After a three year hiatus from international travel, primarily due to the pandemic, I was itching for a big solo adventure. I traveled solo abroad in New Zealand and Thailand, both in 2006, but since then all of my trips (while amazing) have been with friends and were mostly focused on fishing. It was time to plan some me-time in an exotic locale, with a focus on trail running, hiking, climbing, and landscape photography. My short list of potential destinations included Patagonia, Iceland, Hawaii (not foreign but would still be awesome), and the Canary Islands. I think I’d rather do Iceland in the summer. February is summer in Patagonia, but Chile’s quarantine restrictions and the higher trip cost ruled that out for now. Hawaii would have been a great winter destination, but the Canary Islands offer comparable landscapes and activities for half the cost (slightly cheaper airfare and significantly less expensive car rentals and accommodation). The Canary Islands are an autonomous territory of Spain, and so would provide an opportunity to brush up on my Spanish, too. The prospect of climbing the volcano Mount Teide, the highest point on Spanish territory at 12,188′ above sea level, was also a key factor in my decision to travel the Canaries. After a little research, I booked airfare for a weeklong trip based on the island of Tenerife but including a couple of days on the neighboring island of La Gomera. Entonces, ¿dónde están Las Canarias?
Before the trip I secured my permit to summit Mount Teide, reserved rental cars and hotels, bought ferry tickets between Tenerife and La Gomera, and researched some trails and points of interest. I left enough flexibility in my itinerary to adjust plans based on weather conditions and my whims.
DAY 1: Saturday/Sunday, February 19/20, 2022
I flew Detroit -> Amsterdam -> Tenerife and caught my first flight on Saturday, February 19. With the long flights, layover, and time zone changes I didn’t land in Tenerife until late afternoon on Sunday. I had booked a hotel adjacent to the airport so I wouldn’t have to drive far after picking up my rental car, but I had about an hour of daylight and the relatively warm air felt so good that I followed a road uphill to the town of Las Zocas, parked in a random spot, and squeezed in a short run before checking into my coastal hotel, which I had booked for two nights.
DAY 2: Monday, February 21, 2022
After a good night sleep I decided to start my first full day on Tenerife with a visit to Parque Nacional del Teide. It was about an hour drive up narrow, winding roads through several pueblos, but I stopped at a café for a leisurely breakfast and coffee on the way. Many canarios speak English but I tried to converse and conduct my business in Spanish as much as possible, for the practice.
After a filling breakfast I continued driving up to the park. The palm trees, succulents, and fincas (small agricultural homesteads) gave way to the pine-dominated Corona Forest (which, having now experienced both, I can say with confidence is so much cooler than Coronavirus) above the cute little village of Vilaflor.
I found a trailhead within the park and got my first view of Mount Teide up close. The clouds broke just long enough to see the summit cone and snap the picture below before obscuring my view for the remainder of the day.
From this parking spot (Mirador de Lanno de Ucanca) was a connector trail to the Roques de Garcia loop. I figured I would just do a few relatively easy miles since I was planning the big Teide summit climb the following day (Ha! I should know myself better than that…).
The Roques de Garcia loop is only a couple miles around, but I found a connector trail (Sendero 23) leading to Pico Viejo, which got my attention. I wasn’t carrying enough hydration for extended exertion so I ran to the visitor’s center and purchased some boxed waters and snacks. Then I tackled the climb to the Pico Viejo crater rim. The views of the surrounding landscape were great even though Teide itself was obscured by clouds.
I mostly hiked up through the 8,000′ to 10,000′ elevation range, feeling the thin air a bit. I kept a nervous eye on the thickening clouds but pressed on. It looked like I might get wet, and that was alright, as long as it didn’t I wasn’t caught in an electrical storm. As I neared Pico Viejo the volcanic landscape transitioned to a mix of yellow sand and jagged red pumice. It was very unique.
The higher end of Sendero 23 passed through a landscape of sand and red pumice.
Just as I reached the end of Sendero 23, where it came to a “T” with another trail that lead down the slope of Pico Viejo to the west and served as an alternative route to the summit of Mount Teide to the east, the clouds caught up to me and I was enveloped in a ghostly fog that cut my visibility down to my immediate surroundings. I scrambled up the crater rim of Pico Viejo but couldn’t see anything but gray abyss. And out of that gray abyss a rumble of thunder. That spooked me, as there was absolutely no cover from lightning, and initiated a hurried run down the full length of Sendero 23.
