Yes, I have jetted off again on another adventure! I got home from Morocco and had 3 weeks left of the school holidays. I didn’t want to sit around London for 3 whole weeks so I set about finding a new destination.
Eventually I settled on the Canary Islands and Portugal! Half of Britain flies down there for the summer break, and winter break too, so I joined them!
On Wednesday I headed back down to Gatwick Airport to board my flight. This time I decided to fly with carry-on luggage only. A first for me! I had bought a new ultra-light suitcase and packed the bare minimum. I had a window seat and speedy boarding so it was nice to get on the plane as one of the first.
When I arrived in Tenerife, it was 35oC and ultra windy (57kph winds). The Immigration queue was short and the whole process took just a few minutes. Fastest border control ever!
I found my shared shuttle and unfortunately, the downside with a shared shuttle is that you have to wait for everyone else to board before it leaves. I sat for nearly an hour before we finally departed. Fortunately though, I was the 3rd person to be dropped off which was good.
I selected an aparthotel (apartment hotel) in Playa des Las Americas. This area is typically night life central, with lots of tourist accommodation, bars, restaurants and parties (aka drunk tourists all night long). I ended up choosing a Superior apartment because it had air conditioning and this aparthotel had a pool.
After
checking in, I went in search of food. I found a supermarket and ended up
getting a Kopparberg strawberry cider (only €1.70 for the
500ml can!), mango pineapple Nestea and a bottle of cava (Spanish sparkling
wine). When I was in mainland Spain a few years ago I went to the Freixenet
Cava House and did a tour. I also got to try the cava and fell in love with the
Ice Rosé. I haven’t been able to find it ever since. Well, I found it in this
supermarket! So I bought it! On Saturday I plan to have a little wine &
cheese party on my balcony for dinner.I also saw some 85% Absinthe. That stuff will blow your head off!
Then I went to a Thai restaurant and got some takeaway. I took it back to my apartment and had a lovely dinner on the balcony with my cider and Thai.
Then it was pretty much bedtime as I so tired.
Thursday I had a day trip to La Palma, a nearby island. I was meeting at the ferry point, which was only a 17min walk away so that was good. Breakfast isn’t served at my hotel until 8am so no brekkie for me. I was also surprised to see that at 7am it was still dark outside. Like what the?! I’m not used to this as I have been having long days and summer weather for nearly a year now!
The walk to the ferry port was lovely. Empty streets, sunrise, nice temperature. Finally everyone turned up and we met the guide. Unfortunately the ferry, port tax and lunch were not included so I had to pay that in cash. I find it extremely weird that they sell a tour that requires the ferry but they don’t include that in the price. Bit silly to me.
The ferry is a large car ferry with a passenger deck. It is a long trip, 2.5hrs each way, and that is the fast ferry. The passenger deck has 2 lounge areas, each with a café, a kids seating area, a playground, a shop and a first class area. I ended up purchasing a jamon serrano and cheese baguette and white coffee for breakfast. It was ok, just dry as there was no sauce. Because it was a fast ferry, it was rough. The ferry was rocking and rolling with the waves and there were a LOT of sick people. By the time we arrived in La Palma I was not feeling very well either, and I don’t normally get sea sick.
After we arrived, we gathered in the car park and met a second guide. Fortunately, they had a second guide who took all the Spanish people so us English speaking people had our own guide. As it turns out, I was the only actual native English speaker out of every single person. The other 6 people in the English group were Hungarian, Polish & Latvian. We first went for a walk through Santa Cruz de La Palma, the main town. It has a lovely main street, with really nice buildings. We also went to a local market and I got some fruit. Then we walked past some lovely flower balconies and the black sand beach.
Then we boarded the bus and headed north to Los Tilos Park to see a waterfall. It was a long drive along the coastline. We could see the silhouettes of La Gomera and Tenerife in the distance, and eventually we got to a point where the entire land was covered in banana plantations.
Then we came across a huge bridge. It is one of the highest bridges without a central support in the world apparently.
Then we turned off the main road onto a narrow mountain road to the waterfall. The front of the bus was full of Spanish old people. We were in a big full size bus and the road was 2 lanes (1 each way) with narrow bits, tight corners, 1 lane bridges and a drop off on one side. Now, I did not panic or freak out once, because this bus driver is a local, and has driven these roads loads of times and knows what he is doing. These old Spanish people were frequently gasping, commenting, panicking etc and at one point applauded when we crossed a single lane bridge. Strange.
When we arrived at the car park we began the walk to the waterfall. It is very busy and masks are mandatory. The path is narrow and follows the water, even going through a tunnel through the mountain at a couple of points.
The chasm where the waterfall is located is gorgeous. Lush, green and cool. We stayed for 15mins taking photos and then head back to the bus.
