teide National Park
Pretty rugged hiking though
The road through the park
The gondola was fully booked that day
Seeing faces in the rocks
This trail makes me yearn for my bicycle
More Teide National Park
Learned a bit about volcanoes with a geologist as a travel partner
Pretty rugged volcanic hiking
And green rocks. Very green.
Don't remember why, but this is how they are.
Many different colors in the volcanic landscape
And the plants are certainly tough growing here
Another green patch in the mountain
Zoom in to the very top of the volcano
Looks like a more recent eruption point
More obvious volcanic rocks
Winery on Tenerife
Pulling away from the dock in a big ferry
Looking back at Los Cristianos on Tenerife
Sitting on the back deck of the ferry
Arriving in San Sebastian de La Gomera
Complexity is moored here for the month
Power generation above town
Aboard Complexity, snackies for dinner
Very European town
Lots of walking streets
And cafes busy at night
The weather is perfect here
And there is GELATO!
And of course a Catholic Church
Palm trees and a full moon
The view of Teide on Tenerife from La Gomera as the full moon rises
Full moon over Teide
Full moon over Teide
I'm pretty sure this means no diving
Didn't make it out to that lookout this time
It's a place where an Olympic flame was lit
Another shot of the moon over Teide
A little bit of erosion under this house high on the hill
A market sprung up in town but not sure why yet
Turns out there was a big road rally on La Gomera that weekend
With record number of cars participating
I had heard them coming off the ferry all day but thought it was just noisy motorcycles
The big ceremony to present each car and driving team
Lots of videos of the cars in the video folder
The took a ceremonial lap around town then headed up to the mountains where the rally was the next day
All of town was out to watch the event
A large stage was set up for music that night, that played very loud until 2 am
A very upscale cruise ship at the dock
The malecon at San Sebastian
A visit to the church
Inside the church
Inside the church
Inside the church
The full moon we were supposed to be sailing with but we had to delay and wait for wind
So we rented a car and went for a drive
Around the very volcanic island
Deep gorges to drive around, no path around the perimeter or the top
But lush valleys between the cliffs
And farming in the valeys
Pretty flowers for November
And bananas
Visited a museum full of historical artifacts from La Gomera's past
And enjoyed the views up the valleys
Pretty wildflowers
Scenic little towns along the shore
But all rugged mountains
And all black volcanic beaches, no white sand here
Pano of the valley and town, very typical
Small town along the hillside
And beautiful Atlantic Ocean views
Deep valleys between
Lots of terracing from olden days much like we saw in Peru
Someone lives and farms down in that valley
No way to get easily from here to there, so the original inhabitants developed a complete language using whistling
Teide across the way
A lookout that thankfully was closed for the day
Getting from here to town and around was constant windy roads
Which made a great place for a road rally with little cars
Trying to get to the top
The scenery looks the same on all sides of the island
Absolutely no easy path from one hill to the other without going all the way up and around the top
Lots of different cactus in the dry climate
Cactus and more cactus
But lots of greenery
Then the clouds rolled in
A little house near the terraced fields
And some cactus flowered
And some trees grew
Looks like aloe to me
Another pretty viewpoint I believe looking in the direction we'll go sail
Jim searching for interesting rocks
Another tiny town along the shore
Back to San Cristobal with the harbor and marina
There is the ferry we took from Tenerife
And another shot of Teide on Tenerife
A huge German cruise ship at the dock fills the town with tourists
A salad I must remember to recreate
Huge trees in the main town area
Lovely spot for an afternoon glass of wine
Some kind of fig or ficus tree
And then two young German men came by who had been charter fishing and donated a huge piece of fresh wahoo to the boat.
One last look at the marina in La Gomera. Lots of Europeans coming and going.
Jim is getting Complexity all ready to head south
But then the fuel had issues and we had to return to the dock for one last night and clean up
So this guy was on the dock
Coolest looking Desert Locust on the dock
And the marina kitty named Marina. Wanted to sneak her aboard but she's very happy and well fed there
