Tag: Volcano

Tenerife is the biggest island in the Canaries, a group of Spanish islands off the coast of Morocco in the Atlantic ocean. It is a volcanic island with an area of almost 800 square miles and a population of about about 900,00. In the centre of the island is a huge volcano called Mount Teide, which is 3,718 metres tall and is the highest mountain in Spain.

We went there because the Canaries are just about the only place you can fly to by EasyJet in January where it is warm, about 20 degrees centigrade on the coast.

Puerta de La Cruz

We chose to stay in Puerta de La Cruz in the north of the island because it is in the most verdant part of the island and there are plenty of places to visit close by. The south of the island is a desert, both physically and culturally. The south is sunshine and beaches and a Full English for breakfast. The north is sunshine, beaches, old towns and mountainous forests.

It takes about an hour to get there on the motorway from the airport in the south of the island. There is an airport in the north, but British airlines don’t fly there directly.

Puerta de la Cruz (I’ll refer to it as Puerta) is a very touristy town with a huge number of  hotels and blocks of flats, but it does have a historic town centre and harbour. It’s easy to get La Laguna, Santa Cruz, La Oratava and Garachico by car or bus, so its central for all the northern towns. Loro Parque is in Puerto as well, which is the biggest single tourist attraction on the island.

We booked an Airbnb in the La Paz district which looked good on the map, near the city centre and close to the sea. In reality it was a thirty minute walk from the town centre, up a big hill, but it did have sea views. But there were plenty of restaurants and a supermarket close by, if we didn’t fancy the hike into town.

Puerto is very popular with German tourists, so if you enjoy Curry Wurst and lager, it’s an ideal destination. There are endless pizza restaurants, and plenty selling local Canarian and Spanish food. The local Dorada beer is really good and washes down fresh sardines very nicely.

Our flat had a sunny patio at the front and a shared pool which I didn’t use (but I should have). Unfortunately it was above a noisy cafe, where people were enjoying themselves very noisily, the bastards!

On the seafront there is Lago Martianez, which is an attractive group of seawater pools that I’m sure is lovely to lounge around if the weather is hot enough, but it was very gloomy and windy when we visited it.

There is a small harbour (which was once the most important port on the island), and the main square, Plaza del Charco is close by which has many restaurants and bars.

Botanic Gardens

The Jardin Botanico is a beautiful oasis amongst all the blocks of holiday flats. It was founded in 1788 on the orders of King Carlos III to provide a place to cultivate species from the tropics. It’s small compared to Kew, but you can easily spend a couple of hours wandering around the neat paths which are roughly in a grid pattern. 

I did wonder if visitors under sixty were barred at the gate by security men from Saga, but was pleased to see two young fellas looking at a palm tree with genuine interest.

The most spectacular tree is a mighty fig from Lord Howe island in Australia. It has adventitious roots (remember that word for a pub quiz) growing down from the boughs, which take take root in the ground and become extra trunks to support the weight of the tree. 

There are some magnificent Norfolk Island Pines, which I have never seen taller than twenty feet in other parks. The pines I saw in the Jardin had trunks four feet in diameter and I couldn’t see the top, real monsters! I get strangely excited about big trees, it is kind of wierd.

As well as amazing trees there are many palms, yuccas, streletzias and figs. But there was no cafe! What kind of public garden has no cafe? All the English visitors were is a state of shock and semi-starvation looking for tea and cake. Perhaps Brexit isn’t a mistake after all.

La Oratava

We attempted to walk up the hill to La Oratava from the Jardin, but soon discovered that there were no footpaths and it felt a bit dangerous sharing the road with busy traffic. So we took the 345 bus to La Oratava bus station, which took seven minutes, a much better way to travel. 

La Oratava is one of the oldest settlements in Tenerife, the area was inhabited by the Guanches people before the Spanish arrived, who lived in simple stone homes and caves. It is a very pretty town, with many historic houses and civic buildings built on the slopes climbing towards Mount Teide. There are great views of the sea and Puerta de la Cruz below, which used to be the port of La Oratava.

