Return to Tenerife and Mount Tiede

Differences between La Gomera and Gran Canaria were the lack of road tunnels and plastic sheeting over the bananas and tomatoes in the former. A difference between La Gomera and other islands with Lanzarote was the public art at roundabouts and the lack of advertising hoardings along the roads in the latter, a legacy of Manrique.
In the morning, we took the ferry back to Tenerife. I stood at the back, watching La Gomera receding into the distance. We were met by a coach which drove north out of Los Cristianos to the largest Canarian Fir, 180ft tall with an 8ft circumference, where we had our picnic lunch. in the cold misty air. Fortunately, we emerged through the clouds into bright sunshine when we entered Tiede National Park, driving through a fir forest before reaching the car-park at the Roque de Garcia at an elevation of 2,000 ft.
We walked for 2 hours around the Roque de Garcia circuit at the foot of Mount Tiede, seeing spectacular volcanic scenery.
After a break at the hotel near the circuit, we drove to the district of Golf Sur on the south-east coast and arrived at the Grand Muthu Golf Plaza, an MGM hotel, where I stayed for 5 nights in a room which was like an apartment with a kitchen, lounge, large bedroom and patio which may have seen better days.
The group went to a good restaurant near the marina for the farewell dinner.Read more