The Splendor of Tenerife

12-17-2008

Today I took another tour with Manfred. The first one rocked so hard, I couldn’t resist another. This tour went in the opposite direction of the first to the north east side of the island towards La Laguna. There were ocho of us in this little beat up mini-van this time, filled to capacity. I actually had to plead with Manfred to let me go along. But totally worth it.

This tour involved a bit more driving and stopping but we saw some amazing views as we drove high into the Monte de las Mercedes region. Every half an hour or so, we’d stop and take another breathtaking look at the island that lay beneath us.

We took a walk around a cave village, a town in which everyone builds their homes into the sides of the mountains around them. Since these villages are so far removed from the more civilized parts of the island, they are mostly self-sufficient. They farm on terraces built into the sides of the mountains and most homes ran solely on solar power until three years ago when the island government brought electricity and street lights to the village. Manfred was puzzled as to why they would do this, as the inhabitants of these little villages are mostly elderly and sleep early. The government even built a lovely community center six years ago that is rarely used. Manfred assumes they are trying to beautify the area to attract people to live there. Because with the average age of the inhabitants around 55, the area may die out soon.

I could see a huge market for people wanting to live there, perhaps even monthly time-shares. Many people I know from Point would jump at the opportunity to live in a secluded village and sustain themselves for a number of years. I’m going to look at investing in this place….

After another short drive, we ended up in another mountain village where we met with an old shop owner who supplied us with the most delicious goat cheese I’ve ever eaten, some bread, and vino rojo.

He had the most ecliptic collection of random alcohol bottles I’ve ever seen. His collection of extremely old products also made me giggle. Emmet, the Irish guy on the tour, bought some batteries from the shop keeper. Upon putting them in his camera, he quickly realized that they had lost all their charge. To support the old guy, I purchased a Kinder Bueno candy bar. The visit to this little mountain shop was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

From there we drove further up the Monte de las Mercedes and took a hike through the “magic forest.” The vegetation here was quite unique.

And we got some more incredible views.

Our last stop was one of the only white sand beach on Tenerife.

The sand was shipped over from the Sahara desert to create a lovely holiday stop for locals and tourists alike. I was hungry so ordered what looked like onion rings on a bun. A British guy walked up next to me and asked what I had ordered. I said, “clamarie, it looks like onion rings on a bun.” He replied, “yeah, that’s not onion rings, that’s squid.” And sure enough it was, but it was also delicious.

Once I got back to the guesthouse, I grabbed my backpack and Manfred gave me a ride down to the bus station in Puerto de la Cruz where I took a bus to Los Gigantes and met up with Rachel at our next amazing accommodation, Hi! Tamaimo Tropical.

While the place was incredible and had much to do, I have a long day of hiking ahead of me tomorrow. So sleep took priority.