The tourist information provided a very useful map that we used to find our way round the historic parts, which go back to the sixteenth century. The old houses have big wooden doors and carved wooden balcony’s in the typical Canarian style. There is a small Botanic garden behind the Ayuntamiento (the town hall), but the nearby Jardin Victoria is outstanding, a terraced garden that climbs up the slope with a Masonic Mausoleum at the top. 

Near the Plaza de San Francisco some public laundry troughs have been restored. It’s close to an aqueduct which brought water down from the mountains. Next to it is the Molina de Chano, a mill which was powered by water but is now electrically driven. The mill produces Gofio, a flour made from toasted grains which was eaten by the Guanches and is still popular today.

The streets of La Oratava are steep and cobbled, and the locals treat it as a rally course. It probably explains why we saw no English tourists on mobility scooters.

I would highly recommend La Oratava, there is a lot to see, and many great bars and cafes and surprisingly few tourists.

Scenic Drive Through Tenerife

A blogger said that one of the best drives on the island was from El Portillo to La Laguna, so we gave it a try. Julie drove the rented Polo and I navigated i.e. I did what Google told me to do.

Our route was the TF21, which goes through La Oratava and then goes wiggly wiggly up the lower slopes of Mount Teide. It was incredibly windy, and Google took us up a stupidly steep hill (Camino La Canadas to be exact) to cut off a bend on the T21 to save a few miles. It was one of those “Oh Shit!” moments when we hoped nothing was coming down the hill. We crawled up it in first gear to rejoin the main road at the top. Google was sent to her room for being naughty, and after that, and we just used the map, old style.

We stopped at a cafe near Aguamansa for a coffee and met two cyclists from Hereford who were cycling from the sea up to the cable car, which at about 7,000 feet up. Nutters.

Once we were above the tree line (and the clouds) the landscape looked like a desert with scrubby vegetation. Further up it looked like the surface of Mars and I expected to see Matt Damon struggling in his space suit trying to get home. Raquel Welch encountered stop-motion dinosaurs here is the classic sixties SF movie “One Million Year BC”.

The area surrounding Mount Teide (it rhymes with Lady) is the caldera of a previous massive volcanic eruption, it is very other-worldly.

At  La Portillo there is an excellent visitors centre with a “Botanic Garden” which is a series of paths between small hills of basalt and ash planted with all the local plants. It was beautifully sunny , there was no wind and not a sound to be heard, perfect silence. In the visitors centre there is a small museum about volcanoes and a film about the volcanic origins of Tenerife.

Further along the TF21 is Los Roques, which are big pinnacles standing up above the pumice plain surrounding Teide. There is also a Parador with a cafe and toilets, the only ones for miles around!

The landscape is quite remarkable, with Teide towering up another fifteen hundred metres, with the cable car hanging onto the side of it. The rim of the caldera creates a circles of jagged hills surrounding Mount Teide. The clouds blowing from the east poured over the top of them into the caldera, it was so beautiful.

The landscape is amazing, awesome and all that stuff, I was blown away by it’s magnificence. Cyclists take a perverse please in cycling up the mountain from the sea. It takes about four hours going up, and I’m sure the going down is much quicker!

We drove back to El Portillo and took the TF24 towards La Laguna along the high spine of Tenerife. I passed the astronomical observatory with eleven different telescopes at about two thousand three hundred metres, with mostly clear skys.

Did you know that Brain May from Queen wants his ashes to be scattered there? True fact, you can Google it.

The views from the TF24 are supposed to be excellent both sides of the island, but all we saw was clouds below us. But it is a lovely winding road through pine and eucalyptus forests gradually down to La Laguna and the TF5 motorway back to Puerto de La Cruz.

