My Funny Valentine - on Tenerife

Finally we decided to hop to one of the other 7 Canarian islands.  As you know, we always go to Gran Canaria.  On one of our 2-weeks tour of Gran Canaria we planned to go to Morocco for a day or two.  But there are no direct flights between Gran Canaria and Morocco.  We would have had to fly to Madrid and then from Madrid to Morocco.  That would be too time consuming (not to mention too costly too).  So instead of Morocco, we got the bright idea to sail from Gran Canaria to Tenerife.  Once we got to Tenerife we rented a car and spent the day driving up the volcano and along the south and east coast.  We fell in love with the island and promised ourselves that one day we would be back for a full week vacation on Tenerife.  And Finally we took the decision to go this year and we booked ourselves a wonderful trip.

  

Here on the map you can see the 7 Canarian islands.  Gran Canaria is the islands we always go to.  Jens lived there for a short time and I have been there at least 19 or 20 times.  This time we went to Tenerife.  Next Year we will go to Fuerteventura and the following year we will go to Lanzarote with the usual Gran Canaria in-between trips.

 This is the "out door" patio of our hotel.  I am viewing this for the very first time as we have just checked in and we are sitting outside waiting for our room to be completed.  I plan to eat every breakfast and every dinner here on this patio.  Sadly - this  open-air patio is only for lunch time seating and we didn't buy the lunch package.

 Our hotel is called Sol Tenerife.  It is built as 2 towers with 2 pools between the towers.  All of the rooms face the ocean and have a view of the mountains as well.  This is the view you see from the lobby.  The red tile walk way will lead you to the garden, pools, bar, and finally a private gate that opens with the room key so you can just step right on out to the beach promenade.

 Here Jens is sitting having a welcome cocktail as we wait for our room.  This little covered patio is just on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the lobby.

 Once we get to our room, the first thing we do is step out onto the balcony and take in the amazing view of the beach and mountains.  The view is so wonderful I just had to whip out my mexican cock and snap a pix.

 We unpack our bags and take a 5 minute walk up along the coast.  It's early evening time now so the beach is empty as vacationers are getting themselves ready to go out to eat.  We just crossed a wooden bridge over a wash and we are sitting on the stairs that lead to an information office.  We picked up some info about guided tours on the island.

 Well, as I said, it's time to get ready for dinner so back we go to our hotel.  We have just crossed back over the wooden bridge and in the background behind Jens is our monster hotel.

 There's our hotel, Sol Tenerife.  It has l0 floors of rooms, a conference floor and the ground floor.  We are on the 5th floor (7th floor if you count the ground floor and conference floor.)

 That night after dinner we step out to the pool area and notice a full moon over Tower B - we are in Tower A (you can see it to the left)

 The hotel has 2 pools + a small children's pool.  We saw about 5 kids the entire week and we saw them for only a few hours during our entire stay.  One of the pools was on the ground level.  The other pool was on an upper level which allows you to view over the fence that surrounds the hotel garden.  When you look over the fence you can enjoy the view of the Atlantic and see all the way to the next island, La Gomera, from your chaise-lounge.  It was amazing.  That's a surfer in the foreground and La Gomera in the background.

 Today I took an hour walk south of the hotel.  Here I am snapping this picture at about 30 minutes from the hotel.  The little "bump" on the top of the mountain on the right hand side of this photo is the volcano named Teide.

 There were some iron sculptures along the coast that I found to be interesting.

 There's the volcano again with the white tip.

 Here is a little cactus garden with a rock sculpture of saint something or another.

 I never tire of looking at Spanish style homes.

 This was a huge giant hotel complex that I was considering booking but by the time we got around to booking our room, this place was fully booked.  The swimming pool was so huge I think it could be considered as a small lake.

 It might not look so bad in this photo but in real life, something went really wrong with this hotel.  It was U-G-L-Y

 A little further along the coast there was another iron sculpture.  I'm guessing it's some sort of sea urchin or cactus design?

 Right next door to our hotel is this fun little outdoor café with the best cafe-con-letche and we drank gallons of it.  It kept us buzzing all week long.

You can see this café from our balcony in photo number 4.

 Across the street from our hotel was a mini golf.  Jens likes to check his abilities. We played 2 games and we both did really lousy.  I beat Jens by only 2 swings on the first game and on the second day he beat me.  But we were both way over par.  Jens has a good excuse.  Me? ummmmm.....

 This is the first time we tried one of those all you can eat options.  The hotel offered several options.  We chose the breakfast and dinner option.  Jens said it was ok food but I didn't care for it so much.  I thought it was going to be a choice of either buffet or a choice from the menu card.  There was no card to choose from.  The whole set up reminded me too much of our big disappointment on the S.S. Minnow slash Titanic.  Remember that Mediterranean cruise a few years back?  Click the link for tragedy.  

