Mount Teide, 3918 m

I like to go up to Teide, the vulcano that is the third biggest in the world, and that we have got here on Tenerife. The nature up there is just awesome!
I don't understand how some tourists can come here year after year without going anywhere on the island. Oh, so much they miss out! Tenerife is very beautiful.
When we moved here in October 2004 the vulcano was under yellow flag, which means there is a possibility for an eruption. There was discussions about how to evacuate the people on the island, if something happens, but after a while it was hushed up. Maybe somebody was afraid it will scream the tourists away?!
Now we are under green flag and that means we are under no risk.
Clas and I have two times been going by the cabin up to the cabelway station about 300m below the top.
The first time 1990 I promissed I will never do it again. The cabin was a really old one and you felt unsafe to stand in it. But we made it!
Up at the station we bought a Lumumba witch was a must because of the temperature. That's a warm chocolate drink with brandy in it. I think it went straight in to the blood and we just started laughing. Or was it the altitude? We realized that our tongues in the mouth had become bigger! And when we pushed them up toward the roof of the mouth they seemed to become smaller! Sounds stupid and I have been thinking about it after.
One day in April last year (2007) we visited Teide and when we come to the station of the cabelway we felt we would like to go up again. Now they've got a modern cabin and the travel up and down was a pleasure.
We payed the tickets and went over to the queue that was short when it was in the afternoon.
We got a piece of paper each, saying it's prohibited to walk outside the pathway when we get up and that we are only permitted to stay there for one hour. That was okey for us when it's very cold and windy outside the station. You are not permitted to walk up to the top anyway. To do that you need a special permission from Sta Cruz.
Finally up there we toke a lot of photos. A couple from Luxenbourg started talking to us and they said they had been stepping on the side of the pathway and the ground felt soft! Later Clas went one meter from the pathway and sat down on a "stone". Then he felt a smell of rotten eggs coming from the ground. He put his hand down to feel out, and under the stone where the smell came from it was at last + 50 degrees. The photo above is from that place.
How was our tongues? No! They didn't really feel normal this time eighter! And we had no Lumumba! He,He! Remember to check out your tongue if you go there!
There is , by the way, no bar at the top anymore.
Every now and then we get questions about taking people up to Teide. They rent the car and we drive. Everybody gets the same answer: No! You become very tired when you get down from the mountain and we need to play in the evenings. It's little bit sad because if I didn't have anything else to do I could visit Teide every day! But it's very easy to go there by car and whoever that have got a driving licence can drive. It's like driving on main country roads.
There is no activity in the mountain today. Teide is a sleeping vulcano! That's what the public authorities say. I hope they are right!