On the FT 5 on the way pack to Puerto, a para-glider flew over the motorway.Fortunately he didn’t hit the lamp post or the pine tree!

Loro Parque

According to TripAdvisor, Lord Parque is the No. 1 zoo in the world, which is quite a recommendation. It is also advertised on most of the buses and litter bins in Puerto, so it is a very big deal.

It was pricey to get in at 39 Euros, but we stayed there for over six hours and had a wonderful time!

Loro Parque means parrot park in Spanish, and there is a huge collection of them in cages and an huge aviary with an aerial walkway in which you can get close to the birds at feeding time. There is also a great collection of other creatures in a relatively compact area. It is beautifully landscaped and well maintained, with plenty of cafes with reasonably priced food and drink (which was a pleasant surprise).

We made the most of the day and saw the Orca Show, the Parrot Show, the Dolphin Show and the Sealion Show, which were all good fun. The most lively performers were the leaping dolphins, but the Orcas made the biggest splash, soaking the people in the front rows. The big mammals and reptiles mostly just sat there and slept or watched us watching them. The Giant Anteater was very lively, and took the prize as the most bizarre looking creature.

Most zoos have a concrete pond painted white for the penguins. Loro Parque had a huge indoor environment for its collection with constant “Snow” falling from the ceiling and a slow travelator that took you around the enclosure, it was very clever. It was also very whiffy, you could smell the penguins fishy pong before getting into the enclosure.

The most impressive area for me was the huge aviary with a treetop walkway. We arrived at feeding time and saw parrots, cockatoos and egrets close up eating their rations of vegetables and seeds. They are very colourful and vocal, it was great getting so close up to them.

There is also an amazing aquarium with a tunnel beneath a tank of sharks, rays and groupers, it was like diving without all the annoying scuba business!

Loro Parque did live up to its reputation, and it was the best zoo I have been to. I understand all the ethical reasons for not having zoos, but I did enjoy it and felt slightly bad at the same time. But I have now seen Sea Lions, Penguins, Dolphins, Tortoises, Parrots, Orcas and Iguanas, so I don’t have to fly to the Galapagos. Think of all the air miles I am saving, I’m sure Greta Thunberg is proud of me.

On our way back home we had some fish for dinner, followed by churros and hot chocolate at Churreria Perdomo. Churros are doughnut mixture extruded into hot oil to make long crisp cakey things. Fattening and delicious, ‘Food of the Gods!’

Anaga Park

In the north west corner of Tenerife is the Anaga Park, a wild region of forested mountains almost a thousand metres high. The TF 12 road from La Laguna to the Visitor Centre at Cruz de Carmen is very windy and narrow. Passing the big tour coaches on the narrow road is quite nerve-wracking, but it’s worth the drive.

There are many different walks you can take from Cruz de Carmen, and we chose a five kilometre hike through the forest. The type of forest is called Laurisilva, an ecosystem that covered large parts of Europe before the Ice Ages, but now only found in fragments in Madeira and the Canaries. It’s a type of cloud forest of evergreen trees like laurels and heathers which grow to tree-size. It’s unusual and very cool, in both senses of the word!

There are several Miradors in the area, view-points with parking. Close to the visitor centre you can look out over La Laguna, and at Zapata you can see the sea on both sides of Tenerife. You can watch planes landing at the Northern Airport. This airport used to be called Los Rodeos, and was where five hundred and eighty three people were killed when two Boeing 747 aircraft collided in fog in 1977, which remains the worst crash in history.

In the afternoon we drove down the mountain to Punta del Hidalgo on the north coast. It is best know for its modern lighthouse which is fifty metres tall and finished in 1992. The town itself is mostly holiday flats overlooking a rocky coast. There is a hiking trail from the coast all the way up to Cruz de Carmen.

There are a few restaurants on the sea front, and we parked ourselves in the sunshine for some beer (me) and Coke (Julie who was driving) and fresh sardines with wrinkly potatoes. Bliss.

