Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

April 22, 2024 - We had an absolutely phenomenal day in Tenerife It was one more port that as we sailed away and were talking with new friends about our adventures for the day, we all said “I would have loved to have another day here!” Our excursion was an 8 hour jeep tour to Teide National Park and to Masca, and we loved every minute of it. The weather was ideal, not too hot, just a bit of rain and equal parts sunshine and clouds. We began the trip with the covers on the jeep, which was good as we climbed the mountain, through the ‘horizontal rain’ (aka clouds) to our first lookout point on our way up the volcano. Pictures don’t do it justice! We were literally looking down at the clouds, and through the clouds at the seaside villages below. We had three additional stops while in the Teide National Park, and by that time we had the canvas roof off the jeep and were enjoying the sun and the breezes. The landscape was so varied — around every corner and at every lookout. The mountains; the clouds, the lava rocks, the trees, the cactus, etc. There was a major wildfire in the park just over a year ago, but it was truly amazing to see how the new growth is already started. The whole park was truly awe-inspiring . And when we left the park the true adventure began!

Our next destination was in the small village of Masca, but to get to Masca we were 30 minutes on a two-way, barely two vehicle wide windy road up one side and down the other of a mountain. Around every hairpin turn — and there were a LOT of them — the views were more stunning. The village itself was very small and was very crowded. It has been a popular place for tourists and hikers to stop, with a canyon like trail, but that was closed a couple of years ago following a storm. Still, being in the middle of these mountains, with the blue sky above and a small break in the mountains through which you could see down to the ocean —it was breathtaking. After a brief stop in Masca, we got back into our jeeps, and continued up the next mountain and back down to the coast continuing on the windy, narrow roads. Besides the 8 jeeps in our caravan, there were many other cars and even a few small buses on the road - and a few points where cars and or buses had to back up to let an oncoming car make a sharp turn. Once we got down near the coast we thought we were done - just heading to a restaurant for lunch. But the restaurant was up another mountain! The ride to the restaurant was awesome as our drive was giving us a great ride with us swaying back and forth around each curve, thankfully he did this before lunch. The lunch was great, and the view from the restaurant was spectacular. Luckily while we were eating the drivers closed the roofs on the jeeps which was great because not 5 minutes after we got into the jeeps for the ride back to the ship, it started to rain. It only rained for about 15 minutes of the hour ride, but we were glad it didn’t happen on the way to Masca.

When we arrived back at the pier, it was amazing to see that two additional cruise ships, docked near us and the Princess ship that were docked when we arrived. Given the number of people on the pier, we were a bit glad we didn’t have time walk into town —as we could only imagine how crowded everything was with some many ships docked.

It was an awe inspiring day, with so many beautiful sights and different landscapes, plants and trees we saw, our pictures do not give the true sights and feeling we had being in such a beautiful area.

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