Next was lunch time. We drove to Los Sauces and dropped the Spanish group off at a restaurant and then continued to San Andrés for our lunch. The restaurant was located in a lovely square with a view of the ocean. We had 2 tables for the 8 of us (including the guide). Lunch was included and was a typical Canary menu. First we had bread and garlic butter. Yum! Then we were served Spanish tortilla (the potato one, not the Mexican bread one). It was delicious. Then they brought out a plate of potatoes. These are a Canarian specialty. The people at my table had tried them previously and didn’t like them. They looked funny to me. Wrinkly and sparkly. Hmm sparkly potatoes? Of course I tried them. They are small chat potatoes and they are SUPER salty (hence the sparkles). I didn’t really like them as they were far too salty for me. I googled them later and discovered they are called Wrinkly Potatoes and are boiled in super salty water, then drain most of the water out and keep cooking them until the water evaporates, which creates the wrinkly look and salt on the skin. You need a lot of beverages to go with them! Then they brought out some croquettes. These were tuna and VERY fishy tasting. I normally eat tuna but didn’t enjoy them unfortunately.
After lunch, we walked along the shoreline for a bit to Charco Azul. This is an area and also the name of a natural pool where locals come to swim.
Next was a visit to a rum distillery, Destilerías Aldea. We got a tour of the factory and then a tasting in the shop. The factory is very basic, and everything is made from sugarcane. They make liqueurs, white rum, brown rum and gin. I tried the banana liqueur made with local La Palma bananas and the tropical liqueur made with mango and pineapple.
Then it was back towards the ferry, but they surprised us with a stop at a big boat we saw earlier in the day. They had said it was Christopher Columbus’s boat, but as it turns out, it is a replica and not even made of wood, just painted to look like it.
Then it was back to the ferry. I got a nice little 2 seater spot and curled up and played games on my phone for a while. We finally arrived back at Los Cristianos port and I began the walk home. I saw a nice seaside restaurant that had a delicious sounding Canary salad so I went in. It was a Canary Caesar with rocket, goat cheese, red onion, crispy pork (aka pork schnitzel), toasted corn, crispy Canary chorizo and palm honey. The corn & chorizo were incorporated into the dressing and were basically crumbs, and palm honey is sweet but overall it was nice. It was lovely sitting watching the sunset and the ocean.
Then I walked back to my hotel through the streets of Las Americas. It is actually a really, really nice area. I do quite like it so far.
Friday morning I was able to have my first breakfast at the hotel. It is a self-serve buffet, which is interesting given we are in the middle of a pandemic. They do require everyone to sanitise their hands at the entry to every single building which may help but still. Then I walked down to a nearby hotel to meet my day tour. Turns out this is a big hub for tour pickups for the hotels in Las Americas. It was very busy. I had booked an island tour and it turns out my tour was 52 Italians and me. The tour was run as a convoy of minivans. Each van has a 2-way radio and one guide gives all the information over the radio to all the customers. Except me lol. I was placed in a minivan with 4 Italians and our driver was a Scottish guy. Fortunately he became my own personal guide and repeated all the information the Italian guide said for me.
First we headed north along the coast to Masca, which is a tiny village in the mountains. The road to the village is narrow, with sheer drops off the sides. Lucky we are in minivans and not a full sized bus! At the village, my guide took me down to the village square for information whilst the Italians stayed at the roadside and were given their info. Then we all had free time so I went to the café and had the local specialty Canarian coffee, a barraquito. It is a shot of coffee, frothed milk, condensed milk, Licor 43 (a vanilla liqueur) and cinnamon sprinkled on the froth. It was quite good.
Then we continued driving to the north and stopped at a banana plantation. They grow a smaller type of banana, like the Lady Fingers, and are usually sweeter. The EU has a ban on Canarian bananas because they are not big enough or straight enough. A couple of years ago, the locals discovered a way to circumvent this ban by labelling the bananas as plantano, which is the Spanish word for banana. Now, they export a large amount of plantano to the EU instead.
We continued driving and passed a weird structure. It was a huge green mound, with big wedges cut out of the side, exposing a black interior. Turned out this is a huge pile of lava and they used to mine the lava for use as things like mulch, because it is a soft crumbly lava. They don’t do that anymore, but it looks cool.
Next we stopped at a small village overlooking the town of Garachico. It is a lovely view. The town is a very unlucky one. It was the main port but was destroyed by lava, caught fire, a plague came through killing a lot and a tidal wave from an earthquake destroyed part of the town. They moved the port to another town to have more luck.
Next we headed to the village of Icod de los Vinos for a tasting of local wine, liqueurs, jams and sauces and to see the famous Drago tree. My guide whisked me away from the group straight away and up to the tasting room first which was great. I tasted some banana liqueur and banana wine (liqueur nice, wine not so much), banana jam, cactus fruit jam, green mojo sauce & Almogrote (red mojo sauce mixed with goat cheese). All was good and I bought some Almogrote to take home.
