Tenerife

Another month has blown by! I'm not sure why time is going so fast but I'm now happy to say Kyle has made it to Spain to visit. Before his arrival I went to the Canary Islands with my roommate Tara for 4 nights.  On Friday we missed school and got a head start on our flight to Tenerife (one of the seven islands).  Tenerife is the biggest of the islands and also has the volcano Teide, which is the 3rd largest in the world.

We stayed in a hostel called Lagarto, which is owned by Italians.  Although the hostel was in the middle of no where, we had a nice time there.  Tara and I had just been to Valencia the weekend before this trip so it was nice to escape the usual tour of a big city.  Instantly from the plane ride I thought of Costa Rica when touching down in Tenerife.  I hadn't seen landscapes similar to those in Costa Rica since I left in 2010.  We instantly felt calm and relaxed once we arrived, transitioning into a pure vacation mode!


Tenerife landscape

 


Beaches in the north

The first day we wandered around the area of the hostel and discovered a beach with natural pools.  The water was super cold so I didn't go in but Tara did. 


The natural pools- with the ocean water flowing in and out

More natural pools..and some super powerful waves

 


Anyone who knows me knows that I don't care for swimming but even if I did...I wouldn't mess around with this water! It was freezing cold and super strong.  It makes for good pictures though :)

Tenerife was a trip of firsts.  It was our first vacation away from major European cities.  We hitch-hiked for the first time (don't worry it was super safe else we wouldn't have done it).  We also relied upon www.couchsurfing.com to help us since we were so secluded.  Neither Tara or I had used couch surfing before, which is usually used to sleep on random peoples' couches for free in exchange of meeting new people around the world.  It is a popular website that uses various ways to verify the hosts and surfers in order to guarantee a safe and happy experience.  Tara had booked our hostel in Tenerife but we knew we should have rented a car, so I decided to contact couchsurfer hosts in Tenerife to see if they had free time to show us around the island.  I got three responses from hosts and decided to choose one named Rayco.  He's a local from the island and a working artist.  He offered to come pick us up and show us around for the day (driving his car of course).  We had no other way of really exploring the island by foot so we went with it! Guess what? It was an awesome experience.  Not only was he super friendly and easy to talk with (in Spanish) but he was generous and didn't charge us for gas or anything.  He drove us up into the Anaga mountains and around Santa Cruz (the capital).  He literally spent all day showing us around and we stopped for lunch and gelato too.  He even offered us to stay at his place for free...but we already had our room at the hostel so we passed.  We wouldn't have learned about Tenerife from a local's perspective if it weren't for Rayco, we are very appreciative of the time he spent with us.


I was probably way too close to that cliff but it's a great shot!




The "Lion head" rock in the Anaga mountains

 


It's pretty cool! Looks just like a lion huh?

Me on one of the "black sand beaches" the black sand is from the Teide volcano.

A fisherman's bar where we ate after we had been walking for hours

Tara and I had walked all day alongside the coast and ended up at this restaurant by the ocean.  It is one of the most popular in the area and had about a 45 minute waiting list, worth the wait!  We ordered what everyone else seemed to be ordering, which are the dishes below.


This is Gofio -  produced locally and is added to many foods and also to warm milk as a drink. It is made by grinding toasted cereals such as wheat flour, barley, corn or chickpeas. This is combined with water and made into balls, called pella. It takes the place of bread in a meal. It can be used in soups.

 


Typical food of the Canary Islands tends to be simple dishes of grilled meat and fish with papas arrugadas (salted potatoes).  It's typical to put "MOJO" on the potatoes.  Mojo - This is a piquant sauce which may be orange, red, or green depending on its ingredients that is eaten with fish or meat or potatoes and is the most typical food of the Canaries. This dressing has olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and spices. For red mojo, the spice is paprika. For green mojo, the spice is coriander, and it may contain cilantro and parsley.

Remember when I said I don't typically swim or even get in water?  Well I still can't believe what I'm about to say...I went scuba diving with sea turtles.  Yeah, diving! No formal training or preparation was included in the price either. Just a quick run down in Spanish, a little translation help from an Italian, and there you have it...scuba diving.  The owner of the hostel is the guy on the right (Matia from Italy) and he asked us if we wanted to go on this diving with turtles excursion.  For 50 euros (transportation, professional diver, equipment, air tank) we signed up!  I've been snorkeling in Costa Rica before, but never diving.  The professional explained how to breathe with the oxygen tank and went over a few hand signals but that was about it.  We went to the south of Tenerife for the diving because there are always sea turtles in that area.  I'm not sure where I sparked up the courage to do this considering I thought I almost died once white water rafting and swore never to put myself in scary positions again.  Whatever, I did it! 

The instructor and I giving the "everything is okay" sign

 


Tara getting in the water ready to dive

It was a good thing that it was just Tara and I because we sure needed a LOT of time to adjust to the breathing.  We were both terrified at first and almost chickened out and went home.  It was very hard to get over the concept of only relying on the oxygen tank while being submersed below the water.  Tara tried to go diving first but had a little anxiety about the situation and ended up stepping out while I went under. Once I finally got the hang of it (and the instructor calmed me down), I went under and stayed under for about 30-40 minutes.  It was amazing! I saw lots of fish and before I knew it....a giant sea turtle.  The instructor had a hold of me the entire time and swam me over by the turtle.  It literally got an inch or two from my face and he told me to touch it but I freaked out and said no.  It was so awesome to be so close to it though! Matia (Italian) was taking underwater photos the whole time.  I am currently trying to get those pictures back from him! I really hope that the one with me by the turtle turns out well because it was a great experience.


The volcano Teide (with snow on the tip) from the plane



View of the island from my plane

Overall I stayed in Tenerife for 4 nights and left Tara early to get ready for Kyle's arrival.  We had a great time and saw a lot of the island.  Teide (the volcano) wasn't open for the public to hike it because it still had snow on it while we were there.  You could see if from certain angles though which was beautiful.  The landscapes, mountains, the ocean, the food, hostel..everything was amazing.  We even tried to have a night out with 4 Italians one of the nights but it ended up being a bust and the night life was a little strange.  I left Tenerife on a Tuesday morning, landed in Seville, caught a bus to Badajoz, stayed there for the night and headed of to Lisbon the next day. Kyle was due to land on Thursday, March 28!