The church of San Miguel, a small village situated on the way between the National Park and the hotel.

Further up the mountains you'll find another peaceful small village - Vilaflor. Instead of just bypassing the village, we recommend to visit an excellent viewpoint above the center, about 100 meters from here to the left.

This is the historic church of Vilaflor, seen from the viewpoint.

A view across the village. Of course, you can also leave your car in the center and walk all the way up to the viewpoint like these fellows do. But this will take serious time, and you may be quite exhausted when you finally reach it.

The "Cumbre Dorsal" is the road that runs on the top of the mountains separating the northern part of Tenerife from the southern part. It's an amazing drive, and you will come across several excellent viewpoints like this...

...or this. Look at the clouds covering the coastline towards Santa Cruz de Tenerife! Now you know how high we actually were! And it would get even better!

Up at the Observatorium, close to the Izana mountain, we came across a group of hanggliders. This guy is preparing for the jump...

...a few seconds later he actually puts his parachute in the air and jumps...

...to enjoy a fantastic ride in the air, way above the clouds at roughly 2,300 meters above the sea...

I could not resist to test my camera with this athlete! Click, click, click...

...but before I get carried away, let me advise you to take warm clothes to your trip along the Cumbre Dorsal. You will be most of the time at 2,000 meters or above, and it can get very cold there, even if you are just watching the hanggliders flying gently above the trees.

Another photo of the National Park, close to the Pico del Teide and not far from the observatorium. The people on this photo look almost displaced in this environment.