Tenerife
About six months ago I had a $300 voucher for a condo in Tenerife
for 7 days so I picked an arbitrary date in May. Mic had lived there for 18
months and absolutely loved it so I had to go check it out for myself. As it
turns out, it was 3 days after our return from Madrid and Mic couldn't miss that
much work, so I went by myself. It's the first time I've traveled alone since I
got to Europe. Well of course I would miss my most excellent travel
partner Mic, but I had a friend Nick who recently moved from Malta to Tenerife,
so I would have some company. Tenerife is the largest and most populous island
of the seven Canary Islands. It is 2034 sq kl (785 sq mi) with 898,000
inhabitants.
I picked up my car from the airport and proceeded to drive from the
southern part of the island to the north and half way down the other coast to
Puerto de la Cruz. It was an hour drive, that had I been able to cut through the
middle of the island, would have maybe been 30 minutes. But there's a volcano in
the middle so you have to go around. What struck me about Tenerife was how
incredibly hilly it was. It was much more green than Malta, but not nearly as
green is Crete.
The apartment was a really nice, one bedroom with a balcony
overlooking the pool. This condo was a proper resort, complete with game room,
bar, restaurant, shuffleboard court, karaoke night, game night, library and
more. The staff was very friendly and very helpful, even with my arrival very
late Friday night.
First thing Saturday morning I got up and went exploring around my
town. As I mentioned before, it was extremely hilly. When I walked out of the
apartment, I could walk down towards the sea, or up to a Botanical Garden. I
opted to go up first and get the hard part out of the way. Jardin Botánico was
created in 1788. The Spanish King, Carlos III, wanted some exotic plants,
flowers and trees from his territories in South and Central America for his
palace in Madrid. The flora needed a stop-off point to become acclimated to
their new environment. The Canary Islands, with their subtropical climate,
seemed the ideal choice and Acclimation Garden was born in Puerto de la Cruz.
Since its inception, it has become one of the most important botanical gardens
in the world, right alongside the Kew Garden in London. It covers 20,000 square
meters and plans are underway to double its size with additional landscaping and
more modern facilities.
When you walk into the garden the first thing you see, and the main
exhibit, is a tree from South America called Coussapoa Dealbata. It's an
interesting tree with its mass of intertwining trunks. Sadly, you can't see the
trunk in pictures because the tree is covered in moss. I saw similar trees in
Costa Rica that were much bigger, but it still looked very exotic. While the
grounds were beautiful, the website touts it as this amazing place with a wide
variety of exotic plants. To be honest, I've seen a wider variety in other
locations. This park consisted of paths up and down the park with the same 8 or
10 type of plants scattered around. While beautiful and serene, I honestly just
did not get how it is one of the most important in the world. In fact in Malta
we have Anton Gardens, which is much prettier, in my opinion. However it was a
beautiful day, a beautiful park and well worth the €3 entrance fee.
On the way back to the apartment I stopped at the local market to
stock up on some food then had lunch at a little cafe. The food was very good
but quite similar to what I just had in Madrid. I was struck by how much German
seemed to be spoken around me. Not only did I hear many people speaking it, but
all the restaurants had menus in Spanish, English and German.
After a short siesta, I ventured out again, this time down to the
sea. I found myself in a cute little shopping area known as Old Town. This old
fishing port was said to have distinctive Canarian character. It was full of
narrow cobbled streets lined with traditional colonial style cafes, bars, and
shops. I saw high end boutiques next to low end tourist shops. The
people watching was fantastic, as it was wall-to-wall tourists. As I walked
along the seafront I could hear music playing in the distance. As I got closer I
realized it was a small square where an impromptu stage had been set up and
local musicians were jamming. There was a huge crowd and everybody seemed to be
in a festive mood as they danced around. Further along the promenade I came
upon two separate street performances. The first seemed to be some sort of
acrobatic show. I could see two men performing stunts high above the ground.
The next performance was apparently a comedy, as I could hear people laughing
long before I got there. The entire atmosphere was quite festive and infectious.
After stopping to watch the shows, it was time for dinner. I'd seen this really
amazing steak restaurant overlooking the water but there was no way to get a
table, it was much too crowded. Instead I opted for a Chinese restaurant that
turned out to be really, really good.
On Tuesday I met up with my friend Nick. He lived about 30 minutes
away in Santa Cruz on the northern tip of the island. The street going up to
his house in the hills was quite interesting. It was very narrow with room for
only one car, and extremely curvy with switchbacks the entire way. It would have
actually been a lot of fun on a scooter or motorcycle, less so in a rental car.
Once at his house, the view was absolutely spectacular. He could look out not
only at the sea but the entire city of Santa Cruz. His house had two large
balconies and I'm sure he spent most of his time just sitting out there enjoying
the scenery. His rent was actually better than what we pay in Malta. He had a
beautiful top floor, 3 bedroom apartment that was quite modern and included all
utilities.
