Teide Volcano

We got up early to get breakfast and catch our tour bus up to the Teide volcano national park. You could already see the clouds building on our side of the island (as they do nearly every day at this time of year):

We drove into the interior of the island which invariably means winding up switchbacking roads. We stopped briefly to look back down on the town, but the clouds had already moved in:

We drove up to the base of the volcano and took a cable car up to nearly the top of the Teide volcano:

Looking back down on the town, there were even more low clouds obscuring the beach area:

The geology is fascinating. I would love to tour a volcano with an actual geologist. In this area around the top of the volcano, we could smell (and see) sulphur:

Selfie proof that we were on a volcano, haha:

The various lava flows over the past couple million years have left their marks. The most recent is from the 18th century:

I did a timelapse of our descent from the volcano:



The land around the volcano is dry and scrubby:

Looking back on Teide after we went up there. The whitish patches near the peak are the sulphur fields from the earlier picture:

The terrain is actually reminiscient of the land around the tri-cities in central Washington:

We're back in the hotel now. I'm using the wifi in the lobby to post this.