My rapid descent down Sendero 23 was through heavy graupel (snow pellets). It was peaceful and beautiful, and changed the experience of the trail dramatically.
Running on snow-covered volcanic pumice cobbles is not exactly friendly footing but I somehow made it back Roques de Garcia without falling or injuring myself. The Roques de Garcia looked alien and epic in the stormy weather.
I perched myself on a scenic overlook of the Roques de Garcia to eat a couple granola bars and then tacked on an additional couple of miles on some of the flatter trails, and the paved road, near the visitor’s center. I finished my hike/run with over 15 miles and 4,636′ elevation gain… a lot more than I had planned to take on the day before my Teide summit adventure. Oh well. Solo se vive una vez.
DAY 3: Tuesday, February 22, 2022
My summit hike of Mount Teide gets it’s very own blog post. Click here to read it!
After climbing Teide, I drove to my next accommodation, in the northwest part of Tenerife. Along the way, I stopped at some of the miradores (roadside viewpoints) to admire Mount Teide from a different perspective.
Hotel Rural Caserio los Partidos was tucked out of the way and the entrance road was not obvious, so I was glad to have the combination of in-car GPS navigation and the Avenza map I had prepared ahead of the trip with my locations pinned just in case my rental car didn’t have a navigation system.
The place was amazing, with cottages made from stone and wood arranged around a rectangular outer wall and an inner courtyard that was a perfect place to mingle with the other guests and enjoy meals under the open sky. I opted to purchase the homestyle dinner there, and dined with visitors from the UK, France, and even Vermont. I encountered very few fellow Americans on my trip so it was nice to chat with them. After dinner, I showered in a stone basin and used the matches and crate of wood in my room to start a fire in the wood stove to ward off the night’s chill.
DAY 4: Wednesday, February 23, 2022
It felt good to have a lazy morning, so I slept until about 8:30am and joined the three guests from Vermont and their Canarian friend for breakfast and several cups of coffee in the pleasant morning sunlight.
I finally got in my rental car and set off for Masca around 10:30am. The narrow, winding road there edges steep cliffs and it was relatively busy with other traffic. Finding a parking spot wasn’t easy but I did secure one. Masca has been referred to as “European Machu Picchu” (the real Machu Picchu is more difficult to access and is way more dramatic), and it certainly was scenic. I started my watch and logged a run there, including a run up the main road to an overlook with a bar and restaurant, where I ordered a refreshing cactus juice.
When I left Masca I had a bit of a scare with the rental car. I felt resistance, and an icon flashed on the dashboard that I thought meant low tire pressure. I worried I’d have to deal with fixing a flat tire. But it was user error, and a simple fix. I realized I hadn’t disengaged the parking break (I don’t think I’ve ever used the parking break in my own car)… Whew! Glad that’s all it was.
Without a clear idea of how I wanted to spend the rest of the day, I just continued driving through the Teno region to the north coast of Tenerife. I turned to check out Teno Point but the main road there was closed for construction and it was a long and grueling hike to get there, so I opted to keep driving along the coast. Eventually I reached a pullover with some parking spaces near Garachico. I tracked my steps while I explored the colorful oceanside town.
I strolled the waterfront and watched some fisherman for a while. A few years ago, I would have been anxious to get a line in the water and grind for new fish species the second I landed in Tenerife. It’s a little weird that I didn’t even pack fishing gear or feel the desire to spend time fishing on this trip. What excitement I used to harbor for fishing has shifted pretty thoroughly to my interest in running trails and climbing mountains.
I stopped for a late lunch and wi-fi access at a restaurant in the plaza and broke my many-months-long streak of not eating any meat with an entre of octopus. It was actually quite delicious.
After checking out Garachico I decided to drive back to Hotel Rural Caserio los Partidos with a couple hours of daylight remaining. On the way, I got to drive through one of those concrete tunnels with a bunch of round windows, which reminded me of a scene from a James Bond movie or the European courses in one of the racecar video games I used to play as a kid. (Please excuse this dorky observation).