We decided to go to the south part of the island to hike. In Malta we
had done several hikes together so we had that in common and this was a trail he
had been wanting to try. It was nice for him to be able to do something new as
well. We headed to the town of Masca and the drive was quite interesting. The
road was quite narrow and snaked its way from the top of the valley, down to the
little village. It was slow going with all the twists and turns, not to mention
all the cars stopping to take pictures. We finally reached our destination, and
as with several other spots on the island, the view was spectacular. This area
was quite rocky although there were some plants to be seen.
Nick's guidebook said it was a moderate hike, and should take about 4
hours to reach the sea. It was basically a gorge running from this little
mountain hamlet down to the sea. Moderate my ass, this was extremely strenuous,
so much so that we didn't even do the whole thing. We turned around and went
back about a quarter of the way down. It was very steep & very rocky. We
saw many lizards, and a kind of forest of flowering cactus and other plants
hearty enough to grow in this dry rocky terrain. After climbing back up to the
start of the trail, we stopped at the one little café for a cold drink and some
ice cream. It was very peaceful just sit there and enjoy the view.
Our next stop was Los Cristianos. This is a popular coastal town
where the ferries leave for the other Canary Islands. Much like Puerto de la
Cruz, Los Cristianos is a beachfront resort with many shops and restaurants. As
we walked along the sandy beach we came upon some people making sand sculptures.
These were not your basic amateur artists, these were clearly professionals who
had built elaborate displays including the Last Supper and Poseidon. They were
quite impressive and we stopped to watch them for a while. After a cool
refreshing beverage we decided to head to the next town of El Médano for
dinner. This was a smaller version of the other coastal towns. We walked around
looking for a suitable restaurant and as luck would have it we found a Chinese
place LOL. I know I just had Chinese the night before, but the food looked quite
tasty and I was happy to have it again. It was a wonderful day with great
company, great food and a grand adventure. As I drove home that night I couldn't
help but think how lucky am I to be able to travel, and to have such great
friends that are now scattered all over Europe. I can't imagine life being much
better for me than it is right now. Well okay it would have been better if Mic
had joined us.
On Wednesday I went back to Santa Cruz, where I found two big
shopping malls. Shopping is a challenge in Malta, especially for clothes. There
are only a few shops that have 'big girl' clothes, which is odd because pudgy
Maltese women are everywhere. The prices are quite high for what you do
find. I ended up having to get another suitcase to get everything home. To be
fair, I shopped for myself, Mic and his mom's upcoming visit. As the icing on
the cake, I found a great little Vietnamese restaurant right around the
corner.
In the middle of the island is a dormant volcano called Pico del
Teide. It's summit is the highest point in Spain at 3718 m (12,198 ft) and the
3rd highest volcano on a volcanic ocean island in the world. Its considered an
active volcano, but the last eruption was in 1909. Teide National Park is the
most visited national park in Europe and the 8th most visited in the world.
When I left my apartment, it was an overcast day. As I drove higher up the
mountain, it seemed like a fog was settling around me. It obscured the road and
at times I could barely see the front of my car. I almost turned around, I
was thinking in this weather I wouldn't be able to see anything. And then just
like that, I broke through the fog, which turns out were clouds! Yes, I just
drove up through the cloud level. I pulled over and joined all the other
tourist taking pictures that you normally see from a plane window. I was
looking down on an ocean of white fluffy clouds Once above it, the weather was
beautiful! The sun was shining and I could see a green forest all around
me.
I saw some really nice hiking trails that I would love to check out if I
had more time. As I gained elevation, the forest grew more sparse and
eventually there was no vegetation at all. Mic kept telling me it looked like a
moonscape, and he was right. It was volcanic rock everywhere you looked. You
could even see paths where lava once flowed on top of cooled, older lava flows.
Once up there, you could see for miles and miles, but all there was, was the
road and more and more lava fields. Very strange looking.
I left the park on the other side and once again descended through
the clouds, this time, it was quicker and much less dramatic. I was headed to
the seaside village of Los Gigantes, where the views of the cliffs were supposed
to be remarkable and indeed they were. You could see these massive cliffs that
go straight down to the sea, and right next to the cliffs, a picturesque little
sea side town. I was now on the opposite side of the island and after a day of
beautiful, but slow drives, I hit the highway for the faster trip home.
On Thursday I spent the day walking around Puerto de la Cruz. It
really was a nice town, but OMG, the hills were killer! Everywhere you went, it
was straight up or straight down! In the afternoon, I headed to Santa Cruz to
walk around a bit before meeting Nick for one last dinner. Santa Cruz was much
bigger and thankfully, much flatter. There was a large pedestrian area with a
nice fountain that people were wading in. For dinner, we headed up the coast to
the charming village of San Andres. There was a long sandy beach right next to
an inlet where small boats were moored. It was a very peaceful area and I could
see why it was a favorite spot for Nick. We ate at a seaside restaurant popular
with the locals, and it was fantastic. We got some kind of white fish that was
sooo good. It was quite meaty with few bones, always a good combination. After
a wonderful evening, it was time for me to go home and pack for my early morning
flight.
Link to pictures
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