Yesterday, I left the like hunter at the hotel to recover and headed to town, collected Amit and headed for the bus station.
bus came late but took us to the national park. we had a 10 minute stop at one place that took 25 minutes and 1 hour later then advertised we reached the other edge of ell portllo and began hiking back along the bottom of the our crater wall. this is an easy trail relatively. the issue is time, since the bus was late, we had under 4 hours to do a 4:30 hour trail. we walked fast, virtually no stops, just of nature needs and photos. In the beginning we had a nice side breeze , but as we turned, the rest was against a very strong wind. the cable car is closed because of these winds. it was pushing hard, mildly up against the wind. it was very difficult but we made it with 15 minutes to spare, exhausted.
this trail is along the crater wall, with interesting rock shapes, lave tubes, altered by centuries of wind erosion. scattered bushes , handful of pines and some flowers are scattered in this arid crater and all the time, the peak of teide is towering above us, daring us to climb it.
at the very end, Amit went first and missed the turn towards the bus stop, and detouring for a bit , and had to run extra , cause he saw the bus and thought it was leaving... i told him , we dont count extra running in the trip log.
on the bus back, we could see the three islands west of Tenerife in this seven island chain and very interesting views. we had a good dinner and i crashed soon after, dead tiered.
this morning, we checked out of VIllaflor, the original plan was to walk from here to teide park , but after yesterday, knowing that the 1st 2 hours are steeply up, we took a cab and skipped 6k and began walking the other 10k. we waited at the hotel till the rain stopped, but at this higher elevation, the clouds were all around us, it was windy cold and we could fill drops every now and then. the wind picked up as we went higher through the pine forest and the fog became denser.
my two followers dont have a map, dont know the way but have doubts to my directions. after 6 days of walking and reaching our destination every time, there is still no trust. at one point, i showed them the way, and they pointed to a bunch of cairns and agreed this is the way. let's ignore the fact that there were lots of cairns on these trails, some belong to other trails.. i commented "אתם סומכים על גל אבנים אבל לא על גיל אבן" sorry, this line does not translate well.
we reached the top of the ridge, still in the cloud, and then, they clouds dispersed, on the one side we could see the entire cost line, all our previous hiking days, near by islands and we believe even as far as the cost of Mauritania to the south east, and on the other hand, the entire teide crater with Teide it self in full glory. for the next 4 k, we were walking on the ridge with alternative views of cost and mountain. i felt very tiered on this part, the cold , wind, exhaustion, perhaps the altitude got to me and i wanted to descend. finally we reached the trail down. 1.2 k snaking down fast and i didn't stop, just went straight down and reached the hotel, got a plate of yummi canarian potatoes and orange juice.
we had a gourmet dinner at the chef restaurant ere, the only place that is open in the crater and sat by the view of the mountain, time to rest soon, another hiking day tomorrow .
cheers from Canadas , Teide national park
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