The first beach we went to, to our disappointment, was basically a thin layer of sand spread over rocky terrain. (yeah, not so comfortable). The reason for this, though, is the fact that Tenerife is a volcanic island, therefore the coasts were very rocky and jagged and the sand was black. (More on this later) We ate lunch along the beach's walkway and enjoyed a good ol' American cheeseburger with fries. After lunch, we tried a different beach and were much more satisfied. Due to the import of "brown sand", this beach was much more stereotypical- except for the numerous topless women of ALL ages. After hours of extreme relaxation, the sun had burnt us out and we returned to our hotel after stopping by the grocery store for food for the weekend. That night, the three of us attempted to cook some pasta, but discovered the stove didn't work well enough to boil noodles (Or so we thought, since the stove had no labels, we couldn't know which notch was the hottest, so rather than logically try both extremes, we turned the dial clockwise as far as possible, and just assumed the dingy hotel was to blame--- VERY foolish). So our dinner consisted of store-brand, watered down noodles with tomato sauce and bread. Despite that, it was still a GREAT change of pace. (Sheds a little light on my host mom's cooking, huh?) After a night of chatting and drinking on the patio, we all called it a night.
The next morning, Saturday, we woke up with the intention of going to Mount Teide, the volcano in the middle of the island. When we arrived to the bus station, however, we discovered we missed the only local bus to the National Park. Instead, we settled for another day on the beach- tough life, right? I guess you could say my Halloween costume was a beach bum- and I wore it well. We spent the whole day lounging, reading and swimming in the ocean. We had packed our lunches from groceries bought the day before, so we didn't have to leave the beach for anything. For dinner that night, we decided to indulge in an all-you-can eat Chinese buffet. (Can you tell we were craving all the foods we have been deprived of?) I definitely got my €6.50 worth. After dinner, we tried to enjoy the tacky nightlife Tenerife had to offer. It was like the poor man's Cabo. But, since people were dressed up for Halloween, the streets offered some entertaining people watching. After we finished our "4 shots" (basically, Kool-Aid) and 2 drinks for €6, we realized there wasn't much more the bars had to offer, so we headed back.
Sunday morning, we woke up early in order to make the bus we missed the previous day. Unbeknownst to us, the bus ride was nearly 2 hours- an hour and a half of which was spent weaving back and forth, breaking and accelerating, up the side of the volcano. Needless to say, it wasn't the best on our stomachs. Thankfully, we made it to Teide National Park without puking. The final leg of the journey was a cable-car ride to the peak which nearly broke the bank- It cost €25 FREAKIN' Euro for an 8 minute ride! They really need to adopt the student discount, geez. The top, though, was very cool (both awesome and COLD- I forgot to bring a coat, so I was gallivanting around in short sleeves and shorts in 40 degree wind chill!)
Quick Facts: At 3718 meters, Mount Teide is the highest mountain in Spain, the highest point in the Atlantic Ocean, and the highest mountain in Europe not in the Alps. Due to Teide, Tenerife is the third largest volcanic island on Earth. The volcano is active, but hasn't erupted for 100 years.
Not surprisingly, the views from the top were stunning. We could see 2 other of the Canary Islands, the surrounding beaches, and the Park in its entirety. Fortunately, there was a "foot path" (I use air quotes because it was hardly a path, and more of a somewhat organized pile of volcanic stone) to explore some of the volcano. We got our money's worth, and hiked for about an hour and a half. The terrain was unbelievable. I felt like we are on a different planet due to the harsh rocks, lack of plant-life and the various colors of stone. It was a lot of fun and definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. After enduring the long bus ride back, we caught the tail end of the sunset on the beach, and "cooked" ourselves another shoddy pasta dinner. We all went to sleep early since we had to make it to the airport by 7 a.m. After checking out, we bade farewell to Tenerife by boarding the plane on the runway which looked out over the ocean.
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