While we were in the Canary Islands, we partook of a Teide by Night tour, which picked us up near our hotel and gave us a full-evening experience of Teide National Park! The same bus was assigned to us to us for the whole trip, from pickup to drop-off, and for the hour climb through more and more residential areas, to the mist-laden forest above, and through the perpetual cloud cover into bright and sunny mountains.
We stopped at a restaurant briefly, with the opportunity for snacks; saw canaries (our first of the trip!) out and about while we waited; and headed back out in no time at all, off to see viewpoints. Gorgeous views from the bus, stop, step out, take photos, rinse and repeat – you can spend a whole trip in this park, so there was a lot to cover. The peak was not one of them – for that, you need a permit, far enough in advance to not be sensible for large tour groups.
And it was, indeed, a large tour group, or at least the company is – while our bus had maybe twenty people, there were three or four buses all running at the same time, and we all came in to dinner together, slightly staggered. It’s difficult to stagger them too far, you understand – after dinner, we all headed out to watch sunset, and it’s not like that waits for anybody! I enjoyed the food, certainly, but sunset was the stunner, made better with warm mint tea to stave off the impending cold. Another moment at the restaurant – bathrooms, liquor tastings for those who partake – long enough for the sky to darken, and then we were off to watch the stars. I learned more about where the constellations are in relation to each other and the information they actually convey than I have in the rest of my life! And the pre-set-up telescopes allowed us to get several special looks at the sky, including of a nebula. Magic.
This one… was a lot. As you may gather from the sheer quantity of stuff happening, there was a lot of rushing from place to place, and it’s definitely not for anyone who wants to stay in one place for an extended period of time, or have finer control over in which places you stay at a given moment. That said, if you only have a day for Teide, as we did, this was incredible, and any trip to Teide would be, with guaranteed clear weather and even clearer view of the stars. Difficult to be subject to the whims of clouds when you’re above them! Literally. So this was a delight.