Santa Cruz

There’s a line in “Withnail and I” from Richard E. Grant who pathetically exclaims, ‘We’ve gone on holiday by mistake”. I wanted to say that when we went to Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife instead of La Laguna.

It was a bit of an omnishambles day. The bus to La Laguna was late and full, so we stood all the way. The bus stopped at La Laguna tram station, but we didn’t realise where we were, so had an unplanned visit to Santa Cruz instead.

The capital has all the charm of Croydon on a wet Sunday. On the sea front is an enormous  concert hall that looks like a Greek helmet, not a practical design I would imagine. I suspect the architect thought Brad Pitt looked rather cute in his helmet in “ Troy” and then fitted an auditorium into his concept.

Next to the helmet concert hall is another set of lakes designed by Cesar Manrique, like the ones at Puerto. They would be lovely on a summers day, but it wasn’t sunny or warm when we were there. It was the only day I wore shorts, and it was bloody cloudy.

I was sulking a bit on that day, can you tell?

We wandered aimlessly until we found a pretty street (possibly the only one) with some restaurants in it. Bonvieda had lots of people and an interesting menu so we plonked ourselves down there and hoped for the best.

An item on the menu stood out, Iberian Secret. Google gave a description as “armpit of a pig” which appealed to me. The delightful waiter recommended it, so I went for it. It was short strips of grilled pork on a bed of sauteed potatoes and apple, and it was unusual and quite tasty. 

In a slight food coma after dinner, we went round the Museum of Nature and Man, which was all in Spanish and a bit underwhelming. It covers the natural history of the island and its archeology. The inhabitants of Tenerife  before the Spanish arrived were the Guanches, who are thought to be related to Berbers. Inevitably the invaders killed them all, and the museum displays their pottery and mummified remains, which are quite gruesome.  Not recommended after an Iberian Secret.

La Laguna

Having exhausted the limited delights of Santa Cruz we took the bus up the hill to La Laguna, the oldest town in Tenerife. It is set out on a grid of streets which they probably copied from Milton Keynes some time in the 16th century. There are lots of old buildings and bars, but on an overcast Sunday afternoon it wasn’t exactly hopping with Latin joy and exuberance.

There are many colourful old buildings to enjoy, but I think our day had already peaked with Pigs Armpit.

Garachico

A thirty minute drive to the west of Puerto de la Cruz is Garachico. We got there early (10.20 am), before it started to fill up with coach tours and still retained its charm.

It is a very pretty small town on the coast which was once the most important port in Tenerife, shipping out sweet  Malmsey wine to Europe and America. But on May 5th 1706 the Trevejo volcano erupted and poured lava into the harbour completely filling it and destroying its trade.  Mostly the shipping moved to Puerto de la Cruz, and Garachico lost it’s leading role. The old gate to the port has been excavated and stands in a small but very pretty park. The old castle protecting the harbour was missed by the lava flow and still stands protecting the sunbathing area from pirate attacks.

There is a lovely central square with a church and some grand buildings and cafes.  The are some pretty narrow streets, and a seafront with seawater bathing and places to sun bathe. The town was bashed around a bit by storms a couple of years ago, but has recovered now.

A few hundred metres up a hill to the west of the centre, is a look-out point with an unusual statue of a man carrying a suitcase and a hole in his chest. It is said to represent one of the many emigrant who left Garachico for Venezuala and left their hearts behind.

A Good Place for a Winter Holiday

We had a very good time in Tenerife for a week. Being ancient, we didn’t really sample the night life, but I’m sure there was plenty to do in Puerto at night. I took my Chromecast with me so settled on the sofa in the evening with Netflix, beer and snacks.

There are loads of things to do for a week in January. The weather isn’t really hot, but there were plenty of sunbathers on the beaches and even a few people swimming.

Best of all you can fly from Gatwick in the morning when it’s literally freezing, and be in warm sunshine just after lunch in Tenerife.