Tag Archives: Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Transatlantic 2022 — Tenerife; Teide and Mirador de la Ruleta


Teide National Park

Today I’m taking you on a photo journey to an alien landscape. We’re now deep within the Teide National Park (Parque Nacional del Teide), an area of lava fields from the tallest peak of any Atlantic Ocean island — Teide volcano (12,188 feet/3,715 meters). We’ll begin with images from the area of the park known as Minas de San José. Here’s the view heading out on foot southbound from our parked bus:

View from Minas de San José at Teide National Park

Remnants of the lave field are in evidence everywhere:

Teide lava fields

In the above scene I found the outcropping to the left particularly fascinating, so I zoomed in for a closer look:

Lava outcropping

From the road Teide volcano is hidden, but it reveals itself after only a short walk. Turn around and look west for this view of Teide:

Teide volcanic cone

What initially blocks your view of Teide is another lava outcropping, so let’s head back over to the other side of the road and take a look at that:

A flow of lava frozen in the landscape
Rugged lava field

One last look back before we load up on the tour bus and head for our next stop:

View from Minas de San José at Teide National Park

Back aboard the bus we now head out to a place in Teide National Park called Mirador de la Ruleta (Roulette Viewpoint). You’ll see more of that fascinating place next Monday (this week’s Fun Photo Friday will concentrate on another Tenerife destination). So, until then, I’ll whet your appetite with these two preview shots:

Roulette Viewpoint and the Mount Teide volcano
Mirador de la Ruleta formations

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Transatlantic 2022 — Tenerife; Teide National Park and barraquito at Restaurante Papillon


Perpetual Clouds viewed from Mirador de Chipeque

Our ship Vision of the Seas departed Santa Cruz de La Palma on 7 May 2022, and we arrived at our next Canary Islands destination of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the island of Tenerife the following morning. This was not our first trip to Tenerife, so this time Ursula booked us for a tour of places we’d yet to visit. This tour would take us deep into the island and high above the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, the mountain you see below is Teide, the highest point for any island in the Atlantic (12,188 feet/3,715 meters above sea level), and the highest point in Spain.

Teide Volcano 12,188 feet/3,715 meters above level

The images you see above, as well as the next two images below, were taken at the Mirador de Chipeque (Chipeque Lookout). This scenic viewpoint is about .4 miles/.65 kilometers off the main road (Carretera de la Esperanza/TF-24) to Teide National Park. To the south southwest rises Teide, and to that volcano’s right, to the west, is an area that is frequently hidden by a dense layer of clouds in one of Tenerife’s several distinct microclimates. The particular microclimate at this viewpoint appears to favor conifer trees:

Mirador de Chipeque

Whereas below you can see that the microclimate is dense cloud rolling up the slope of Teide from the western shore of the island:

Two microclimates in one photo

Our tour bus had already been on the road for a while, so it was time for a break. We stopped at Restaurante Papillon (Butterfly) for an island favorite:

Restaurante Papillon

Heading inside, we were greeted by a combination café, restaurant, and gift shop:

Papillon (Butterfly)

Our tour guide gave us a recommendation as to what to order — an island favorite called barraquito. This is coffee with a twist. A list of ingredients: espresso, sweetened condensed milk, frothed whole milk, cinnamon, and lemon zest. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds, but it gets better. It’s also spiked with Licor 43! And what does this concoction look like before the first highly anticipated sip? A bit like this, although traditionally it should be served in a glass mug rather than opaque ceramic:

Traditional barraquito in an untraditional cup

Heading back outside after our refreshment, I snapped this photo of Teide:

Teide with its own above-the-tree-line microclimate

Time to head into the Teide National Park (Parque nacional del Teide) some twenty bus minutes beyond Papillon. We’ll get a more in-depth look at this wonder starting Wednesday. Until then, I’ll leave you with these two images as a teaser:

Teide National Park — alien landscape
Teide National Park — a desert microclimate

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Filed under Photography, R. Doug Wicker, travel, vacation