The return of the ‘snowmen’

Saturday was a day of traffic jams at the top of Spain and this Sunday they were repeated from the morning until well into the afternoon. There were times of the day when traveling the distance from the Bamby restaurant to the Teide Cable Car required more than an hour of patience. The flow of traffic that came to Las Cañadas from La Esperanza, La Orotava and the South kept the road that crosses the park with intermittent traffic jams. The lack of snow didn’t help either. The desperate search for an area to slide caused a lot of vehicle mobility between the different sectors of the park.

Some chose to leave

Traffic jams and lack of parking led many to leave without even stepping on the snow. This was the case of a family of Venezuelan immigrants who arrived from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, who had to give up the plan after spending two hours in the car and not finding anywhere to park. Frustrated, they parked in the parking lot of the closed El Portillo cafeteria to at least touch a bit of ice with their hands. Your balance? “Horrible”. The height above gave one of the girls a hard time. A square day.

Another couple arrived from Arafo, who went up La Orotava, regretted having to leave “with it” after crossing half the island. Once at the summit, they spent almost two hours traveling the distance between El Portillo and the cable car there and back. They also gave up without getting out of the car: “Everything is absolutely collapsed. We turned around because the queues were tremendous and there was no snow at all. We got stuck going and coming back. There is nowhere to lean. It’s all mined and you can’t stop anywhere because then the Civil Traffic Guard passes by and melts you.”

The agents of the meritorious had a hard day, of continuous movement, from traffic jam to traffic jam, and probably with a good handful of complaints. Despite the warnings, many people continue to park in prohibited places, occupying part of the road, trampling rocks and vegetation on the sides of the road, or experimenting with the technique of parking on ice without chains.

The completely white image of Teide last Thursday deceived many. What looked like considerable snowfall from a distance was limited, on the ground, to a rather modest expanse of white blanket. Virtually nothing in the Parador and Siete Cañadas area; little in El Portillo, and somewhat more in Izaña and Las Minas de San José. In general, little snow for so many snowmen.

There are always those who, like David, who arrived from Santa Cruz, make a good balance of a different day: «I expected many more cars, less fluid queues, so in the end we have spent a pleasant day with the family, although we expected a little more snow» . Nor did Beli and Dani complain, who brought their son from the South to enjoy the snow and with a little bit that they found behind the restaurants, “the boy had a great time.”

As always, many families with children were seen, and as a novelty in recent years, more and more people accompanied by their dogs on the loose, although it is not authorized, and more and more camper vans that take out their chairs and tables to set up the picnic, even if you can’t either. Two activities prohibited in the Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG). However, to ensure compliance and the protection of the National Park on a day of mass influx, it was difficult to run into park staff.

Standard to be met

The PRUG, a mandatory regulation that very few know in depth, makes very clear the prohibition of drinking alcohol “outside authorized places for sale and consumption”; the use of kites, balloons, or any other type of device that flies over the territory of the national park, such as drones. It also prohibits the movement of rocks to make figures or mounds of stones; the emission of light flashes, except for the punctual use of laser pointers for astronomical observation, or the installation of parasols, hammocks, chairs and picnic tables or any other device that is used for staying outdoors, and “any element that produces visual pollution or affect the harmony of the landscape. It also prohibits the introduction of animals, unless they are guide, authorized hunting or rescue dogs. Nothing says, at the moment, about using boogies or paipos to surf on the snow, or about drinking hot chocolate brought from home.

Apart from the constant presence of the Civil Guard, focused on traffic issues, the lack of vigilance gives rise to undesirable or, directly, grotesque situations. Off-road vehicles balancing on volcanic rocks on the side of the road; snow football matches, or people who set up their chairs and tables to start smoking in large-format sishas in the middle of the Teide National Park.

The staff of the Canary Emergency Service (SUC) spent a quiet day, without incidents worthy of mention. In the two restaurants that are still open in El Portillo Alto, frustration due to the scarce business generated by the thousands of people who come to the call of the snow. Rosi, owner of the El Portillo restaurants, closed since March 14, 2020, and Bamby, which remains open “barely”, experienced another of those frustrating days this Sunday for a business that tries to survive in a very difficult context. Lasted. The road and its margins crowded with vehicles and its terrace, half empty. It was forced to mark off some car parks so that customers with reservations to eat could at least come to the appointment. Cristian, a worker at La Bamby, was in charge of organizing the parking lot and also lamented the lack of business left by the snow: “People bring their food in their cars and that’s what we have.”