Tenerife

One of our first Tenerife trips took us to the Enchanted Forest Trail in the Anaga Mountains. I would like to say that it was like something out of a fairy tale. That dewy ferns peeked out from under our feet. That the ghosts appearing out of the fog could have been tree branches, but also forest spirits.I would like to write all this, but I can’t. My own body betrayed me, and I was so exhausted that day that I didn’t enjoy the trip at all. Unfortunately, reservations for this trail are always for a specific day (14 days in advance, online, otherwise you can’t get here), so it was now or never. And because I really enjoyed the Trail of the Senses last time in Anaga, I hoped that despite my fatigue, I would also be enchanted by the Enchanted Forest. Only 45 people are allowed on this trail per day. This is to preserve its natural wealth. That’s why we only met two other couples there during the whole day. There’s something special about having a beautiful laurel forest almost to yourself. That’s why I was sad that I wasn’t able to really pay attention. I focused […]

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My first trip to Puerto de la Cruz had a rather silly motivation. I wanted to buy a mug with a lizard on it. I had bought one the first time here, but to my sadness, it broke. I kept joking that we would have to fly to Tenerife to buy a new one, and here we are! Ben’s trip to Puerto also had a silly motiveation, or rather a motivation close to his stomach. He wanted to eat at our favorite restaurant, Pomodoro, on the cliff above the sea. We stayed in Puerto last time and we already knew the town a little. We had already seen a lot of the sights, so we could afford to be a little frivolous with our time. However, both of our missions proved to be only partially successful. I found a mug with a lizard, but it wasn’t exactly the same mug with a lizard as the one before, which was obviously a huge problem! Of course, I realize that it was pointless to hope that they hadn’t changed the design of their souvenirs in five years. But hope dies last! In the end, I found a mug that was a bit […]

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Our first day in Tenerife was the most awesome of the whole first week in this amazing place. We set off to Playa des Roques, a tiny stony beach, close to us. When we got there we found we had a minor problem. On the descent to the beach we ran into a notice board “Entry prohibited”. Despite that, we saw several couples bathing in the sea and so we decided to try our luck. When we got down the locals were just leaving so we had the beach for ourselves. Rocks behind us, the stormy sea in front of us…The beach had a ‘pebble’ part if you can call something as big as your head a pebble. Fortunately, behind them was a strip of sand, black volcanic as everywhere around here. We changed into our swimsuits and dived into the waves. The waves plunged forward to meet us. We let them swallow and carry us. Just this wild beauty of nature and us. I ran against the waves and I screamed at the top of my lungs. And then I jumped into them with all my power. I let them drag and roll me around. With all my body […]

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(The following series of Tenerife posts were written during our November 2021 stay there. It was an endeavor during which I could take nothing for granted – especially my mental health.) ~~~ The air here really smells the same as before. We are again on the Canary Islands, in the land of eternal spring. And it looks as if nothing has changed. The sea is humming, the sun is shining, everything is interesting and new and inspiring… Even though originally it was only a dream. Last winter was so awful that I decided that I would never again endure it. Winter depression and anxiety left me rolled up into a ball, screaming with inner pain. Every minute was un-survivable. I decided then that it was the last winter I would spend in Czechia. At that time I believed that it was only wishful thinking. Something I wish for but cannot have because of my mental health. It all looked like a crazy plan. I spent the summer fighting with my demons, so they allowed me to spend at least a few days in our summer house – in an environment which I know a bit even it is fairly new. […]

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The end of our stay was suddenly here… But I wouldn’t be me if I did not find a way to make it more exciting. It is enough to, while paying for a taxi, drop your purse with your ID card. With the resignation of an experienced trouble magnet, I concluded that the best solution would be to go with Ben to have a glass of sangria and return home the next day on my passport which I had luckily left in our accommodation. Maybe I got caught in the local culture “Relax, no problem”. And then all what was left was to enjoy the beautiful sunny day, go for the last time to the coastal restaurant, bathe in the lagoons, enjoy the sunset on a beach, which Agatha Christie used to visit … pack and get up at three o’clock in the morning to catch a flight back. Brr! Though the sunrise above the sea at the last look from the plane window before it lift off was gorgeous…

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In a small coastal town Icod de Los Vinos there supposedly grows the eldest tree on the island, Dracaena draco known as Drago Millenario. According to a legend it is thousand years old, in reality probably ‘only’ about six hundred. In the evening when we were returning from our trip to Anaga, Ben took a wrong turn on one of the local roundabouts, and instead of to Puerto, we were suddenly heading to Icod. I joked that I would like to visit Icod and I was surprised when Ben forthwith took me up on it. It was great – there was some festival on and we saw something which stunned us – children sledding on wooden planks down the road. In subtropics! One of the sharply sloping streets was closed for traffic, children at the top waxed their plank and rode down to a pile of tires. The adults cheered and occasionally also rode. I really wanted to have a plank so I could try it. They did not allow us into the park with the famous Draceana as it was already ten minutes to closing time but the gentleman in the ticket office advised us that we could see […]

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The mountain range of Anaga, which is a thousand meters above sea level is a completely different world to the coastline of Tenerife – damp, cold, foggy, lush woodland, and has many spectacular views. Also many serpentines on which you can avoid a car in the opposite direction only at passing spaces. It is both beautiful and stomach-churning. Anaga is lined with miradores – places you can stop and feast your eyes on views of the landscape. At the first one, we couldn’t resist and stopped, although it was starting to rain. Despite the rain, a small, merry group collected there and we were surrounded by cheerful Spanish from all sides. In a van changed into a food stand you can buy all sorts of delicacies. We also couldn’t resist them 🙂 Our journey lead to Cruz del Carmen where several marked trails start. You can find also a mirador, a large but overflowing carpark (we luckily just managed to fit in), a supposedly good but also overflowing restaurant (we didn’t manage to get in) and a stand with refreshments and souvenirs. The stand apart from the usual tourist selection also offered some unusual merchandise: raincoats, anoraks and waterproof trousers… […]

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After we instead of visiting water mills accidentally viewed quaint houses in the top part of Orotava, we then headed to another interesting place: Casa de los Balcones. It is a beautiful old house from the 17th century in the colonial style with a picturesque patio, where you can sit on a bench surrounded by greenery, look into palm tree tops, listen to the gurgling of the fountain and relax. I was only sorry for the birds in cages, who accompanied the sound of falling water with their warbling. All over the patio there are placed curiosities with relation to the history of the Canary Islands – from examples of lace products through richly decorated national costumes of single islands to historical apparatus like a wine press or an old distilling device. The last was used in the house to gain drinkable water. If you can speak English or Spanish, you can rent audio guides at the ticket office with a short explanation of each of the curiosities. For one euro you can also buy a photography permit, which I made thorough use of. Entry to the patio itself is free. The most interesting part of the house was the […]

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“Water mills? I want to see them!” enthused Ben over the Tenerife guide. Demonstration of how local water mills – molinos de agua – work, sounded very tempting. For years they had been making flour, called Gofio, from roasted cereals. Historically one of the Canary Islands’ fundamental foods, which is still used to prepare all sorts of stuff – from soups through porridges to desserts. If we wanted to see the water mills in action we would have to hurry, because the opening time should have finished soon. And so we got on our way – more like sprinted out – on our first trip to the valley of Orotava, a little town about half an hour drive from Puerto de la Cruz. The first problem we encountered was that the mills we were looking for were not actually in the valley. We parked in the middle of the town and headed up, up and further up, until, out of breath, we reached nearly the top of the hill from which there was a view of the Orotava houses spreading all the way to the sea. While the view was very nice there was no trace of any water mills […]

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