Day 40 - Santa Cruz

Today I took a jeep tour up to Mount Teide, the active volcano that originally formed the island of Tenerife.  We had to drive quite a ways and go a long ways up in altitude.  We left Santa Cruz at a balmy 22°C and made our first photo stop at 8°C.  The trip showed us forests of eucalyptus trees and multi-colored layers of hardened lava flow from multiple eruptions.  The most incredible part came even before we reached the volcano itself; we had to pass through the cloud layer to reach the bottom of Mount Teide.  We drove away from sunshine and straight into a cloud, then gloriously emerged above it.  We could see valleys of clouds framed by mountains off the side of the road.

As we approached the volcano, we drove through a cauldron, a valley surrounded by mountains formed by the sinking of land when gases and vapors escaped through the ground.  Since the cauldron was surrounded by mountains, it was protected from the wind, and we were back in a comfortable 15°C.  We passed by a dusty, rocky area that we were told is similar to the surface of the moon.  In fact, NASA tested the moon rover Curiosity here.  We enjoyed climbing over rock formations all formed from volcano eruptions and made another magnificent trip through the cloud layer on our way back down to Santa Cruz.

We sailed away from Tenerife to a beautiful sunset interrupted only by the peak of Mount Teide breaking through the clouds and the dolphins splashing along the side of the ship.