intro

Got to La Palma at 11:30pm after a nauseating 2h30 ferry ride in the stormy seas. Lot of barf bags around. La Palma is deemed the most beautiful island of the Canarys ( not by me ) and it also boasts the highest climb at 2450m elevation gain. It has a primal rugged landscape and active volcanic vents. The population is small and it’s not a very popular place for cycling since it’s so remote and relatively small.

These are the express ferries and they go real damn fast so when the waves are big it's a long rollercoaster ride that you're in for.

The waterfront road is obviously where all the tourist stuff is to be found here.

There's a long sandy beach on one side and endless cafes, bars and restaurants on the other.

There's some really nice architecture peppered around the harbor.

My airbnb was in a 200+ year old tavern-looking place, with a cafe on the first floor. Bit noisy but hey not bad for 90$

The things people choose to put on their yards sometimes...

View from the "Mirador de la Conception" about 450m up. You can see the whole city.

Taking it easy today because...yeah I'm not going in there to the peaks.

Looping around the airport you pass by these natural pools where many locals and tourists are taking a dip.

How much can it really cost to live in one of these seemingly off-grid shacks?

Little lookout on the way back into the city.

This island looks mostly untouched by the tourist swarm. I even saw a bum! Wow! That's the authentic experience right there.

They make wine on most of these islands. Wine is very cheap in Europe because their government forgot to tax people out the ass on it.

Somewhat rested, I wanted to try and do both sides of this climb, both being world rank. Sadly the rain clouds came back in the afternoon. This is a super epic ride as you climb over 2400m along the crater of this giant volcano and end at the Observatory.

View of all the different observatories and monitoring stations as you turn onto the last steep part of the climb.

Cool mirror things.

There was still some snow up there in the shadows.

Very top of the observatory climb. Yes there's parking and yes there's a bus that can drop you there, you lazy bastards.

Just some of the craziest views in all directions as you bike along that crater. Wish it was a clearer day.

Why is my nose purple?

Looking back down at the sea of gathering clouds on the western side. Didn't bode well for my second climb.

Making my way down in the west. The clouds were up to 1700m+ already. Who knows how low they extend.

Turned around about 1/3rd of the way down on the western side and took more pictures of the peak road. Clouds were filling up the inside of the crater.

Going back into town you can see Teide hovering above the ocean, 70+km away.

Not pictured: Going down through a long, thick layer of rain clouds. Perfect weather going up and rain just a few hours later. You just have to commit I guess.

I dunno man. I dunno.

Small Naval museum close to the town center. All museums should be shaped like the thing they're about.

La Palma made me wish I had booked a few more days for my trip because unfortunately I didn’t get to ride much in the north and it’s probably epic. Last day I just squeezed in this cape loop at a brisk pace so I’d catch the ferry in the afternoon.

You still have to climb a good 1400m to get over the mountains to the west side.

Little lookout near the top, about 1200m up. Just above the clouds.

The actual peak of this climb is just a camping in a pine forest that looks exactly like being back in Quebec.

You rapidly exit the forest to keep climbing down along this crater filled with black sands.

It just looks so clean! You can reach this place easily by car thanks to a tunnel too. Cheater.

The lava flow from the 2021 eruption that swallowed a bunch of little towns on the west side.

Town of Tazacorte in this huge valley on the open face of the Volcano.

Back in the city. Not that much to see on that southern loop if you stay on the highway (sorta) like I did. Regrets.

Ah there are my clouds, rolling back down the cliffs as people catch the ferry.

Back in Tenerife I stayed in Los Christianos for the final 5 days. It was nice to not constantly be moving around. Planned myself a little day off so I could go to the Monkey zoo and catch up on laundry/ grocery etc. Always something to do.

5km walk from my Airbnb. See? Don't need a car.

You start in a little pond area with turtles and crocs.

Then you think they scammed you because there's like 3 enclosures of just free roaming guinea pigs.