There were trails passing right by Hotel Rural Caserio los Partidos so I spent the waning daylight hiking up one of those for a couple miles and returning down, alone in the dark. It was perhaps the most peaceful hike of the trip, with birdsong filling the air and much less strenuous path to follow than most of the other trails I explored in the Canary Islands. Even so, I covered more than 800 feet of elevation gain/loss. It’s not easy to find a flat spot on Tenerife! Here are some photos from my evening hike:
DAY 5: Thursday, February 24, 2022
I awoke to an early alarm, quietly gathered my things, and left Hotel Rural Caserio los Partidos in the dark. I had to catch an early ferry to La Gomera, and I gave myself plenty of time to figure out the parking situation at the port in Los Christianos. [Note: The rental car company expressly prohibits transporting rental cars between islands without prior permission (which I didn’t have), so I actually kept my 7-day rental for my Tenerife car and booked an overlapping rental for a second vehicle for my two days on La Gomera. The way the pricing worked out, it wouldn’t have saved me much (and may have cost more) to return my rental on Tenerife before catching the ferry and getting another one when I returned.]
The ferry was the largest ship I’ve ever been on, with onboard luxury item shops and a restaurant. I ate during the hour-long crossing to San Sebastián de La Gomera. Once there, it was a hassle-free process to get the keys to my La Gomera car.
I had all day to explore and I couldn’t check into my hotel in Hermigua until later that afternoon, so I went straight to Garajonay National Park. The entire island, fairly round in shape, is only about 15 miles in diameter, so you’re never far from anywhere there. However, the island a maze of densely vegetated valleys and ridges and most of the roads are on steep slopes with lots of switchbacks so it still takes over an hour to get from one side of the island to the other.
I followed the road to Garajonay up into the cloud layer, and was struck by how very different this landscape was from what I’d seen on Tenerife. The laurisilva (laurel forest) was a lush rainforest, with most of the branches and trunks draped in moss. The misty fog added to the allure of the forest. I parked at a trailhead and picked a route leading to the small mountain hamlet of El Cedro.
I followed the flagstone road down, to begin my hike, and was in awe of the old growth laurel forest surrounding me. I couldn’t help but take a lot of photos during my four-mile out-and-back hike to El Cedro.
The route was a mix of flagstone road, steep dirt single track trail, and paved road. I went as far as a little waterfall (I couldn’t get a great view of it from above and there wasn’t an easy way to view it from below) past a small farm. I said hello to the goats and sheep and then headed back up the way I’d come.
The place I had parked was also a trailhead for the Mirador del Bailadero trail so I tacked on another mile to go check that out. The clouds parted enough to get an amazing view of the Bailadero (“dancer” in English) rock formation and surrounding valley.
There were also many flowers on that route, including Teide Dwarf Bugloss (Echium acanthocarpum), an endemic and endangered plant species that happens to bloom in late February (how fortunate I was!).
Part of the trail warranted careful attention to footing. There were no guardrails.
Part of the Mirador del Bailadero trail passed through more magical laurisilva forest.
After my hike I drove to Hermigua, ate a late lunch there, and then checked into my hotel, Los Telares. It was another nice place. I later walked to the supermarcado for some groceries and made dinner in my room, which had a stove and cookware.
DAY 6: Friday, February 25, 2022
I started my second day on La Gomera with coffee and breakfast at Dulcería El Tabaibal in Hermigua before returning to Garajonay National Park for a longer hike. This time I decided on the Gran Ruta Circular Garajonay, “Ruta 18”, which is an eleven-mile loop that showcases the variety of landscapes in the park. Or, at least it would have provided amazing views of the valleys, rock formations, and even other Canary Islands had it not been thoroughly cloudy all day.
After completing the quick out-and-back spur trail to Agando, I followed Ruta 18 in the clockwise direction. The first half of the loop followed a high ridge, offering amazing vistas on a clearer day, leading to Alto de Garajonay, the highest point on the island.
The ridge was mostly climbing up until Alto de Garajonay, at an elevation of about 4,878′ above sea level. When I reached the top, I stepped up on the post with the benchmark to celebrate high-pointing my second Canary Island. Almost instantaneously, I heard a rumble of distant thunder. Fortunately, the second half of the Ruta 18 loop descended through the dense cover of laurisilva forest.
