TRAVEL // Tenerife: Teide, Icod, Garachico and Masca

Hello there!

It has been a while since I've posted about my trip to Tenerife (for whatever reason - I have no idea why!?) so here is the next instalment. We went on a day long coach trip to Teide, Icod, Garachico and Masca to see the sights and take some photos. Tenerife is quite a small island so in the 8 hours we managed to see a good 3/4 of the island. It was really good value as well and just a really lovely day! 

(Warning: picture heavy)

 You spend pretty much the entire time in the mountains. You are so high up you are literally above the clouds. It's crazy how warm it still is considering how high above sea level you are (my dad was giving me updates every half hour or so). The first thing we saw was this massive tree. Yes, that is my sister and Me attempting to hug the tree. As you can see, it wasn't very successful.

Next we stopped off at Teide, an active volcano on the island. You can climb up it or go in a cable car to get close to the summit (but I'd rather not induce an early heart attack thank you very much). There are mothy/butterfly things everywhere here and they seemed to flock to me like I was their mothy queen. That wasn't too appreciated. 

Oh, and how unalike do me, my brother and my sister look? They are super tanned and then there is me.... I don't even get how they got so tanned so quickly!?

 Next up we headed to Icod where we had to drive through the clouds to get there - strangest thing ever. We got some lunch which was super tasty (and cheap!) We then wondered around, tried some local liquors and had a few minutes for shopping. La Casa del Drago do the most amazing scarves that put Zara's to shame! I got the largest paisley scarf for about six euros and have worn it most days since. There were so many I wanted it's crazy!

On the way to Masca we went on a tour of Garachico. My favourite part was the natural pool made of lava from Teide. As it erupted last the lava cooled as it reached the water to make the most amazing natural pool that they have converted. You can jump off the rocks or chill in the pool and I will definitely spend a day up here if I go to Tenerife again.

Lastly we made it to Masca which is back up in the clouds. If the drive up there is bad, the drive back down is even worse. My sister had to close her eyes she was so petrified! Think hairpin bends in a coach - not easy. Whilst we didn't actually go down to the village we headed to one of the little cafes at the top which sold so many jams and cactus foods. I really wish I had tried the cactus ice cream now...or maybe I'm happy I didn't.

So that was my tour of the island. It was a super lovely day and if you get a chance to do this excursion I highly recommend it. I wish we had done it earlier in the week so we could have visited a couple of the places on tour on our own. I'm so sorry this was so picture heavy - but I didn't know what photos to take out (it took a lot to cut them down this much!)

Have you got a trip planned to Tenerife or have been to any of these places? Let me know!