Then I headed up to the Drago tree. It is a Dracaena draco, hence the name dragon, and it actually a plant, not a tree. The actual age of the plant is not known but it is reported to be between 500 and 2000 years old. Because it is a plant, it does not have age rings like a tree so the age can’t be calculated that way. It is also full of bright red sap, which looks like blood. After a few photos, I went for a walk around the town square. These villages are quite lovely.
Then it was finally lunch time. We drove to La Orotava and went to a local restaurant. All the Italians were seated in a big open area and myself and 4 French people from another convoy were seated in a small room. My guide oragnised for me to have a Coke Zero instead of the local red wine, which they drink unaged and cold here. To start was a plate with semi-matured goat cheese and Canarian chorizo, with some olives. The goat cheese and chorizo was absolutely delicious. The chorizo was not spicy in the slightest. Second course was cress & potato soup. It was quite nice although a bit bland. Next was tuna croquettes with mayo. These were much better than the ones yesterday, far less fishy. Then it was time for the meat & potatoes. I was given a plate of the wrinkly potatoes, extra salty. Check out the picture, you can see the white sparkly salt! The meat plate was barbecued chicken (amazing), beef (nice but a bit dry), pork steak (again nice but a bit dry) and pork sausage (very good). Lastly was dessert. It was mousse of gofio with palm honey. Gofio is toasted maize corn, ground to powder, mixed into a mousse which was not sweet and not super great. Palm honey is actually made from dates. The dates here are bitter and not nice so they extract all the juice then they reduce the juice to produce a sweet sticky syrup. Palm honey is also not used a lot because the beekeepers cracked a wobbly with the word “honey” so palm syrup or date syrup are other names. Overall the lunch was great and definitely worth it.
They I went for a walk through the streets towards the minivan. This town has a lot of wooden balconies which are quite pretty. I took a few photos then jumped back in the car. Unfortunately almost all the Italians were missing so all 9 of our drivers went driving through the streets doing loops, trying to find them. 20mins past the departure time, we finally got on the road.
Lastly it was time to head south (and up) to the Teide National Park. And up we went! We went from 390m altitude right up to 2100m altitude. My poor drink bottle did not like the change in pressure and started leaking everywhere. I had to hold it with the lid unscrewed! We stopped a few times along the way and the views were awesome. The centrepiece of the island is the volcanic peak of Teide, at a height of 3718m. The landscape is very variable. You have black lava, smooth and rocky, red iron rich rocks, green copper rich rocks and fine volcanic sand. There is a cable car that goes from 2100-3500m in 8 minutes, which I had booked, but have since cancelled because the only way to get to the cable car is a taxi at around €70 each way. Unfortunately there are no other options are all the transport tours are fully booked. Anyway, back to Teide.
After driving past the peak, we stopped at Los Roques. This is a big rocky area with huge rocks. There is also a viewpoint over a large caldera and you can see ancient lava flows.
It is thought that the entire area was once a super volcano, which blew up and created a ginormous crater. You can see the outer rim of the caldera and the Teide peak is a volcano within a volcano. The caldera is 17.5km across, absolutely massive!! There are other theories as well, but I like this one.
Then it was time to head back to Las Americas. We separated from the convoy and each van then dropped their people off at their hotels.
After I got back to my hotel, I headed out to the big supermarket I saw earlier. In preparation for my Spanish wine & cheese night tomorrow, I wanted to buy the food. I chose a mixed cured meat tray and 2 types of cheese, all local Canarian products. I also got some Spanish quince paste, Canarian bananas and crackers. I have since tried the bananas and they taste like bananas to me. Nothing super special unfortunately.
Saturday I woke up and had a nice breakfast. Then after a slow lazy morning, I decided to walk to Puerto Colon and hang out there until the whale watching trip at 2.30pm. I found a footpath that follows the coastline so I headed north. The beach in this area is rocky and good for surfers. As I kept walking north, there were lots of restaurants and hotels, and patches of sandy beaches. These beaches had lots of people on them, and chairs/umbrellas you could rent for €6.
Eventually I made it to Puerto Colon, which turns out to be a big hub for water sports. Lots of jet ski hires, paragliding, whale watching etc all leave from here. Loads of restaurants and bars as well and a sandy beach. Some of the bars have cocktails for just €3.50! That’s cheaper than juice!
After a walk around I went back to a restaurant I saw that was overlooking the ocean, in the shade and had single serve paella. It was only a 5min walk away and it was great. I ordered a meat paella and pineapple coconut fruit smoothie. It was delicious, although very filling.