This isn't a monkey. This is a travesty.

You can buy vegetables to feed though.

There's a couple lemures sleeping far away from the kids feeding the hamsters.

Also this one sad turtle just stuck there getting rubbed by tourists. Nowhere to run. Just accepting its fate.

Parrot guy doing tricks with this cockatoo.

Then you get to the real monkeys. Most are behind glass but some you can feed.

Enjoy the monkeys.

This one was trying to grab a flower off this plant for like 5 minutes.

Ugliest monkey in the whole zoo.

Don't know what was wrong with this one's face.

They also have many tropical birds, lizards and snakes from around the world.

Just a cool little zoo, pretty cheap to visit, not crowded. 10/10.

For just 100 euro you can take a round trip to La Gomera, the closest Island to Tenerife and do a nice big loop. There’s just one ferry in the morning ( 9:30 ) and one in the evening ( 5:30 ). 50 minute trip each way. It’s an expensive ride but probably the best loop of all!

Huge beach still in Los Christianos. Really selling the Hawai vibe.

Los Christianos viewd from the ferry. Notice how dry and barren the south of Tenerife really is.

The ferry has a big gift shop. How does this thing exist?

Tenerife from further out with its slice of clouds starting to form.

Little hut rock on the climb out of the La Gomera harbor. It's about 1200m up from the harbor to the peak at the center of the Island!

Look at this crazy view of Tenerife and of various canyons on La Gomera.

Yes you can also take a bus on this island... Yes they'll drop you at the top near the cool rocks...

I think this is La Palma? That island is essentially just a huge crater.

There are a few very small towns on this Island, nested in ravines and valleys.

The loop goes up to the peak then back down into this amazing valley along the ocean. Again this is the north of the island so it has more grass.

Best view of the day in Santa Catalina. From here you have to climb 500+m back out to return to the ferry.

hi

View from the middle of the island if you climb back towards the peak. Don't do this little bit, it's 500m of steep climbing with no view.

There's a layer of jungle starting at around 900-1000m elevation on this island. Sadly it hides most of the best views except for just a few lookouts.

Biking back down to San Sebastian to catch my boat.

San Sebastian is a nice little tourist town to get a drink at if you have time before your ferry.

The Columbus house where Christopher Columbus would stop in the Canarys while on his expeditions.

There's a shitty little lighthouse that's very hard to reach in a confusing road network of steep hills. Don't go there.

Great view of the whole island as the ferry departs! 100 euro for a day trip isn't cheap but if you're there, you're so close, might as well do this ride!

World rank 73 - Teide from Los Christianos

Another way up Teide. Perfect weather so I got to push it and ride all the way to the cable car again. Sadly didn’t ride it because you have to book online in advance only.
I guess keep that in mind if you ever want to go there.

View of "La Montanas Guaza", a little hike right outside of Los Christianos.

La Gomera and El Hierro seen from the north lip of the crater ( bout 2300m elevation )

You'd have to go there to full enjoy the diverse volcanic landscapes in the crater around Teide.

Maybe some of those rocks don't have a name yet! Next one could be yours.

Little Tenerife lizard sipping from a puddle on a rock wall. Tourists feed these ones so they don't skitter away instantly when they see you.

I don't know what the hell that is but they have some kind of Justice League thing going on at the visitor center near the cable car.

West side crater from the 1798 eruption. Volcanos are awesome, why can't we build one around Victoria? We have space.

Hi

Perfectly clear view of all 3 western islands as I came back down towards Los Gigantes. That's the best route to descend Teide for sure.

Wanted to ride all the way to Buena Vista Norte to see the western tip of the island but the weather didn’t cooperate that day. My one regret in life. One and only.

Freshly dead hedgehog. Really wish I had seen a live one instead of 20 flattened ones :(

Fancy rock formation atop the volcanic ridge near a town called El Molledo

As you can see, more BS clouds. I started descending in the rain on the south side but turned back pretty quickly. Rest of my day was dry at least.

