So what can I say---my second trip to the island of Tenerife was a lot more adventurous and comfortable than my first. The first trip to Tenerife was in Dec. 2001 with Carme´s parents. driving around the island, a lot of fond memories came flooding back. From the Camel rides thru the park to driving a deuce and a half around the island up impossible hills and inclines thru the narrow streets (don´t ask). Either way, back then I had as much Spanish knowledge as an Ashlander walking into a taco Bell restaurant. this time...well ..I had a bit more knowledge...more like a west-ender walking into Casa Grande in Short Pump. Still, I was ready and armed to speak my new Spanish vocal skills. But to my dismay, there were more Brits there than you can shake a pint of beer at!
We landed on a Sunday in the southern airport of Tenerife. And that´s sort of a good thing. You see the Island feels like two separate islands. the north is plush and green and has more of a changing weather pattern. the south is dry and warmer, like the desert. So it´s sort of like having Arizona attached to Kentucky. The change is noticeable temperature wise and visually. It´s almost like driving along the highway and running into a large shadow cast by a cloud. You can almost feel the approaching coldness or winds. Being that we again used Ryanair with incredibly cheap flights, we had to take the only flight they offered and arrive there around 10am local time. Our hotel was not ready until 4pm so we had time to kill. Despite rising before the sun, driving 45 minutes to the airport with two very cranky kids (Alex and Noelia) and again riding in plane with seat that will not recline, I walked like a zombie thru the Tenerife airport. After getting our rental car, we decided to head to the northern part of the island, to a city known for it´s tourism, Puerta de la Cruz.
P.C. (we will call it that for short) is a gorgeous little tourist town situated right on the Atlantic Ocean. I always marvel in the crashing waves on the rocks. There is a walkway with millions of shops lining the rocks situated about 40-60 above the crashing waves. Also there is a restaurant situated there so you can feel the ocean spray on your face. I guess that way, your steak is never dry and lightly salted.
The other awkward thing about this town is ever 10 shops or so, there are Indians with electronics shops. the sell cameras, Ipods, Mp3 and Mp4 players, DVD, car stereos, etc. And they all have the same merchandise. Not to be mean, but I think they rotate stores also. I am convinced there is some back and forth going on as they might blow off one customer just to see him go to another location and buy the same camera for slightly cheaper, to spite the first salesman, thinking they got over. Still, I am used to going to one Target and staying so long that I think I am in another Target location. Since they are all laid out the same way, I am not sure if I am at Willow Lawn or Hull St and have to actually go outside to settle my internal conflict. So like most tourists, I was attracted to the shiny new electronics. I spent 4 days haggling and settling on a camera I wanted. still in the end, Ebay is the way to go I swear.
Not to bore you with too many details, we spent the whole week enjoy moderately warm temperatures on the black sand beaches and poolside. The beaches have black sand due to the volcano situated in the middle of the island. The volcano is called Tiede and is 3,718 metres (12,198 ft) above sea level. from what I can gather from wikipedia, it hasn´t erupted for quite some time. still in the winter months it is snow covered despite the islands almost subtropic location. also Johnnie told me they shot Star Wars in the area which brought excitement to Alex but of course when we ventured up to the base of the volcano, the museum was closed for repairs....sigh. Still I have no confirmation of that.
Some of the pools were fed straight from the Atlantic Ocean, sans the sharks and coral reefs. Of course there were plenty of things to do that were beach related. On Friday, Carme and I took a charter boat to catch fish. She laid out and read a book on the deck while I manned one of 8 heavy rods with a few other fellows in the rear. I had to make sure she kept her top on so the boat´s captain doesn´t go around and around in circles.
Of the colorful characters in the rear fishing with me, there was one gentleman in particular who seemed to have the most intense time. He was proud of his fishing attire. i could tell by the way this German fellow would puff his chest and roll his belly in a particular sequence to make the shark on his t-shirt seem to come alive! Still after each catch, he measured and weighed each fish. and to document the whole trip, he took cameras with his mobile phone and two cameras, one digital and one film. I wonder if he had trouble convincing others and needed documented proof. But taking a picture next to his beer gut would make any fish seem dwarfish, he should have used other points of reference.
The boat´s first mate, Paulo, was a nice guy from Sevilla. We spoke in only Spanish and I felt proud to be able to understand him and he, seemingly, understood me. He and I shared glances, not in a homosexual way, not that there is anything with being gay, but in a shared joke kind of way. We secretly laughed at Otto (the German...possibly not his name but it´s funny to me) as he weighed each fish while trying to hold steady on the deck as the boat splashed in the waves. We patrolled a good sized area of the waters, hoping to catch a bite. since we had taken off at 9:30, we figured we would have some good catches. At 9:36am, Oto was measuring the first batch of tuna to grace our deck. It seemed like for an hour, we could not pull the tuna on board fast enough. hour 2 was moderate. Hour 3 seemed like the fish were taking a siesta. Hour 4...Jackpot. In all we pulled on board about 15 tuna with me reeling in 4.
The boat then took off and pulled up it´s rods and we rendezvoused with another ship which made lunch for us. We had a nice lunch of potato salad, Spanish rice (they just call it rice. Like going to China for Chinese food) and turkey drumsticks. All the while I was thinking about how I would cook up one of these carcasses I fought so bravely from the sea. Paulo was nice enough to gut the tuna so all I had to do was filet the bad boy when I got back to my hotel/apartment.
Oh I forgot to tell you about the hotel. We stayed in a really nice hotel with individual apartments in Los Christianos. The apartment was equipped with a kitchen and all so i got to do some cooking like I said before. Sadly I discovered the baking equipment a few days late and did not get to do any damage. But I surely took care of that tuna. I even think the tuna was proud of what I did with it. Nothing too fancy...just poached it with slices of lemons and a pinch of salt. I added that to Natalia´s rice (which was long grain white rice boiled in coconut milk instead of water) and sauteed vegetables. Good eating.
Being that Tenrife is basically like a huge 10 gallon hat with a thin brim, most of the roads were narrow and winding along hills and valleys along the coast. There are 2 major highways we used to go from the south to the north and to go from the south to the east of the island. Most of the roads either wind up and down hills side, snaking thru the elevation changes. The interstates are more built for speed of course but as soon as you get off, pray for good a suspension system in your rental. They say Tenerife was formed millions of years ago from some serious volcanic action that fused 3 separate islands together (hence the difference in the vegetation...cactus and aloe in the south...grass and tan sand to the north). So there is no place you can go without changing elevation faster than your ears can adjust. I spent the majority of the time fighting with my Eustachian tubes. Alex even had a hard time. With ears like his, you would never imagine it huh?
One day we decided to make a trip up to the volcano. I did not take advantage and go to the top of the volcano due to the fact I did not want to go alone. It cost 30€ for one person and I did not want to go without Alex and I did not want to pay for Carme...ha ha. So we drove on.
So after a week of relaxing and seeing a majority of the Island, I brought back a few pictures for you to check out. enjoy!
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