A busier latter half.
ADVENTURES #6: TENERIFE (PART 2)
Welcome back, if you missed the previous entry, you can click the link below to catch up.
DAY 5:
The next day we were up with a bit more purpose, deciding to take the bus to the next town over, El Médano, which was only a couple of euros for an 8km journey, which didn’t seem too bad at all. The journey was smooth and swift, and we arrived in the town around 10am. When we disembarked, Lottie remarked that the beach seemed too small, and that we should probably follow the lifeguard who had gotten off at our stop. Rather sound logic, and the lifeguard did indeed lead us to the beach. Lovely scenery on the way, and as we rounded the headland, we found that the windsurfing world cup was about to begin there. Quite exciting stuff! Everything was rather quiet again though, so we made for the beach and began to settle down, enjoying our first swim in the sea since our arrival. The beach was lovely and sandy, and the water was crystal clear. Around lunch time however, my stomach began to call out, and as I looked about, the distinct lack of… anything made me suspicious of our apparent location. Turns out that we had followed the lifeguard to a totally different beach - this was no bad thing, as the beach we had settled on was lovely, but it was lacking in a bit of life and atmosphere, so we decided to walk back towards town for some lunch - crisps only sustaining us for so long.
On the way back we took in the sights of the windsurfing world cup, and as we came back into town, we found these little balconies overlooking the sea defences. I suggested that it might make for a cool photograph if Lottie posed there. The tide had come in, and the waves were launching sea spray into the air behind. Unfortunately for Lottie, just as she took position, a number of things occurred. A family of four approached, increasing the number of witnesses to at least five, I pressed my shutter button several times, and an enormous wave crashed into the defences below her, launching gallons of water into the air, utterly soaking her. This amused me, as you can imagine, but the passing family found it funnier. Lottie was a little shocked at first, as you would be, but also found the humour in it (she’s a good sport), although it did mean that much of the day was spent attempting to source her a new set of clothes. Her dress took several days to dry, which goes against my earlier findings that things dry quickly. Anyway, her day wasn’t ruined, and her bikini (as well as a towel) kept her modesty as we continued our meandering, and we enjoyed the rest of our time in the town, sampling the delicious food, exploring the quaint little shops, and soaking up the atmosphere.
We got the bus back around 7pm, and after a quick dip in the pool, showering off, and settling down, we made another pasta dish from an earlier supply run and listen to music as we relived the soaking Lottie had experienced earlier - wondering how many times that family would tell the tale of the poor English woman who got drenched in El Médano.
DAY 6:
We wanted to get another adventure in so we were up early to catch the bus, and after showering and squeezing in a quick coffee and pastry, we were back at our local bus stop. It arrived pretty much on schedule, and we were on our way, passing the familiar sights of previous days and joining the motorway towards Los Cristianos, the next town over heading westward from where we were. The bus took a little under an hour due to some road works, but we got there early enough to make the most of the day still. When we stepped off, we made our way across the busy roads towards the beach, stopping off in a little café for yet more pastries and coffees (hot for me, iced for Lottie (she has more sense)). After that we begun our exploration, taking a left as we came to the beach, walking the furthest extent of the cove, stopping in various shops and for ice cream along the way. After reaching the end, we headed back thinking we might visit the market, which runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but after calculating the time to walk there, we realised that we wouldn’t have much of a look around before it closed, so we circled back to the coastal walk and continued our adventures there, looking in lots more shops along the way. Lottie managed to find a lovely store and several beautiful outfits there, and we were both rather surprised at how nice some of the boutiques were, and how reasonably priced. I didn’t find anything much worth picking up myself, save for a couple of cheap caps, but it’s always nice to watch someone else spend some proper money.