Santiago del Teide is wedged into the mountains at about 1000m elevation. From here you can descend back down to the north side. This is a pretty slow sight-seeing drive though.

From Santiago you can descend all the way down to Los Gigantes, a little touristy town at the foot of these massive vertical cliffs that extend hundreds of meter into the ocean.

There's a little lookout/gift shop about 100m up too. You can take boat tours of the cliffs from town. These girls took about 50 of this picture. Not efficient. You're fired.

Unfortunately you can't get that good a view of the cliffs from the harbor because there's a bunch of walls and crap in the way. You have to take the boat excursions. They have whales!

Tons of these Mullets swimming around the harbor. I think the tourists throw food scraps at them.

Playa San Juan, one of many beach/resort towns along the coast here.

More lizards! They hide when you come near but if you sit and wait they'll come back out and hang out.

I think they eat bananas so if you have any, try and entice them to become your familiars.

I think this is a golf club hotel/resort of some kind? Thought it looked cool! Notice all the banana plantations at the base.

The Airbnb hosts were nice enough to let me check out at 3pm so I’d have more time for one last ride. It never hurts to ask, my airbnb hosts were pretty accomodating in general for late checkouts or at least letting me leave my bags there while I’m out. Otherwise you have a hole from 11am to 4pm where you have nowhere to leave your stuff…

Last view of La Gomera. Look at how high the clouds are on it! I wonder if the cloud height/cover is the same across all the islands each day because Teide was also clouded up.

I think this is Villa de San Lorenzo? 500m up with a nice view of these small volcanic mounds that dot the landscape on these islands.

Sometimes if you actually stop biking and look at something else, you can enjoy actual non-landscape nature! Like this Tropical Ten-Web-Spider living in the cactus

Just soaking in the views one last time. Nice even on the crappy south side.

Had a window seat for once! Goodbye Tenerife and off to sleep on a cold bench at the Keflavik airport...

Outside the Kevflavik airport. Really have to say that traveling by plane is such a painful shitty ordeal. There's like no way for flying to not suck at this point.

In the end I wished I had booked about 1 week longer, especially to ride more in La Palma! It is also probably better to go later in the season, in April or May, as I caught the end of the winter/rainy season and it definitely hampered the rides I would do. The warmer weather is not so much an issue since there’s so many towns on these islands where you can stop for water.

As is tradition, here’s a cost breakdown of the trip:

About 900$ of that was purely wasted on car rentals. This saved me at best 100$ in various taxis or buses. There’s another 1000$ in there just for visiting the extra islands and bringing the bike on planes ( 175$ from victoria, 90$ from Madeira, 70$ back to Victoria ). Bringing your bike even for a week is cheaper than renting one.

Airbnb could be cut in half easily by traveling with someone else. Would have saved on the airfare too if I booked more in advance.

So could have done this trip in the 7000$ range probably.

Interestingly it was 675$/week for Airbnb. So just 2700/mo which covers utilities. That’s about the price of a 2 bedroom around here now… Basically confirms my theory that if I just put my stuff in storage here half the year and traveled it would cost me the same or less. Or just do like many do: Airbnb your apartment/house while you’re gone.

Until next trip: Thanks for stopping by and looking at pictures!

More travel stuff:
Arizona/California: Drive to Tucson • Tucson • California Climbing • Bay Area / Washington
Canada Coast to Coast: Victoria •Vancouver Island • Vancouver • Southern Rockies • Prairies • Ontario • Niagara • Quebec • Gaspesie / PEI • Maritimes • Newfoundland • Maritimes2 • Bay of Fundy • Quebec2 • Montreal • Ontario2 • Prairies Statues • Jasper/Banff • Northern Rockies • Washington State Bonus

Car Conversion / Purchase: Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3
Life on the road: Part 1 • Part 2

La Palma, La Gomera and Tenerife.