Several
ago
,
I
was
spending
Christmas
in
Tenerife
,
in
the
Canary
Islands
.
My
brother
José
was
working
there
and
unfortunately
he
couldn
?
t
get
any
time
off
to
come
home
,
so
I
spent
the
holiday
with
him
.
One
day
,
we
decided
to
go
up
Mount
Teide
,
a
volcano
in
the
centre
of
the
island
.
This
was
the
last
day
of
my
visit
,
so
we
hired
a
little
car
for
the
day
.
José
and
I
set
off
in
brilliant
sunshine
,
but
very
it
got
much
colder
and
by
the
time
we
reached
the
crater
of
Mount
Teide
it
was
snowing
.
For
some
all
the
restaurants
,
hotels
and
petrol
stations
at
the
top
of
the
volcano
were
shut
,
and
we
had
almost
run
out
of
petrol
.
At
this
,
I
started
getting
really
worried
because
I
had
to
catch
the
plane
home
that
evening
,
and
if
I
didn
?
t
,
I
would
have
to
pay
for
a
new
ticket
.
So
José
decided
to
do
something
incredibly
dangerous
?
he
switched
off
the
engine
of
the
car
and
freewheeled
down
the
other
side
of
the
mountain
.
He
did
this
for
several
kilometres
,
round
hairpin
bends
on
dangerous
,
icy
roads
.
I
was
absolutely
petrified
,
but
for
some
reason
I
didn
?
t
tell
him
to
stop
.
All
of
a
my
worst
nightmare
happened
:
the
car
slipped
on
the
road
and
the
two
front
wheels
went
over
the
edge
.
We
were
very
lucky
that
the
rest
of
the
car
didn
?
t
go
over
.
We
sat
in
the
car
for
,
not
daring
to
move
and
freezing
cold
,
waiting
for
someone
to
come
past
.
,
a
car
came
round
the
corner
and
out
jumped
three
enormous
men
.
Without
saying
a
word
,
the
three
men
surrounded
the
car
and
literally
lifted
it
back
on
the
road
.
My
brother
and
I
got
out
to
thank
them
,
but
the
three
men
just
repeated
?
Norway
?
several
times
?
we
assumed
that
that
was
where
they
came
from
?
then
got
back
into
their
car
and
drove
off
.
By
this
we
were
so
relieved
we
could
have
kissed
them
!
We
got
back
into
our
car
and
continued
down
the
side
of
the
mountain
.
I
have
never
felt
so
happy
in
my
life
as
when
we
reached
the
town
at
the
bottom
.
We
went
straight
to
a
petrol
station
and
filled
up
.
,
the
petrol
station
was
owned
by
a
Norwegian
company
!