Teide, the Drago of Icod, the Lava Pools of Garachico and Masca

One bus, one day, and most of Tenerife's contradictions. The route climbs to Teide, the highest peak in Spain and the most visited national park in the country, a UNESCO site, then drops into the wet green of the north. The altitude changes enough across the day that the temperature changes with it, more than once. Icod de los Vinos is the stop for the Drago Milenario, a dragon tree of more than 1,200 years, the oldest in the Canary Islands and the thing the town is known by. Garachico was the first capital of Tenerife, and its commercial port was the sea link between Europe and America. The last eruptions to reach the town carried viscous lava, and where it stopped it left natural volcanic pools, which is what people swim in now. Masca comes last, a handful of houses inside the cliffs of Los Gigantes, in a spot pirates used for protection. The operator calls this the most popular bus tour on the island. It is also the quickest way to understand the shape of the place, which is a mountain with two different climates hanging off it.