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Tenerife

A view f a rocky plage from above
Tenerife

The Wild Weightlessness of Waves

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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Tenerife from the air
Tenerife

The Island of Dreams and Fulfilled Wishes

(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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Tenerife

Saying Goodbye to Tenerife

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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Tenerife

Sledding under the Palm Trees

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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Tenerife

Anaga: Here Take a Deep Breath

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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Tenerife

The Most Beautiful House in Orotava

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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Tenerife

Water Mills in Orotava

“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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Tenerife

Experiment of the Spanish King – The Botanical Garden in Puerto

One of the things that caught my attention in Puerto was the local botanical garden. It is the oldest tourist attraction there. It was founded in 1788 by Spanish King Charles III as an ambitious attempt to acclimatize tropical plants from all over the world to the local climate and then repeat the same process again in Madrid. The first step of the plan was successful, the second wasn’t. So there is in Tenerife a garden full of various beautiful and bizarre plants. The park is dominated by a giant rubber tree with loads of air roots and intertwined stems. It is as big as several trees beside each other, a very imposing view. (When Ben saw it he said that we were definitely not getting a rubber tree at home because he was worried that it would strangle him while he was asleep.) While walking the paths surrounded by lush greenery I felt like I was in a jungle. Where ever I looked there was something to see – one plant more peculiar than another. Cinnamons, fig-trees, pipers, coffee plants, araucarias
 And what about this egg-shaped fruit? I see, breadfruit! And many other curious trees and bushes, I had […]

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Tenerife

Water Garden and searching for Black Swans

In Puerto de la Cruz there are many places to explore. The place that impressed me the most I ran into by complete chance. On that day I had gone to visit the Taoro Park but, as it usually happens, I was tempted by a pleasant-looking path lined with flowering bushes. And so I decided to find out where it would lead me
 When I got to the end, I felt as if I had found myself in a world of elves and fairies. On the green lawn among palm trees, flowering bushes, and fruit trees with a fantastic view of the sea there were scattered chairs and tables. The place was deserted, only at one table there was a man quietly reading and a black swan strolled around the pond. I picked a scenic place near the water and sat down as well. After a little bit, the man got up, approached me without hurry and asked me what I would like. From that, I understood I was not in somebody’s garden but in a cafĂ©. I ordered tea. A bit later an elderly British couple arrived. They sat at one of the tables and ordered a cake. The […]

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Tenerife

Tenerife Moments

During the winter in Europe, the Canary Islands are more like late spring than the tropics – in December the temperature was around 23°, half of the time sunny. The wind gets crazy sometimes – when we arrived I thought the surrounding palm trees were preparing for lift-off, they waved in the wind so much. The air there has a strange, sweet-salty flower-sea scent. I haven’t experienced anything like that anywhere else. Tenerife is a volcanic island and so it is, although small, very mountainous. According to the altitude and position in relation to the mountains, you can within short interval enter various microworlds with completely different weather and plants. The north coast is quite green because the mountains in the center catch rain clouds. The south used to be a desert, warmer and sunnier. Gradually with the arrival of tourism, the south has been covered with seaside resorts which, thanks to the planting of new trees and plants, has changed the climate of the island so much that the difference between the north and the south is not as big any more. We stayed in the north at Puerto de la Cruz because when I had seen Tenerife pictures […]

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