Tenerife, Day 4

It had rained pretty hard at times overnight but there was a pause in the rain when we got up on Sunday, September 25th.

The weather wasn’t expected to be any better than yesterday and a lot of places were still closed so we went back to Sweet Franks for breakfast. It was just as good as it had been yesterday.

As we sat and eyeballed the cloud cover, we decided we’d drive up to see it conditions were any better at Parque Nacional del Teide to see the volcano. We didn’t really believe they would be but we set off to find out anyway.

Hard to get good images out the car window

Soon we were climbing the hills in a dizzying array of switchbacks. I don’t want to say the Spanish are crazy but according to the GPS, the speed limit was 90 km/h on that stretch of road.

It wasn’t long before we were at the top of the mountain. At least it looked that way as you couldn’t see up hill very well.

You couldn’t see down all that well either.

So, back in the car to climb higher.

The big patches of white are banana plantations.

Sometimes we’d get out of the rain into patches of almost blue sky, but then it was back to rain and mist in no time.

Apparently the storm was causing problems with flooding and damages in places around the Canary Islands but the most we saw was debris on the road.

We did see a lot of places with rocks and such on the road but no real damage otherwise.

What you could see of the landscape looked kind of cool.

The rain was down to a mist as we passed Paradores Cañadas del Teide on our way to the cable car at Teleférico del Teide.

Visibility was good enough for us to see the road closed gate and not much else.

We were a bit bummed but not surprised by this and we headed back to see what was at Paradores Cañadas del Teide.

It’s a visitor centre with a restaurant, washroom and giftshop.

Lynda and Lucille did some shopping in the giftshop and found a few nice things to bring home.

With our planed outing being a bust, we headed back down a different road in search of lunch.

We ended up in a familiar place; Centro Comercial Safari shopping mall. We knew things were open there so we thought we’d play it safe to find food.

We ended up at Roma Restaurant – Pizzeria; right beside where we had lunch yesterday.

It was very good Italian food and drink.

It wasn’t raining when we had finished eating so we walked about a block to Playa del Camisón beach to could check it out.

It was another really nice beach and we walked in the surf for a while.

The breakwater made the water quite calm but my bride showed a lot restraint and only waded knee deep as she walked along.

We walked along the beach for a while and decided to head back to the apartment.

With our late lunch, no one was really needing supper so Lucille and Curtis went in search of potato chips. We had other snacks and drinks to finish off before our flight out in the morning.

The weather still wasn’t all that great as we waited for them to get back and the pool was still closed so I grabbed a couple of “weather” shots.

About my only disappointment (And I wasn’t all that disappointed) with Tenerife was the boring sunsets we saw. I know the storm may have something to do with it but it literally went from light out to dark out with next to no sunset colour. It is just a minor niggle to me because, even with the storm I was really enjoying the island.

It was getting dark when I shot my last photos of the day. (And as it turned out, trip.)

We finished off our snacks and got to bed fairly early because our 5:30 am leaving time would get here soon enough.

It was a bit of a slack walking day and I managed just shy of 7600 steps.

Tenerife, Day 3

Woke up to lots and lots of rain on Saturday, September 24th.

Apparently our rough seas on the ferry crossing yesterday was the first signs of Tropical Storm Hermine as it approached the islands.

We headed out to Lizzie’s Bistro for breakfast and as we pulled up I got a Facebook notice that they would be closed due to the weather.

We had to go in search of plan B. We didn’t know many places yet so we drove around to see what looked open.

We soon found Sweet Franks. It had a covered patio and promised the best breakfast so we though we’d give it a try.

It was quite a good breakfast and we got some tea for the road as we went off in search of more shot glasses for Curtis at The Hard Rock Hotel on the west side of the island.

It was a fairly high falutin place but they didn’t have any shot glasses.

We decided to make our way to the Rock Shop area.

We ended up across the road at Centro Comercial Safari shopping centre. It’s a nice shopping mall with a a bunch of restaurants on the 2nd level.

All the restaurants looked good and we decided on Hacienda Miranda for lunch.

It was the first Mexican restaurant we had tried on our trip and it was very, very good. The food was fabulous and they made the best strawberry margarita I have ever gotten in a restaurant or bar, anywhere.

To avoid a food coma, we walke across the street to The Rock Shop. Not only did they not have any shot glasses, the clerk was a bit pissy about us bringing wet umbrellas into the shop. (How dare we use them in all that rain.) They didn’t have a spot by the door for them and it’s not like anyone was waving them around, but Lucille did shake out her poncho afterwards.

We re-crossed the street to check out the shopping mall and after a bit of window shopping, were ready to head back to the apartments.

The rain had been varying from misty to pouring rain all day but we still decided to walk over to the grocery store for some tea and other stuff.

Roadside sculpture

It was raining intermittently when we went out for supper but we walked over to Bistró 431, which is in the lower level of the building Sweet Franks is.

Since our lunch had been so big, no one was overly hungry so we just got some Tapas. The food was good but it wasn’t on the same level as lunch had been so it seemed a bit disappointing at the time. (Even though it really wasn’t disappointing at all.)

The plates were super cool

We headed back to the apartments drinks and snacks we had gotten at the grocery store earlier. (I know we had just eaten but there wasn’t much to do in the rain.)

The weather wasn’t looking any better as darkness approached.

Even though it wasn’t cold out, (at least not by Canadian standards) the pool was closed, as it had been all day.

Even with the weather as it was, we managed to get just over 12 thousand steps in today. Not bad all in all. Hopefully, tomorrow will dawn with better weather.