I shoved my water-blurred glasses into a pocket and ran, somewhat recklessly, down the muddy, rocky trail through the heart of the laurisilva. I made only brief stops to snap photos or to eat a granola bar.
The low point (literally, not figuratively) of Ruta 18 was in El Cedro, and so coming back up the hill from there partially overlapped with the hike I had done the previous day, at least until I reached the parking lot, beyond which I finished hiking a couple miles of new-to-me trail to complete the loop.
After my run/hike, I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon near the water so I made the drive to Valle Gran Rey on the west coast of La Gomera.
The clouds clung to the high ground in the center of the island, but the coast was clear and I got to enjoy some epic views driving down into the valley and I spent some time on the beaches and strolling the waterfront in the village of Vueltas.
I started at Playa del Inglés, simply because that’s where I could find an open parking space. Since many other men and women were enjoying the beach sin ropa I decided to do the same, although with a little more seclusion. It was a freeing feeling to soak in the sun and watch the large waves roll in. And those waves were getting noticeably larger as the tide rolled in, so I didn’t linger for too long.
After a nice afternoon on the beaches near Valle Gran Rey I drove back to Hermigua via a different route that took me through Vallehermoso and Agulo before again making dinner in my room at Los Telares.
DAY 7: Saturday, February 26, 2022
My last full day in the Canary Islands started with another early drive in the dark, this time through rain, to catch a ferry. I returned the La Gomera rental car and again ate breakfast on the crossing back to Tenerife.
The rough itinerary I’d put together before my trip called for a day in the Anaga region on the northeast end of Tenerife. But Carlos, the canario I’d shared breakfast with at Hotel Rural Caserio los Partidos, with the three guests from Vermont, had advised that if I checked out Teno region then Anaga would be a fairly similar experience. So, I opted to spend my remaining time with yet another hike on the slopes of Mount Teide and Pico Viejo. It was a morning well spent, with some of the most amazing mountain views.
I climbed about 2,000′ up the west slope of Pico Viejo (to an elevation of about 8,700′) before the clouds got so thick that I started getting anxious about potential lightning. If I got caught in a storm there things would’ve gotten dicey, as there was nowhere to take cover. On that section of trail I was also grinding up a barren, lifeless slope of black sand and loose, rugged pumice, feeling like a hobbit on a mission to destroy a ring at Mount Doom, and the dark clouds added to that ominous vibe. So I turned back and ran down the way I had come. Once I was back below 7,000′ elevation the sun reappeared. I could have safely continued, but I hadn’t had a good way to know for sure when I was up there watching the denser, darker clouds approach.
I drove through Vilaflor and took a different route back down to the Autopista (expressway), that encircles Tenerife along the coast. I stopped in Granadilla de Abona for lunch and to fuel up the rental car, then checked into my final hotel room at Casa Regina Tenerife in Tamaimo. I opted to again make a dinner from an assortment of things from the supermercado instead of eating at a restaurant. I took the evening to post to social media and read several chapters of the book Ready Player One. It felt good to relax.
DAY 8: Sunday/Monday, February 27/28, 2022
I flew out of Tenerife on Sunday afternoon, so my morning consisted of sleeping in, enjoying breakfast, repacking my luggage, returning the rental car, and getting a rapid Covid-19 antigen test (despite feeling well I was anxious about the results because a positive test would have forced me to quarantine there on my own dime, so seeing the word “NEGATIVO” was quite a relief). Upon getting the test result, I had about two hours before I needed to check in and get to my gate so I sat in the open-air café attached to the airport and enjoyed coffee with my lunch and did some reading before I had to go inside. It was a long-haul to get home, with an almost-five-hour flight to Amsterdam, a ten-hour overnight layover, an eight-hour flight to Detroit, and the nearly four-hour drive from there back to Gaylord. Fortunately I had daylight and fair weather for the drive. The hassle of long-distance travel was worth the amazing time I had exploring the Canary Islands, but I look forward enjoying some adventures closer to home for a while.
***
Shout out to Coros for making an amazing adventure watch, which I still haven’t charged since before my trip. I logged over 100km of hiking and running with more than 20,000′ of vertical gain (and the same amount of descent) in the Canary Islands. When I got back home it still had 50% battery life. As I finish writing this blog, a full week after getting home from the Canary Islands and with an additional 20 miles of running in Michigan since my trip, it’s still at 36%.
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