 We rented a car for 3 days.  This is from the first day and this is the first stop at the first mountain village that we came to.  It was at a cross roads and was a very happening spot for bike riders and motorcycle riders.

This is the car we rented.

 Now we are getting into high country and there were so many places to stop and get out of the car to snap shots of the amazingly beautiful views of the nature.  Here we are at a place called Pino Gordo - The Fat Pine.  And a big, huge, gnarly, fat, pine tree it was.

At this stop you could look back as see the beach in the area of our hotel.

At this stop we could see the tops of 3 islands.  La Gomera in the center of the pix and La Palma to the right.  Behind my back is the tip of El Hierro and you can see that photo with all the other pix on my shutterfly sight. Click here.

We are soon approching the center of the island.

And here we are at the center of the islands.  Teide is the name of the volcano.  Years ago on that one single day that we were here, the top of Teide was covered in snow. And I remember on the side of the road that there was also a thick layer of ice here and there.  I thought it was pretty amazing because even with all the ice and snow around, the volcano would send out a little puff of smoke every 8 minutes or so.  So the ground had to be damn hot under the surface.  I was hoping to see a bit of puffing smoke from the tip of Teide this time but it was not happening this day.  We couldn't really tell if that was a bit of glacial ice at the top or not.  It looked like white rock but how could that be?  There was black lava rock everywhere.

My mexican cock can see the gondola station near the top of Teide.  And you can see it here as well.

The entire area is surreal - moon like you could say.

We are on our way back now and on a different road than the way we came.  We are just blown away by the amount of black lava rock everywhere.

And it seems to all have come from this side hole.

Try to imagine the above picture connected to the lower picture.  It's wonderful because from here we could see 3 different islands all from the same spot. Above pix - El Hierro to the left, La Gomera in the middle.....

...and the 2 humps of La Palma to the right.
Below is a video to help you imagine the row of islands.

Ok - this other road has taken us to the northern side of Teide and there is a bit of snow giving the volcano an even more amazing look.

All that driving has given us the munchies so we stop at the first pit stop on the way down the mountain side.

From the restaurant we can view the coastline again.

Like Gran Canaria, the almond trees are in bloom this time of year.  Pink flowers abound all over the mountain side.

Lots of villages have these larger statues or figures that are placed in the middle of the road - for your driving pleasure?

Later that evening the hotel went all out for Valentines Day and decorated the lobby with red hearts.
Clink this link open in another window.

Here is the announcement board for this evenings entertainment.

The entrance was decorated with Valentine balloons.  I put on my red shirt for Jens and he burnt his face red for me.

A song for sweet hearts was played for our dinning pleasure.

Part of tonights entertainment.  Check out my right hand.

Notice the sunglasses tan line around Jens eyes.  His face was so burnt.

Waiting for the entertainment.  But Jens wants to leave.  The old women were giving him the eye and he said he didn't want to have to deal with the ladies begging him to dance.

In London, the city was under water.  The storm was causing havoc all the way south as far as the Canary Islands.  Last night the wind was blowing like crazy.  When we woke up the sky was covered in stormy clouds and a beautiful rainbow was reaching down to the nearby beach town.

The storm blew in a huge snow fall.  This picture is also from our balcony.  The structure at the bottom right is one of the hotels that I was considering to book and the only reason I didn't was because the place was huge with only one small pool.  So you can see that it was not far to go before the snow would have fallen on the beach.

The wind was so strong that day that when Jens opened the balcony door to go out for a "breath of fresh air", the wind rushed in and blew the ceiling panal up into the crawl space.   And how is that for some lovely 1960's interior?

Despite the weather, we took a drive up along the coast to 3 pinpointed cities.  This was the first point of interest and it is called Candelaria.

This is the fountain belonging to the Basillica where the patron saint has been worshiped ever since the time of the natives.

Forgive me father for I have sinned and snapped this photo which was not allowed.  I at least turned off the flash.  From the back of the church you could see lots of flashing from cameras at the front of the church.  This is Candelera, the patron saint of the island.

And these are the Guanches native cheifs of of the islands from 100's of years ago.
info on the Guanches can be easily googled or just click here.

Our next point of interest was Santa Cruz De Tenerife.  It's a port city and more metropolis. We had no idea of where we were going but luckily for us we ended up at the perfect spot: Plaza de España.

Here on the plaza there was a very large memorial monument for those who gave their lives for España.

The parking gods were with us and provide us a space, quickly and easily just 5 steps from the plaza and 30 steps from the café that we sat at. 

After our pan dolcé and café-con-letche, we took a walk through the colorful town.

This was an old photo shop that was turned into a bakery.

I so wish my stomach was bigger and your ass was smaller.  The choices to find new and exciting flavors to pop in the mouth was endless.

