Teide Part 2

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The morning was spent at the Roques de Garcia for sunrise. It was spectacular and worth getting up early. Afterwards we had a nice breakfast and then headed up the cable car that takes you near to the top of Teide. It was pretty cold at this level which was 3500 metres up. Once we got off the cable car we could feel the lack of oxygen at this level which is almost 50% less than at ground level so walking up was made more difficult. We ascended Teide which is the highest mountain in Spain at 3700 metres. The way up was quite difficult due to the lack of oxygen and we had to stop a lot to catch our breath. Near the top there was lots of sulphur vents which added to the difficulty breathing. We finally reached the summit which was very windy and cold with wind speeds of 80 km/hr and a temperature of -20oC with the wind chill factor so we didn't stay long and headed back down and to the hotel.

After relaxing for a while we headed to the other side of the national park and down to a town called La Orotava. On the way we passed through so many different landscapes; pine forest, desert, scrub, clouds and more. Our favourite place was an area of green sand which wouldn't look out of place on Mars or Venus. It was amazing. Teide is full of an unbelievable amount of landscapes and environments. Once we got to La Orotava we headed to a restaurant for lunch which was absolutely terrible. The service was so slow and the food not worth the wait so we got out as soon as possible and heading back up to Teide.

We headed back to the green sand area and walked around. There was amazing light while we there and it felt like we were on another planet. After this we drove around and found a nice sunset spot and afterwards headed back to the hotel for dinner.