Tenerife, west. Teide. Days 1-3 of the trip

Morning of March 8. The day before we packed our things, and now a traffic-free drive to Sheremetyevo on our own car was ahead of us. We decided to save on a taxi, drove there ourselves, and parked the car for 10 days. It cost only 1000 RUB. Sheremetyevo had opened remote parking lot P13, where you could leave a car for 100 RUB per day in the open lot and 200 RUB per day in the covered one. Before leaving I checked that there were plenty of free spaces there. But when we arrived, we still had to look around. They wanted to send us to some back corner where the car would have stood near a pile of snow, not quite properly, and I did not like that. I drove around a little, noticed one car leaving, guessed where it had probably been parked, and headed there. I was right: there was a free spot and it was a decent one too. While walking toward the little building with the security guard, I noticed another car from our yard. So there were at least two Accents from Dubna parked there at the same time.

The bus that runs between the terminals took us from the parking area to the airport, and that is included in the parking price. Then came check-in, boarding, and takeoff. On the plane all women were given flowers because it was March 8. Sveta watched movies on the screen built into the seat in front, while I listened to podcasts and read articles. The flight went by quickly. We departed Moscow at 12:15 and arrived in Tenerife at 16:35. The flight is almost 7 hours 20 minutes, but because of the two-hour time difference the clock makes it feel shorter. We landed, stood in a long passport-control queue, picked up our luggage, and went to get the car. That part was quick. At first I was disappointed because I had booked an Opel Astra but they gave us a Seat Leon. I thought those were different classes of cars and went to complain, but the guy reassured me that for him the Seat Leon was even better than the Astra. I was not convinced, but those were the rules. Then we had to figure out how to start it. I kept pressing the Start button and nothing happened. I even asked a guy from Russia who was inspecting his car next to us. It turned out that besides pressing Start, you also had to press the brake. The car also had an electronic parking brake. Europeans have really become lazy if they cannot even pull a normal handbrake anymore. I could not feel the car's size at all, it looked like some kind of torpedo. You could not even tell where the front ended. All right, we stuffed the luggage in. Unfortunately the two suitcases did not both fit into the trunk, and I had really wanted them both hidden from thieves. So the second suitcase ended up on the back seat. By the way, I had read that thefts from cars happen on the Canaries, and I had prepared for that. I bought flexible bicycle locks so the suitcase could be fastened to something, and also small locks to close the zipper pulls. So if thieves opened the car, as happened to us in New Zealand, they would not be able to simply pick up the suitcase and toss it into their own car. They would have to spend time detaching it or opening the zipper and pulling the contents out, and in a hurry that would be difficult. So, off we went and checked into our first accommodation on the Canaries. It was a cabin. I had picked it deliberately because I still love that kind of lodging from our Norway trips.

Still, this cabin was disappointing because it had almost no light inside. On the other hand, the manager was Russian. I walked in, greeted him in English, told him I had booked a room, and he answered, "Maybe Russian would be better?" After checking in we drove to the airport area to buy groceries. We had brought a gas stove from home, but in that store we could not find a fitting gas canister.

The place was very windy. Later I read that the south coast is indeed known for strong winds.

We spent a long time sorting our things in near total darkness. Sveta went to sleep, while I sat with my laptop choosing places for the next days and looking into hotels and ferries.

Morning of March 9. We slept badly. It sounded like bandits were trying to break in and steal our things, but in fact it was just branches beating on the roof in the strong wind. In the morning we got up and packed. I carried everything to the car, then spent a long time figuring it out, adjusting things, setting traps... joking. In reality I was attaching the suitcases to the car body.

On the way we stopped by a large store, hoping to buy gas there, but again there was no gas. Then we went to a beach marked on our map. Finding a parking space was almost impossible, but after about 15 minutes of circling we found one. We just went to the beach to take a look. Most people were sunbathing. Hardly anyone was swimming, they mostly just wet the lower half of their body. Street vendors were walking around selling some kind of carpets. We had barely done anything and it was already time to check into the next hotel. We arrived and there was nobody there, only a cleaner. I asked whether anyone was at reception, and she said no one was there yet. But then she called a woman, who, as I overheard, was named Oksana, and handed the phone to me. The woman asked in English which language suited us best for communication: Spanish, English, or German. I was a bit surprised by such a limited choice and immediately answered in Russian, "Could we maybe do this in Russian?" She laughed and switched to Russian. I had guessed she was Russian from her name anyway. We got the keys, moved our things in, and drove on to Masca Gorge. At the entrance a guy told us it was closed because they let in only 350 people a day and the limit for that day had already been reached. He said we could either book places for the next day or come early in the morning and still get in before the quota filled up. We decided not to book anything yet and to see tomorrow how it went. On the way back to the car we saw a nearby cafe with decent prices. We ate there, and it turned out well: 10.5 euro for the two of us. We were absolutely full. After that we had to go back to the hotel because the payment through Booking had not gone through and we had to pay by card at reception. Back there, we chatted with Oksana in person. She said she was from the Komi Republic and had been living there for 20 years. We sat in the room for a while, rested, and drove on. We decided to stop at some large resort area.

