Dan Will Travel

Just some shots as I travelled around the island. If I think there is an interesting story, it will be in the captions.

Canarian architecture from La Orotava

Maybe not the largest dragon tree, but surely the largest one I saw!  La Orotava.

Classic Canarian church architecture, 17th century. La Orotava.  Mixture of Spanish and Moorish styles.

What does a little town do when they need a soccer pitch and there is nothing but lava fields around?  Build on top of them!  Las Manchas.

Someone decided that Masca would be a great tourist town.  Well, it is but the road is wild and tough, and when you get there, there is no place to put a vehicle as it is hanging on the rim of the canyon.

Masca from afar.  A tough situation to eek out a farming existence.

I loved watching this unfold. I was in the same situation a few days ago with a big truck on Gran Canaria.  The car on the right has no choice but to back up. And as you are backing up, the bus continues forward right on your bumper.  Reasonably steep drop off too if you screw up.  No pressure, huh?

Lovely coastal town of Los Silos.

A classic Canarian historical building with the typical balconies that they did back then. Los Silos.

Coastal shot, Garachico.

Garachico.  In 1705 this town was the most important harbor in the Canaries.  In 1706  a giant lava flow wiped out their wonderful harbor and most of the town itself.  Mostly rebuilt of course, but never an important town again.

The view of what is left of Garachico’s harbor today. The 1706 flow is on the right.

Sunrise from my room in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

By far the largest of the Canary islands.  Home to Pico de Tiede, the largest mountain in Spain, and actually the 3rd largest mountain on earth. (Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are the other 2 that are larger.)  And, as those of you about my age might remember, home to what is still the worst airplane disaster ever.  One that for so many reasons, should have never happened.  The main airport for the international flights is not here, but on Gran Canaria.  Tenerife airport would have been like Bellingham or Fort Wayne. Just a regional airport, nothing more.  But, back then there was a bit of a separatist movement here in the Canaries that led to an airport bombing at Gran Canaria, and that led to diverting many flights to this minor airport on Tenerife.  Which is situated at 2,000′ and subject to wind and fog, and had only one runway which served as both the taxiway and runway. (La Palma is still that way today.  You taxi down the runway, turn around and take off. Not ideal, safety wise. ) So all of these planes were backing up here, including the two 747’s that collided upon a takeoff of one into the fog hitting the other taxing 747.  The taking off flight had not gotten full clearance to depart. A hugely disastrous misunderstanding, killing nearly 600 people.  Tenerife now has a separate taxiway, but otherwise it is back to being a sleepy airport.

Pico del Tiede actually from my incoming flight.  The airport discussed here is in the clouds between my plane and the mountain.

Now that we have seen it from the rim, it is time to go into it for those views.  There are two access roads, one easy (but requiring a reservation) one long an arduous. As I had two days to do this, I was able to do both.

Not something I would normally photograph, but this 3-D display at the visitor center does better explain what we are seeing.  The highest point with the observatories is right in front of the steps.  (11:30 on a clock) My two access points were up from about 8:00 o’clock and then from about 2:00 o’clock.

An initial view in from the end of the road.

A tiny cloud.  More will come later in the day long after I have departed.

This is the view up to the rim where I dealt with that bird.  Finally escaped it!  Well, hopefully….

Canary Island pines.  Very pretty, but truly remarkable in how they deal with fire.  Even an inferno that burns the entire tree will not kill it. Within weeks it is sprouting new growth all up and down the tree  and after 5 years or so, no one would ever know other than the fire scarred trunk.