Before this trip, I thought that Tenerife was a place where British vacationers looking for a deep tan went. I was partly wrong…they are mostly German and it’s not just a tan that draws the tourists (though there are plenty of those kinds).
If you’ve never heard of Tenerife then I’ll explain. Off the coast of Africa is a small archipelago of 13 islands. Millions of billions of years ago the earth spilled its guts and created these lumps of rock. Time passed and seeds and dust and and debris and insects were blown in by the wind or brought to the shore by the ocean…eventually you have a beautiful subtropical island with a few small lizards, birds and mammals. People eventually came.
First came the Guanches. They deserve a whole post (at least and probably a short Kindle book, too). Then came the Spanish – first it was the Spanish priests. They were on a mission from God – convert the savages and settle…or something. Christopher Columbus hung out on the islands before setting out for the Americas (or India?). However the story continues it’s fascinating.
They still have a magical whistle language called Silbo Gomero that is used on the island of La Gomera. The BBC has a short interview that you can listen to if you’d like to hear what it sounds like and a short history of the island. I recommend it!! Click here to listen.
The food is also something special. Two reasons: the price and the cortado leche y leche. You can eat like a king on the cheap – if you’re cooking yourself, the fresh fish is amazing! Plantains! It’s perfectly tropical. But we also discovered the art of the cortado. It’s a short espresso with sweetened condensed milk on the bottom and a bit of steamed milk on top. It makes for the sweetest and most delicious 80 cent coffee ever. My favorite location for a leche y leche was at the main bus station in La Orotava (where we stayed for the week). They also made delicious Spanish tortilla and the next shop down made arepas – corn flour pancakes cut in half and stuffed with all things delicious.
We spent two days on the black sand beach called Bollullo. The sand was so hot that even the small bit that got in my sandals burned the bottom of my feet – so we rented sun umbrellas from the little drink shack on the beach for EUR 2. It was worth the expense and once the sand was shaded it cooled off pretty quickly. The water was just the perfect temperature and the waves were big.
We hiked three days. Our first hike was around La Caldera. It was a 16km hike that took about 6 hours through the pine forests with beautiful views of El Teide (the volcanic peak of Tenerife island). The flora was spectacular. I’ve never seen so many kinds of flowers on a single hike. The deep ravines and sheer cliffs made for a slightly vertiginous trek part of the way. It was good preparation for what was to be two days of high altitude trekking.
The morning we set off for Teide National Park, we (of course) started at the bus station with an arepa and a cortado leche y leche. The bus took us up 1700 m (to 2200 m). The trip took about 1 hour and we took a 10 minute leche y leche break at El Portillo. By 11 am we were at the teleferico for a 1000 m lift. While waiting for our 4 pm ride up to the top we ate snacks, took walks on the pumice hills and people-watched. I’m pretty sure that Nicolas and Jim took a nap or two.
Once to the top of the teleferico we hiked to a vista of one of the enormous volcanic craters surrounding El Teide (alt. 3717 m/ 12,195 ft). We had to wait until after 5 pm to hike to the peak – that’s when the guards go home for the night. It took about 45 minutes to go up about 160 meters. There is an obvious path to the top, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Sulfur fumaroles created an eerie atmosphere around the peak. We and two Austrian women were the only five souls left on the mountain (until the refuge where we slept with about 25 others). It was breathtaking at the top. We could see the other islands out in the Atlantic. The clouds were closing in around us and the sun was still high. Woah!
Nicolas took the opportunity to catch up on the previous day’s events with El Dia – the Canary Islands’ daily newspaper.
Our trip down to the refuge was a lot like a scene out of Lord of the Rings while Frodo and Sam are in Mordor. The lava rock was black and the wind was gusty.
The next morning we skipped going back up the peak for sunrise. We preferred to sleep in (til 7 am) and start the 1200 m hike down to El Portillo before the high heat of the day. (The night before Nicolas and I had a bit of dehydration/altitude sickness a few hours after going to bed.)
The hike down also had a film reference – it was like walking on Barsoom (cf. John Carter from Mars).
Back at the hostel we prepared a big fish dinner and chatted with the other people staying and shared our adventure on El Teide.
The next day we left for a long day and night before flying out the following morning at 6 am. We visited La Laguna and the Island History Museum and then down to Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the Anthropological and Natural History Musuem. At midnight we took a bus to the South Airport and slept on airport chairs for about 3 hours. The flight home included more sleeping and a cup of coffee.
Perhaps the feeling of a post-vacation letdown is coming on, but I’ve got a new and bigger adventure in the works to keep my mind busy…aren’t you curious?!?
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I’ve been in Kansas City for 4 (or 5?) days.
Headed to Gare Centrale at 8 a.m. to catch a train to Saales for a walk to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges.
fossicking 