Tenerife: Day 1
1 week in the island that really does seem to be eternally spring. Tenerife was absolutely beautiful and the weather was wonderful. It was sunny and warm every single day. A welcome change from my other holiday rituals and routines. No snow, warm, Santas that break into homes through windows, and so much spanish.
But now....
Beautiful Tenerife. As seen from the hostel we stayed at for the first 4 nights along the northern coast.
When we arrived at the south airport, we realized that it might be a bit of a hassel getting a bus all the way to the north coast, so we decided to just simplify things and hire (rent) a car for the week. The car looked like a delivery van. Damn sexy that things was, a manual trundling up and down the mad crazy hills that make up basically the whole island.
Here's Nick reveling in driving on the right side of the road again, but slightly dismayed at the fact that the car was not an automatic, and that roundabouts go the opposite direction on tenerife from in the uk.
After driving up the steepest switchbacks I've ever been on, we figure we've made a wrong turn somewhere. So we pull into someone's canarian equivalent of a driveway to turn back along the incredibly narrow roads. Then I spot a duck, and a horse, and the number of the house and I realize we've arrived.
One of a small flock of ducks that also stay at the hostel.
Also there were a bunch of chickens. One of the two roosters who would compete in the mornings for who could wake up the most people. More often than not that also have a backup chorus of the chickens.
When we arrived there was no one around except the animals. Then we came across the owner's wife and one of the guests whom Nick and I would become pretty good friends with. We went to lunch, and when we got back discovered that a whole bunch of other people had also arrived.
Reasonably assured that we weren't in a really creepy movie nor going to have just hay for a bed one which to lay our heads, Fuzzby came out and enjoyed the company around the picnic table.
Tenerife is a beautiful island, and also a dormant volcano. Mt. Teide is the cone of a volcano that I assume erupted from the middle of a larger older shield volcanoe that forms the island. These views are of the Orotava Valley and the towns of La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz as seen from the hostel.
I have tons and tons of shots of this exact same view in different lighting. It was absolutely gorgeous to just look out over the valley all the time and out across the atlantic.
The prevailing winds are from the north and blow towards cost. This meant that this whole side of the island usually has a few clouds and a lot of mist as the moist ocean air blows over and up the mountains. It also meant that the ocean was almost always misty, meaning it felt like were were on this island floating in mist, cut off from the rest of the world.
Also it was super neat to see so many dramatic changed in environment and climate in such a small area. Yay rain shadow!
But now....
Beautiful Tenerife. As seen from the hostel we stayed at for the first 4 nights along the northern coast.
When we arrived at the south airport, we realized that it might be a bit of a hassel getting a bus all the way to the north coast, so we decided to just simplify things and hire (rent) a car for the week. The car looked like a delivery van. Damn sexy that things was, a manual trundling up and down the mad crazy hills that make up basically the whole island.
Here's Nick reveling in driving on the right side of the road again, but slightly dismayed at the fact that the car was not an automatic, and that roundabouts go the opposite direction on tenerife from in the uk.
After driving up the steepest switchbacks I've ever been on, we figure we've made a wrong turn somewhere. So we pull into someone's canarian equivalent of a driveway to turn back along the incredibly narrow roads. Then I spot a duck, and a horse, and the number of the house and I realize we've arrived.
One of a small flock of ducks that also stay at the hostel.
Also there were a bunch of chickens. One of the two roosters who would compete in the mornings for who could wake up the most people. More often than not that also have a backup chorus of the chickens.
When we arrived there was no one around except the animals. Then we came across the owner's wife and one of the guests whom Nick and I would become pretty good friends with. We went to lunch, and when we got back discovered that a whole bunch of other people had also arrived.
Reasonably assured that we weren't in a really creepy movie nor going to have just hay for a bed one which to lay our heads, Fuzzby came out and enjoyed the company around the picnic table.
Tenerife is a beautiful island, and also a dormant volcano. Mt. Teide is the cone of a volcano that I assume erupted from the middle of a larger older shield volcanoe that forms the island. These views are of the Orotava Valley and the towns of La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz as seen from the hostel.
I have tons and tons of shots of this exact same view in different lighting. It was absolutely gorgeous to just look out over the valley all the time and out across the atlantic.
The prevailing winds are from the north and blow towards cost. This meant that this whole side of the island usually has a few clouds and a lot of mist as the moist ocean air blows over and up the mountains. It also meant that the ocean was almost always misty, meaning it felt like were were on this island floating in mist, cut off from the rest of the world.
Also it was super neat to see so many dramatic changed in environment and climate in such a small area. Yay rain shadow!