Tenerife - Day 9

The flight home was at midday, so we left the apartment by 9.30 and drove to the airport to hand the car back.

The flight was more or less on time, and we landed back in Edinburgh about 5pm.

We caught the tram and train back to Linlithgow.

Tenerife - Day 8

We drove to the village of Vilaflor for a walk up to what is known as the "Lunar Landscape". It was a bit cloudy when we set off, and didn't really get much clearer all day.

We parked near the church.

We found a fig tree with ripe fruit on it.

It was a good path but was unrelentingly uphill.

On the way we passed an outcrop of pumice stone.

There was evidence of old irrigation systems.

When we arrived at the Lunar Landscape it was almost too cloudy to see it. We could tell it would have been quite spectacular though.

This is what it's supposed to look like:

On the way down we went through an area where there had obviously been a forest fire in the past, but the trees were starting to regrow.

Back at the village the church was open so we went in for a look.

We then drove back to the apartment. Later we went out for dinner to Tasca Bandido, a tapas restaurant. We had a selection of tapas - croquettes, sausages etc.

Tenerife - Day 7

We took advantage of the clocks going back and got up early to head back up to the Mirador for a walk. We were first in the car park.

We were climbing Montaña Guajaro, the third highest mountain on Tenerife at 2718m. At the start we saw lots of hunters with dogs, we found out later they were probably hunting rabbits.

The walk was on a track for a while, then went up to a ridge.

Over the ridge it followed a large wall of yellow pumice stone.

At higher levels we were in cloud, so it was a bit cold and the views weren't great. At the top was a stone enclosure, the remains of an astronomical observatory.

After descending it was by now very sunny, so we carried on to do a circular walk round the spectacular rock formations.

On one called El Cathedral there were some rock climbers.

More spectacular volcanic landscape.

On finishing we drove back to the apartment and went down to the beach for a drink.

Later for dinner we had roast vegetables and wedges made from batata, a sweet potato with white flesh.

Tenerife - Day 6

Shirley wasn't feeling too well in the morning, so we decided to have a lazy day. We walked from the apartment along the seafront, through Puerto Santiago.

There was a nice looking outdoor pool.

We went as far as Los Gigantes, where we sat on the beach for lunch and a paddle.

On the way back we fed some bread to the fish in the harbour.

On the palm trees next to the beach we saw a kestrel, very close up.

We walked back to the apartment then lay on the sunbeds on our balcony for a while.

Later we went out for dinner to a nearby restaurant Legends. This was a British style sports bar but had good reviews for the food. We had nachos to start, then a barbecue grill and pulled pork. There was plenty of it and it was pretty good.

Tenerife - Day 5

We packed up and left, driving over the top of the island. The views of Tiede and the volcanic landscape were spectacular.

We parked at the Mirador car park and tried to go on a walk route, but it was closed off because there was supposed to be live firing to control the Moulton, a kind of sheep.

We did a bit of strolling around, then drove on.

We stopped further down and did a circular walk in the forest.

On the way down the road to the north west coast we stopped at Restaurante las Estrellas for a drink, it was at a spectacular viewpoint.

We drove to the next Airbnb apartment in Puerto Santiago and met our host Sylvia. The apartment was very nice, though the complex it was in need of a coat of paint.

There was a banana plantation just out the back.

We went out for a walk to the local black sand beach, then bought provisions in a small supermarket.

For dinner we had omelette with peppers and mushrooms.