After a bit more snooping, we decided to stop off for a bit of lunch. One of the restaurants overlooking the beach caught our eye and we found ourselves a decent table. The menu looked good to us, and although there wasn’t much in the way of vegetarian options, Lottie was able to get a pasta dish sans-bacon, as apparently everything there needed to have bacon in it. I was tempted by a paella, but the description of the chips included with the grilled chicken burger swayed me, and I ended up ordering that - it too included cheese, bacon, eggs, dressing, and a host of other sauces. I don’t know exactly what happened in our ordering, but about five minutes later, the maître d’ came up to us to confirm our order, but unlike the waiters he spoke absolutely no English - not normally an issue, we don’t speak Spanish, so the onus is certainly on us, but it appeared to cause some sort of confusion. When the food finally arrived, Lottie got hers correct, but my burger… I have never been given such a meal so devoid of flavour or effort. It consisted of a bun bottom, two identical discs of breaded chicken (definitely not grilled), and a bun top. There was no sauce, no cheese, no bacon, eggs, or lettuce. I should have said something, but I felt the confusion was our fault, so I tried to eat what I could, but it was just TOO boring - I ordered another beer instead, and we moved on.
After eating, we decided to finally set foot on the beach. There are several strung along the coast in different bays, and each offer a similar setting. We stepped onto the sand and made our way through the already settled beach goers to find a little spot to set up camp. It wasn’t long before we were in need of a dip, and in the water we went. Rather warm, and incredibly clear! Around us families were playing, pedalos and kayaks were bobbing about, and in the distance, boat trips were setting off from the dock. All this created a very lively atmosphere, and after swimming a few lengths of the beach, we fetched the ball, and attempted to see how big of a rally we could get by slapping the ball at each other (pretending our hands were rackets) rather than throwing it - or better yet buying a beach tennis set. I think we managed about eight or nine - we were absolutely rubbish, but we had fun. After that we headed back to our towels to dry off, to tan up a bit, and to people watch. This took the last few hours of the trip, and before heading back to the bus stop, we decided to have one last mill about, stopping in another supermarket for a quick snack. I am a pear man myself, and upon seeing a lovely pack of three, I picked them up without question, my eyes lighting up at the thought of eating them all in one go - unfortunately, like my chicken burger, they were inedible, so ended up in the bin. Lottie had a nice yoghurt pot though, so wasn’t an entirely wasted visit to the shop. After that, we continued our wandering, making one last stop at another café to indulge in some cake and coffee (I was determined to eat something nice). The staff there were very friendly, and the cake was delicious! Once we were satisfied, we walked straight back to the bus stop, and were entertained by the discovery of another bickering British couple. Their argument continued through most of the return journey and made for excellent listening. Once we got back, we had a little relax by the pool and indulged in yet more snacks (we had lots to get through), enjoying a drink on the balcony, and finally heading to bed.
DAY 7:
Up nice and early for once, and having booked a boat trip for around 11:30am, we had the morning to relax by the pool, after doing another load of washing (we just can’t get enough of the quick drying). We brought ourselves a bit of breakfast from a different local shop - this time a Dialprix. After eating what we purchased, we went for said swim and enjoyed the gentle heat of the morning. As the time approached to get our coach, we wandered down to the pickup point, which was just outside another of the local hotels, a mere five minute walk away. No delays this time, and we were onboard within a few minutes - unfortunately it was another rather long drive, but it was nice to see some sights during daylight this time. We eventually arrived at the port town of Puerto Colón. There we queued up and waited for our turn to board one of the Freebird catamarans that were pulling in to dock. Of the two queues we were part of, there was a red lane and a green lane, corresponding to the boats of those colours. We had green and mistakenly queued in the red (I maintain we were told to go there), which resulted in us being (slightly) told off. A bit later we witnessed someone else make this silly mistake and they got a much worse telling off - clearly the queueing manager had had enough of us idiots.
