[tohis]

Hi folks,

As mentioned before, I spent my one-week winter vacation in Tenerife (or should I say summer vacation). My main to-do at there was to drive around by a rental car, instead of frying my skin at those beaches or getting heavily drunk at local bars. Of course I took lots of photos and had my dashcam recording while driving. The whole trip went pretty well, without any big problems or screw-ups. Of course some minor mishaps will always happen, because a stupid tourist can't know every detail of how things are done locally. 

TUI's Boeing 737-800 at Helsinki Vantaa Airport, ready to take tourists far into southwest... (click to expand)


About the first sight after getting outside at Tenerife Reina Sofia airport. No snow and freezing temperatures, instead +22 and sunny, like Finnish summer (sometimes) at its best in July.  Oh wait, no palm trees at home!


I stayed at Aparthotel Panoramica Heights near Fañabe, few kilometers from Playa de Las Américas. I chose this hotel because of the location off from busy and noisy city, the scenery at there, car parking availability, and the A/C in every room. The view from my balcony indeed included the Atlantic Ocean and the neighbor island La Gomera, but wasn't the best possible because of those other buildings.

Sea view from room 209, and then some other pics from there...








This is the Seat Ibiza 1.2 TSI I drove around with. The rent from AutoReisen for 5 days cost 90 EUR, with full insurance and unlimited km's, not bad at all! It was very good to drive, and the turbo petrol engine was definitely at home in those steep mountain roads.



Right after getting the car, I went to the tandem paragliding flight which I booked from here. I met Anthony (the instructor) and then we drove up to the mountains where we run into the air from a downhill. Saying it was cool would be an understatement!  Anthony found some thermal winds which got us few hundred meters higher than where we started, and then we gradually went down all the way to La Caleta beach where we landed. I got mild symptoms of seasickness but managed to keep it under control by breathing deep and looking far away like instructed.

This pile of fabric and ropes is something which you don't want to forget! 


Wee-hee!


Going with feet first, like in your own funeral! 


Adeje at front, Caleta Beach straight ahead which will be the landing site.


Time to turn a bit back, no reason to get wet...


Almost down, we then landed to that gray sand.


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To be continued, stay tuned...

[asathorny]

Great stuff 

[eye30]

Great pics.

Can't wait for next lot

[Dazzler]

@tohis Thanks heaps for the photos and commentary.  Looks great! 

[tohis]

Part 2

Mount Teide is without doubt Tenerife's #1 tourist attraction after the beaches, and the scenery around the Teide National Park is quite spectacular.

The volcano seen from Puerto de Erjos


It is possible to get up to the Teide by a cable lift. From the Teleférico Teide base station (2350m) it goes up to a viewing platform at 3555m from sea level. To hike up to the top (3718m) a special permit is needed and I didn't have one, but the platform view was cool enough! Besides, not only the temperature was barely above 0°C up there, I noticed slight symptoms of altitude sickness, but that went away by breathing faster and moving slower. It would have been hard to climb another 163 meters up!

The summit less than a kilometer away. There have been times when this place was too hot for any snow...


When looking down, the coast line is often covered by clouds around 1000 metres high, but the top of Gran Canaria is visible.


View from Mirador Boca Tauce. I guess it's pretty similar of what you could see in Arizona or Nevada deserts in the USA.


Minas de San Jose. Apart from the blue sky, this could be from Mars!


Roques de García near Teide


Another view from the mountains, about 2200m, above all the clouds.


The road to Masca wasn't too straight. Not for nervous minded drivers, nor the winners of Worst Driver TV series! 




Waves of the Atlantic Ocean crashing into the shore at Punta de Teno, the westernmost tip of Tenerife.


View from Mirador de Jardina. The northern part of Tenerife is definitely greener than dry south. The village of Las Mercedes at front, the town of San Cristobal de La Laguna a bit further ahead, and Teide at horizon.


Roques de Anaga, two rocky islands near the northernmost tip of Tenerife, seen from Mirador Risco Mogote.


Valle Guerra, seen from Mirador de El Boquerón.


An idyllic view at Chinamada


Playa de Las Teresitas, a bit north of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Again, Teide in distant horizon.



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To be continued, stay tuned...

[Dazzler]

A different world. Very interesting.  Thanks tohis!

[tohis]

Part 3

Some words about driving in Tenerife. I was warned about the driving culture being more or less speedy and reckless, but it wasn't as bad as I thought and not all drivers were like that. By keeping eyes open and being prepared of others' possible stunts I fit in pretty good. Speed limits were often higher for the type of road than what would be in Finland, and were not widely obeyed nor strictly enforced by police. Of course we have some hot head drivers in Finland too, but we also have increasing numbers of Worst Driver TV-series candidates paying more attention to texting than driving. In Tenerife everyone at least seemed to be awake behind the wheel.

However, the worst thing there was the afternoon congestion near cities. Once I was returning to the hotel at 5pm and suddenly the motorway traffic stalled and then creeped very slowly, and after getting out of the motorway there were another chaos at the next intersection where I had to be bold to squeeze in. There were also some weird intersections where it wasn't easy to figure out how to drive thru it, which lead to turning wrong direction and then finding a way to turn back.

Two-wheelers are particularly notorious of slaloming around cars, no matter how tight gap or how many oncoming cars. It's their normal way to drive, but far from being safe! 



Okay, enough of that for now. The roads are very diverse, ranging from motorways to very steep mountain serpentines.

Galloping at the main motorway TF-1 to the north. Not too much traffic at that time of the day.


Coming down from Mount Teide via TF-38, engine braking with 3rd gear for many kilometers continuously. The very top of La Gomera is peeking thru the clouds at the left.


Driving thru the village of Las Mercedes. There are lots of similar villages along these roads outside the motorway.


Going up in the middle of thick forest at Macizo de Anaga area. It was hard to see the road and possible bicyclists ahead because of heavily glaring sunshine.


Going down the road to Almáciga, engine braking with 1st gear and still had to brake now and then to maintain safe speed. For me these roads were fun, but I'm not jealous of local people who have to drive there daily.


My old Tomtom has sometimes a habit of directing me into some sudden detours. - Holy ***t, this small street is Steep, with capital S! Without the pavement this could be no-go for a normal FWD car. At least they never have freezing weather (except high in the mountains sometimes).


High in the mountains the weather may change from sunshine to rain in a moment. It was mostly sunny above the cloud banks, but something seems to be rising up...


Yep, clouds are definitely coming over...


...and a minute later, practically inside the cloud, it was raining.


That's all for now folks! Canary Islands have a lot more to offer than beaches and bars, and I would have been bored without a car to drive around.

[Dazzler]

Thanks again. Looks like an interesting place with nice roads. 

It is a bit weird in Australia with regards to driving. It is all one country but there are some different road rules in different States and most would agree different driving styles too...

One has to be more aggressive in the big mainland cities or you would never get anywhere. Trish says "naughty"when I cut in when someone hesitates but that is the way they drive. 

And seems to be more road rage on the mainland too.