The streets were filled with bright colors and vibrant pedestrians.

Here is the front of the parliament building.

Once again - notice the dogs at the top of the entrance to the parliament.  The island group is named after the local (now extinct) canine species, the Latin word for dog, found on these islands - not birds.

It's where the police get the term K-9 unit.

More dream girls and vivid colors.

We saw this advertisement above a door to a modern building and had a really good laugh.  This was for some type of beauty center with plastic surgery or something along that nature.  We were giggling like little girls wondering what kind of operation this man had done or wants to have done and just what exactly is it that he is measuring?

Colors and arctitecture abound around every corner in this town.

After I saw these pictures when we got home I yelled at Jens and said that "....just because I'm 55 doesn't mean I know how to dress myself and could you please next time tell me when my collar is sticking out?"  He answered, "With that ridiculous hat, does it really matter?"  I admit: we have a serious fashion citation going on here; a lumberman shirt over a Hawaiian shirt, topped with an outback tourist hat.  It's a miracle I'm not still single.  With this ensemble, who'd even believe I'm gay?

We are back now at the plaza where we started.  Jens loved that idea that this tourist office was covered in living plants.  From here we head up the mountain to another little near-by village called San Cristóbal de la Laguna.

It was an amazing village but unfortunately it was freezing cold and very windy from the storm.  It was siesta time and Sunday so most everything was closed at the moment.

We had to take a break from the cold and found this little local café that was unfortunately just a little too modern for this very old village.  Jens is testing his balance with the tray, yet I was the one shaking the camera.

More café-con-letche and French croissant.  Notice the map on the table.  We are here.

The following day, we get up and most of the clouds have retreated to the north side of the island and reveled even more snow than what we could have imagined.  We were so lucky that we took the drive to Teide on the day that we did.  You would have to have chains otherwise to get to the top.

It was so wonderful to be warm on the hotel balcony and look at the beautiful jagged mountains covered in snow.

We took our 3rd drive to the north side.  It was a big chance but I really wanted to see this so called mystical place called Masca.  And if the weather let up we may even stop by The Giants.  We had a bigger but loser plan of what we were going to see today.  We would let our energy level, weather and "browsing time" decide for us where to go and what to see.  My main goal was to drive to the capital city Puerto de la Cruz but that was going to be too much driving.  So in the car we go and off to our first stop Masca.  The village at the turnoff road to Masca shows that the temperature is only 5 degrees celsius (41F)
We could have gotten those temperatures at home for half the price ;-)

You can't tell from these pix or the pix on my shutterfly but this was such a surprise.  This is one of the most beautiful spots on earth that I have ever seen.  That is - when the fog blew away every now and then to reveal it's secrets.  It's a one lane road and very steep and windy.  We have only come over the first ridge and if you look carefully in the pix below you can see that the road goes down to the village and then up again over the next ridge and just how many ridges there were will be found out on our next trip there.  I really want to walk this road.  The beauty of it was jaw drop gorgeous.   This village Masca is on the back side of The Giants; our next stop.

Everybody grab onto your crotch and scream!  The beauty of The Giants, otherwise known as Los Gigantes will make you pee your pants.  I just couldn't stop taking pictures of these beauties.  We almost booked a room here too as the price was cheaper but it was also 3 times the distance from the airport.  It was also much cooler as we are on the north west corner of the islands.

This is the first little turn-out to stop the car and take pictures and these people had a little café on a cliff ledge above the village of Los Gigantes.  We stopped for lunch and a major photo secession.  

At the corner of the café, they had their own little garden and sold fruit among other things at the counter.

Looking down to the coastline of Los Gigantes.

Another "middle of the road" figure.

We have now come to the village and found a place to have a bite to eat again while watching the waves roll in.  That London storm caused such power that the beach was actually "roped off" due to the danger of the powerful waves.  This of course made it all the more beautiful to watch.

The foundation of these homes are made of lava rock.  I hope they can hold up to the waves.

Our 3 day car trip has come to an end and now we are heading back to our hotel.  From the highway we are better able to see Teide covered in snow.

There are 100's, if not 1000's of bannana platations on the island.  The bananas are small but very flavorful.

On our last day I took an hour walk north along the coastline.  First stop was to snap a pix of the disco that boom boom boomed us out of our beds every night.

Had we more time, we would have stopped here for lunch.  The choices of shoreline cafés and restaurants were endless.  The all you can eat hotel buffet was a deal but everything else looked so much more appealing.  So next time I am already lined up with a list of places to eat.

Way off in the background, looking south, is our hotel.  I walked this far.  Only about an hour way.

The next several shots are of the final point of my walk and then I turned back.

Another middle of the road street figure with Teide in the background.  My final shot and then it's time to pack and head home to DK the next day.
Don't forget to check out all the other photos - just click here.

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