At the end of the road beyond the holiday houses there was supposed to be a beautiful beach. I made a mistake and drove the car straight into the resort grounds, even though everyone there seemed to use small electric carts like golf buggies. We turned around, found some kind of parking space, and continued on foot. We reached the area, and then there was still a staircase down. Guests of the complex could apparently use a lift. We went down on foot. Nothing special, just a beach. On the way back we even tried to use the lift, but they refused us, saying it was only for hotel guests.

Then we drove to one of our marked viewpoints. It was pretty good there:

And after that we headed into the mountains. Since it was already getting late, we decided not to climb all the way to Teide but instead to stop at viewpoints along the road where, according to what we had read, sunsets are especially good. And yes, the sunset really was nice:

After that we went back to the hotel, ate cheese and strawberries, and went to sleep.

Morning of March 10. We got up earlier and left around 7:23 while everyone was still asleep, heading for Teide. We wanted to go up there, drive around, and then still make the ferry to El Hierro. On the way to Teide the navigator took us along some ultra-short route. It was short in distance but slow in reality because we had to squeeze through narrow and steep streets. Somewhere in a very beautiful place we stopped, got out of the car, and immediately got cold, so we had to change into warmer clothes because we were going even higher.

We reached the cable car station and there were not many cars there. At that point I still did not know what "many" looked like. We bought tickets and waited for the cable car up. While waiting, I overheard people talking. They had a permit to go all the way to the summit of Teide but had forgotten their passports at the hotel. They were told that automatically meant they would not be allowed to go to the top. We did not have that permit at all. It needs to be obtained for free but two to four months in advance. We could not have done that because we had decided on the trip only one month before departure, and I found out about the summit permit only a week before leaving.

We went up by cable car almost to the top. To go all the way to the summit you need a permit issued in advance:

So we just walked around at the altitude we had reached and that was it.

At that altitude it was somehow hard to walk. We felt weakness in our muscles and general laziness. We got carried away by one path that may even have been leading down, so we had to return to where we had started from, and it exhausted us. There was one more beautiful path there, though shorter. Before that one Sveta refueled with coffee from a vending machine.

Then we took the cable car back down, and by then there were already lines of cars. People were searching for places to park. So as far as I understood it, you need to arrive by 9:00 and you will be fine, because apparently nobody likes getting up early.

After Teide we drove farther to the observatory, which was supposedly closed. And yes, it was, but at least we had a look at it.

Even though we had left early, time flies when there is so much to see. It was time to come down from the mountains so as not to miss the ferry.

Before the ferry we found a small shop that happened to be open on a Sunday. Then we filled up the car and arrived at the port. It was a bit nerve-racking because I was worried something might be wrong with the ticket bought online. In the end, when the tickets were checked, they asked me to show them on the screen of my phone. I did, but the port employee could not scan them with his device, so he asked for our passports. He somehow passed them through his machine, and it showed that our tickets were valid, so everything was fine. We drove the car onto the ship, locked it, and went upstairs to the deck. We had about 2.5 hours of sailing ahead. It was not great. The ship rocked, and since it was already dark we could not see anything outside anyway. We arrived, drove off the ferry, and found darkness everywhere. It was about 20:30. We drove straight to check in. We found the place, but there was nobody inside. The keys were sticking out of the lock. I called the owner. He said he was drinking with friends nearby and would come running. He was there in five minutes. His name was Boris, he was Polish, and he knew only a few words in Russian. He showed us the house. I remembered that I had booked a house, but I had not realized it was an actual whole house and entirely ours. But it really was. There were two floors. Upstairs there were two rooms and a bathroom. The second room would only have mattered if there had been more of us. In practice we did not need it, though I sometimes sat there because only there could I catch the internet. Downstairs there was a kitchen with a living room and one more toilet.