Half an hour later and the seventy or so people were boarded and we found our seats, posing for the ships photographer (more on that later) and taking the momentary downtime before setting sail to reapply sun cream and make use of the very small toilets (think aeroplane but smaller and down a very narrow and steep staircase). A perk of the toilet was the slightly concerning underwater window and pump flush - always nice to have a unique pissing experience. After getting underway, we were informed that all drinks were free, including beer, and thus begun my quest to reclaim as much of our fee as possible. Lottie was on the Fanta, but she did her bit too. After about half an hour sailing, and a few drinks, and a bit of information from the captain, the distribution of food was announced. Lottie listened to this attentively and was rather excited (as was I) to try their banana bread, and mixed vegetable rice. The meal wasn’t quite as expected however, and looked very much like some kind of prison offering. The banana bread actually turned out to be a banana and some bread (a hard roll with no butter), and while the meatballs and rice was actually quite nice, it was a tad dry, and there was no meat alternative for Lottie. A very carby affair. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly inspiring. More beer compensated me, at least. Once the food was cleared away, we could once again focus on the main selling point - just being on a boat. The views were lovely, as was the clear and calm waters. About an hour after the food, we approached the cliffs of Los Gigantes, the scale of which were very impressive, and after some sight seeing there, we dropped anchor and were given the opportunity for a swim. The waters there were about ten meters deep, and absolutely teeming with life. Nothing dangerous was spotted, but having recently read a bunch of Lovecraft stories, water dwelling horrors did enter my imagination. There is something uniquely pleasurable about leaping from a boat and landing in the water, although it was at this point that the trip felt a little busy. While on deck, the numbers felt fine, but with only one ladder to climb out, and a constant stream of people shambling down it, it seemed to us that some sort of queueing system should have been implemented (yes, we love a queueing system). Anyway, after a good bob about, we finally managed to climb aboard again, and after promptly ordering more beer, we got underway to search for whales and dolphins.
While we were unfortunate to see no dolphins, we did see plenty of pilot whales. I’m not sure if the boats cause stress to the wales, but we only remained there for a short while. As with these kinds of things, even though we saw plenty of fins, it wasn’t that visually interesting, and I would posit that watching a documentary about them is probably more fulfilling - although it was nice to be that close. Once we were done with the wales, we set sail for Puerto Colón, and resumed our enjoyment of being at sea. About ten minutes later, as we were facing the stern, we noticed a small speedboat on the horizon, and rapidly approaching. PIRATES?! In a manner of speaking. The speedboat came up to the back and a familiar looking lad jumped aboard, bearing a massive wad of papers. These papers turned out to be the printed photographs from the beginning of the trip. A reasonable fee for one, but about €30 or so for a whole bunch (the same photo, just printed differently). Such a waste of resources, as only two or three people brought theirs. We looked at ours and both thought we looked awful. My moobs alone could have sunk the ship. We politely declined and I went to fetch more moob juice… I mean beer. About fifteen or twenty minutes plain sailing occurred then on the tranquil seas, but this peace was soon interrupted as towards the end of the trip, the captain pulled the boat up to one of the others catamarans that was sailing in our group and began a sort of dance off, encouraging all aboard to indulge in the Macarena, YMCA, and Gangnam Style in order to out-dance those chumps on the red boat. As luck would have it, I still had a beer in hand and couldn’t partake - Lottie did it for the both of us. There were a group of German guys on board who were very much enjoying this, but they had had about seventy beers between them (one of the sailors seemed genuinely astonished to see how many plastic cups they had gotten though). After pulling in and disembarking, we crossed the carpark to find our coach waiting for us. The coach ferried us and everyone back to our pickup points. Once we were home, and after freshening up, we decided to go for dinner to make the most of our last night.
Just outside of San Blas a new restaurant (Parma) opened a few months ago, and it seemed to us (having pressed our faces up to the window a few days prior) that it was the sort of place we’d like. Once we were all spruced up, we walked to the restaurant in the hopes of getting a table. As luck would have it, there was one space for two left, and as we were ushered in, we were met with a beautiful Scandi inspired interior, and a panoramic view of the coastline below. A beautifully decorated restaurant is certainly a good place to be, but more important of course, is the food, which was absolutely delicious. I had a bolognese, tiramisu, a big glass of wine, and an americano, and Lottie had an olive pizza and a crème caramel, all of which was far more delicious and far cheaper than the terrible lunch we had in Los Cristianos - it was nice to end our holiday on a meal-high, that’s for sure. We had had some iffy meals on the holiday, mostly enjoying what we had cooked at home, but this place topped it all. The staff were friendly and attentive, and the atmosphere was perfect - a definite recommendation if you ever find yourself in the area. After that, we wandered home and flaked out on the sofa, watching a bit more of the Olympics on the telly before heading to bed.
