Mountains of Tenerife
11 Dec 2016
Day_1 - Welcome to the Islands of endless curves and summer
The first day on a brand new Edelweiss Tour. We went up to El Teide, with an incredible 3718m height. it is Spain's highest mountain. On our way up, the scenery changes are incredible, brown rock walls, fresh green pine tree lined mountains and old black lava streams covered in deep red pine needles create an amazing visual contrast. Every now and then, we catch a glimpse of the neighbouring islands, "La Gomera" and "Gran Canaria".
Before we arrive at the cablecar to the Teide peak, we made a short visit of the impressive "Cañadas Blancas" where you can find all types of stones of different shapes and colors, it's the most unveliveable geological museum about volcanoes and our earth's history.
After all these impressive views, we took the cablecar up to the top of the worlds 3rd biggest vulcano and enjoyed the incredible view over the clouds.
The end of the day passed with a delicious canarian soup, rain and fantastic roads.
Day_2 - 400 km² of diversity = La Gomera
Although we had to leave our hotel very early, every body was looking forward to visiting this very special island. We're talking about the small island of La Gomera, with its own microclimate, the deep "barrancos" (Ravines) and its famous laurel forest.
First stop, Los Cristianos, where we took a ferry to San Sebastian de La Gomera.
From San Sebastian the roads are all but straight! Very curvy up to the natural park of Garajonay with its impressive stone guardians, like Roque Agando.
After a beautiful ride through the laurel forest and its winding roads we arrive in the "Valle Gran Rey" where the Hippies went in the 60's and 70's and are still there today. The valley and its terrace fields have a very imposing and calm atmosphere.
At the beach of the valley we met the hero of the island Hautacuperche for a group picture :)
After a fabulous lunch we rode the incredible roads north and back to the east side, these roads were built by motorcyclists for motocyclists only!
And because it was soooo good and we were so fast, we made an extra loop to the north side before we went back to San Sebastian and the ferry to Tenerife
Day_3 - Lets go to Gran Canaria
Our Gran Canaria overnight starts with a quick ride over Teide, by the time we arrived at the port we had done over 500 curves on perfect mountain roads, giving us a well deserved (and needed) rest on the Catamaran before we started adding curves to the count!
Off we go off the boat and started riding the original route, when all of a sudden, road works! A quick comitee between the guides so as to not waste any time and a new route had been created, and trust me, it was for sure a wonderful choice of roads. We had picture stops, Atenara and Moriscos and a nice Coffee in Cruz de Tejeda before we took a look from Pico de Bandama overlooking Las Palmas on one side and our beautiful hotel for the night on the other.
Day_4 - The caves of the old Canarians
A sightseeing day that starts with winding grippy clean roads... that sounds very good to me!! Leaving our hotel with a short ride to check out the Cuevas Cuatro Puertas, one of the biggest cave towns in the times of the old Canarians.
From the Cuevas Cuatro Puertas we rode through Barranco Guayadeque, to have a look at "Montaña de las Tierras", a cave town that is still in use and where you can enjoy your coffee or meal in one of the caves. By the way the street up there is perfect! :)
Riding from underground caves, up to the highest point of Gran Canaria, the "Pico de las Nieves" at 1945 m (6381 ft).
For lunch we all met in Cruz de Tejeda where we got a delicious meal from a traditional restaurant in front of the Parador.
After another 5 to 600 curves we took the ferry back to Tenerife.
Day_5 - the first Islands of Tenerife
Already the morning mood promised us another perfect day, and perfect it was. Both groups went in the morning to the north side of Tenerife. In Santiago del Teide where we split up. One group went into the Teno mountains and the other to the Anaga mountains. Both mountains were the origin of Tenerife about 8 million years ago. On the north side of the island we visited La Oratava one of the oldest towns with still a very calm flair and the Drago tree, a milenary tree in the centre of "Icod de los Vinos"
After "La Oratava", a short highway ride and onto the winding roads up the mountains to the beautiful viewing point on "Pico del Inglés". On one side, the view to the Anaga mountains and on the other, El Teide.
On the very east side of Tenerife we stoped for lunch and all of us had a wide smile on our faces. We enjoyed a succulent fish meal before we rode back to our hotel for the farewell dinner on this tour.