The snow again dyed the Teide National Park this Saturday. The first big snowfall of the year has left the peaks of Tenerife covered in white and the roads full of ice. The images on social networks were immediate and, as is the tradition on the island, as soon as the weekend started, hundreds of people rushed up the road with the aim of capturing the landscape, spending the day and having a hot chocolate . This scene was more eagerly anticipated than usual, since during the passage of Filomena, in January 2021, the residents of Tenerife were limited by the curfew that prevented them from being away from home after 10:00 p.m.
This is what Teide National Park looks like covered in snow
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As traditional is the thermos with a hot drink, the image of families that display tables, chairs and stoves in any siding on Mount Teide is also repetitive. However, the custom runs up against the law that seeks to protect the highest peak in Spain. There, among families repeating habits, tourists surprised by the snow on a sunny island and children sliding down the slopes, is Mela, one of the professionals who works as an itinerant in the National Park. Its function is to enforce the rules so that this space, which reaches 3,718 meters high, remains the same as it was declared a World Heritage Site in 2007.
“I am surprised because there are fewer people than I expected,” confesses Mela, who works at Gesplan (Gestión y Planeamiento Territorial y Medioambiental SA), a public company of the Government of the Canary Islands that is in charge of caring for the area. In a driveway between illegally double-parked cars, Mela warns stragglers that vehicles can be ticketed at any time. During the morning, several agents of the Civil Guard have roamed the space while recording images of cars and vans blocking the road or parked on plants endemic to the Canary Islands. The brooms are the main affected in this practice, since by improvising parking lots next to the traffic routes, many of them end up crushed under cars.
During a conversation with Mela, two young people approach to ask if the Police could fine them for having the car parked incorrectly. The worker answers with a resounding yes. “They are going to record the car, they are going to fine you and they are not going to notify you to remove the vehicle,” he explains, “that is why I am here.” But the bad parking of vehicles is not the only habitual and not allowed practice that is carried out in this Protected Natural Area. At the foot of the volcano, a couple in a van prepares some grilled breasts, a few meters ahead a family makes a sandwich in the trunk of the vehicle while they block the road. This type of activity, as the professional explains, is not allowed on Teide, nor is one of the most common and traditional: drinking hot chocolate with a thermos brought from home.
Another of the most frequent pictures during snowy days in Tenerife is that of families who take the opportunity to walk their pets on the protected environment. Hundreds of dogs have enjoyed the frost on Mount Teide between Thursday and this Saturday and, however, pets are not allowed to be released at the foot of the volcano. The ultimate goal with these endless restrictions is to preserve and care for the flora and fauna of the place.
The cold has come to stay
During noon on Friday, January 28, the roads continued to shine with ice and this Saturday the Cabildo de Tenerife has requested caution from the population when driving vehicles through this area. During the night, the flakes again reached more areas of the protected space. The cold has come to stay and is combined with episodes of haze in the midlands and coastal areas of Tenerife. In less than 24 hours, the Ayosa viewpoint, one of the first stops leading to Mount Teide from the Esperanza highway, donned its white suit. In it, at 2,000 meters above sea level, the first icy remains appear. Dozens of visitors have come there to take pictures or play with the ice.
To see the first people sliding down the lava flows, you need to go up to the Izaña Astrophysics Observatory. From this point on, the number of badly parked cars, Civil Guard agents controlling traffic and children slipping near the road increase.
This new day of snow in the Teide National Park has once again highlighted the gaps in environmental awareness in the Canary Islands. The Plastic Free Canary Islands Non-Governmental Organization has denounced through its social networks the impact of the avalanche of visitors that the Park has experienced this weekend: “Can’t we go through a place without leaving garbage?”.
Between excursions it is common to find fallen masks on the ground, garbage bags or plastic mats that have been used to play with the snow, but also various objects such as blankets, scarves and tablecloths that have been forgotten by their owners. But the plastic is the main protagonist and can be found on the stones, on top of the snow or tangled between the plants.