DAY 8:
Being in someone’s home, rather than a bed and breakfast (air or otherwise) or hotel meant that we were particularly conscious of the state we were leaving it in, so after getting up early and packing most of our stuff, we got to work cleaning the place, hopefully leaving it just the way we found it. Once that was done, we decided to make the most of the pool again, having a quick swim. We had to catch the bus at 4pm, so we had to keep an eye on the clock. Once we had finished our swim, we decided to go for a little walk, to get some gifts and to find some lunch - returning to the café we found on day two - El Nautico. There we ordered a delicious burger, and enjoyed a drink in the shade before making our way back (via the HyperDino). There we picked up some gifts and some snacks for the plane, and after getting back to the apartment we found that we had just enough time for one last swim (yay!). Once we were done, we packed our last items away, locked up the apartment and wheeled our possessions down to the bus stop. Getting the bus to the airport was vastly cheaper than the taxi we got from it upon our arrival, and was just as comfortable. We arrived with a couple of hours to spare before take off, and rather casually checked in. Passing through security I got my possessions, my hands, and my waist swabbed for residue (I’m guessing for explosives or class A drugs?), but I’m not into drug running or terrorism so I was allowed to go about my business, which after security involved spending a long time putting things back into my pockets. Once that was done, it was duty free time again, and of course, we purchased nothing, because we don’t need very expensive aftershave or industrial crates of cigarettes. Food was more of a concern, and as we explored, our empty wallets began to weep upon seeing how much a meal deal would cost us. We succumbed regardless and got ourselves a baguette each, chowing down on it as we waited to board.
The time went pretty quick, and after a little delay on the runway, we finally climbed aboard, saying goodbye to the warmth of Tenerife once and for all. As with our journey there, we were sat together by the exit, and enjoyed some leg room, but the plane was far more cramped and loud than the one we arrived in (seemed like an older model perhaps). I was planning on scoffing the pastries we had purchased at the HyperDino while sipping a coffee, but I fell asleep after a short while and woke up to find myself in London again. And guess what? It was raining… so glad to be home... The airport was eerily quiet as we moved through the back rooms, and as we emerged, we made our way to the bus stop to catch our transfer. After a short wait and an even shorter journey we were back in the long stay carpark and heaving our gargantuan case into the back of my car, and as we drove home in the dark and rain, we reminisced about our week away. We arrived back home after about an hour drive, and after re-Chucklebrothering the case upstairs to our flat, we entered to find a little note from Lottie’s dad welcoming us home, along with some milk in the fridge and a couple of Belgian buns (Spanish buns seemingly weren’t available…).
The next morning I made a pot of coffee (using some I had purchased in Tenerife, which I mentioned at the start, if you can recall that far back), and got to work tapping out the memories.
Despite some slight disappointments with the quality of the Teide trip we booked, and a couple of the meals we had, we both enjoyed a wonderful time staying in the Golf Del Sur, and the not too great bits just gave us something to amuse ourselves with, as sometimes something not being perfect is at least funny. Spending time at the beach or by the pool are by far our favourite pastimes, and exploring our local surroundings provided no end of enjoyment during this trip. In retrospect, the excursion to Mt Teide was enjoyable, but just not quite as advertised, and the boat trip was excellent fun, with only the food standing out against the overall quality of the adventure. If you ever find yourself on the volcanic island yourself, I can heartily recommend the southern region for its beautiful views and interesting locales. Do plenty of research into any trips you book, but definitely book some as they provide worthwhile experiences.
Have you visited Tenerife, or any of the other Canary Islands? If so, what did you think? And do you have any recommendations for other things to see and do in the region?
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