Leaving Teide

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As usual we got up to see the sunrise over Teide. On driving through the national park under the full moon we noticed and saw our first moon rainbow which was quite strange. It looks very strange and tried to take a photo but it was gone by the time I'd set the camera up. The sunrise wasn't as good as the previous but still managed to get some great photos.

After eating a huge breakfast we left the hotel and left Canadas del Teide National Park. We decided to do a walk on the way down to an area called Paisaje Lunar (Lunar Landscape). We found the main road to get there was a nasty dirt track and couldn't take the car on it for fear of damage or another flat tyre which would not have been good. Instead, we decided to walk it not knowing what we'd gotten ourselves into. 8km later and tired legs and feet already, we reached the starting point of the walk. The guide book was pretty vague so along the way we took a couple of wrong turns but managed to get there in the end. The columns or chimneys are really stunning and wouldn't look out of place in Bryce Canyon or something. The sun had been hidden for most of the day and came out just as we entered the area which was nice. We stayed for a while and then started to head back with our feet aching already. The walk back was pretty strenous and our legs and feet were hurting quite a bit. The end was in sight though and we managed to make it back to the car. Six hours and around 20km later with feet and legs barely intact. Was it worth it? We probably wouldn't do it again but it was an adventure but took up the whole day.

We then headed down the mountain and to a nice village called Garachico on the north coast. This is probably one of the nicest villages we'd been in so far and our pension room was almost elegant and had lots of original features. We headed out for a celebratory dinner and got quite drunk for this first time.