Next day, another volcano.  The big one this time.  It was a bit of a road trip with the scariest roads in the world.  First stop was Masca.  It is home to just 90 inhabitants. I wonder what they think to so many people visiting and travelling through their wonderful village. It marks the beginning of the Masca Gorge, which we had really wanted to hike through.  We did not arrive late, but it was too late.  We managed to find a precarious parking space at the view point looking down on the village and should have walked down to it, but decided to drive, only to find that it was impossible to park.  This is a re-occurring theme.  If you don’t arrive early, you can’t stop.  It must be a nightmare in the summer.  So, we drove through the village and the drive out the other side is mental.  Coming face to face with buses on a road like this that is very steep is not a good one for the nerves or the car rental insurance.

The restaurant overlooking the village certainly has a nice view.

Anyway, we survived that drive to the much flatter and straighter plateau to get the views of El Tiede, the largest peak in Spain.  Again, stopping to park was almost impossible.  We did get to stop close to the Roques de Garcia and had planned to walk to the large rock formation, but they were shooting goats, so the trail was closed. 

The next stop off point was really quite phenomenal.  The volcano is always there in the background, but the viewing points along the Crta. de las Canadas del Teide are amazing.  It is almost as if there are sand dunes on one side of the road.  Some are a green colour, which must be caused by mineral deposits.  The other side of the road looks out onto a vast rocky desert landscape that would not be out of place in a spaghetti western.  The GR-131 trail pass through here.  You would want to make sure you have plenty of water if you are heading across that landscape on a hot day (which is probably every day to be fair).

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