After lunch I headed back to the port to join my whale watching trip. Turns out there was only 7 of us on the trip, and the boat was a small RHIB. As we headed out of the harbour, the captain got a phone call to advise him there was a large whale about 15mins north. We decided to go see if we could see it. We eventually did get to see it and it was a Bryde’s Whale. We saw 1 or 2, around 15m in length. They are baleen whales and he was just chilling on the surface.
Next we headed south and offshore to find the pilot whales and dolphins. Another called alerted us to a pod of Atlantic Spinner dolphins. As we headed out, we found them. They are super playful and love to surf in the wake of boats and race alongside the boats. It was a decent sized pod with males, females and juveniles/babies. We spent a bit of time with these guys, who are super cute.
Eventually it was time to go look for the pilot whales. These guys are resident in the waters and after a long search we found them a bit further offshore. They were quite a fair way away and didn’t come super close but it was still good to see them. Again, there was males, females and juveniles. Then it was time to head back to the harbour.
I began the walk back to my hotel (40mins) and by the time I got back I was super hot! I changed and went straight to the pool. The water was warm but still refreshing. Then I went back to my room and made a little wine & cheese dinner. I had a bottle of Freixenet Ice Rose cava, mixed cured Spanish meats, fresh Canary goat cheese, semi-cured Canary goat cheese, Spanish quince paste and some crackers. Yummy!
Sunday I had nothing planned until later afternoon so I had a lazy day again. I chilled out on my balcony, went for a walk around the streets, noticed almost everything is closed on a Sunday here, chilled out some more and relaxed.
At 4pm I headed down to a nearby hotel to meet the tour. I had booked a stargazing trip so hopefully it will be good! Turns out it is a big bus tour so there are lots of people. I estimate 40. First, we headed north to the village of Vilaflor, which is the highest village in the Canaries. It is 2000m above sea level. We had a 30min stop but there was nothing to do as we stopped outside of town as a restaurant. Most people bought a drink or ice cream from the shop and sat in the shade.
Next up we continued into the Teide National Park and stopped at the Las Roques. As I had been there the other day, I headed up to an empty viewpoint and just saw for a while, whilst all the others went snapping pics and making noise.
Next up we went to a restaurant for dinner. Turns out it is across the road from the restaurant we went to on my tour the other day too! This restaurant is owned by the tour company operating the stargazing tour. All the tours stop here as it is the only restaurant open. We were seated in a large area, at tables of 6. We had unlimited red & white wine, soft drink & beer, and a glass of cava on arrival. We were first given a bowl of soup, vegetable apparently. It was orange and smooth, like pumpkin, but didn’t taste like it. It was nice. Next we had pork fillet, diced potatoes and zucchini. The zucchini was awful, very bitter, but the pork & potatoes were delicious. And there was like 300g of pork! Lastly was dessert. Advertised as chocolate brownie, it was more like that frozen Sara Lee chocolate cake, but had been left on the bench for hours so it was dry and stale. There was a bit of chocolate mousse on the side so I ate that and left the cake.
Next was the sunset. We went to a viewpoint near the observatory to watch the sunset with some cava. We were well above the clouds now (1000m for the clouds, 2000m for us) and it was windy so it was cold. The sunset was nice and we got some good pictures.
After turning into a human popsicle, we went back to the restaurant for the toilet & a drink to wait for the sky to darken. As we left the restaurant to head south to a viewpoint, I discovered something that would semi-ruin the night……a full moon. Damn! The moon is so unbelievably bright so it created a lot of light pollution and meant we would not see as many stars. We finally got to a viewpoint where the moon was behind a mountain. We were able to see some stars and the guide pointed out a lot of constellations like the scorpion, polaris north star, lyra, serpent, north cross, house, dolphin and lots more but I forget them. We also saw Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. After 45mins the moon rose over the mountain so we left.
We stopped at another viewpoint where a staff member was already there with some telescopes. Here we were able to look at Saturn, Jupiter and the moon through the telescopes. They were set at 200mm so the planets were still quite small. I expected them to be much bigger through the telescope. My expectations were way too high! When it came time to view the moon, they warned us we would be blinded. Boy oh boy is the full moon bright through a telescope! Think about when you have an eye test and the doctor shines that super duper bright light in your eye to look at it and you end up temporarily blind. Exactly the same. As you walk away, you are blind in one eye, stumbling so you don’t knock the expensive computerised telescopes!
Then it was time to head back to town. I got back to my hotel at 12.30am, which is super late for me!
Monday was my last morning here. After breakfast I packed my
stuff and was picked up by the airport transfer.I'm off to Portugal so stay tuned for the next blog.
The Canary Islands are very popular with Brits escaping the cold winters and looking for sun. I have enjoyed my time here and it is definitely a great place to visit.