Weezies first week on Tenerife.

Semana 1

for those of you who are more 'visual' stimulus types... pics are here

It is Feb 6th Sunday morning in El Sauzal, Tenerife-sun doesn’t come up over to our side until 8:30 so there is the usual morning misty cloud which will soon burn off.
We arrived here after a brief visit to London arriving there in the early pm which was enough time to take the subway into the city to take in some sights (Mac’s suggestion since it was his first time to London, a better way to see parts of the city). London was sunny but by the time we got to Victoria Station from Heathrow it was closer to 4:30 and it had cooled considerably (7 degrees)-we Vancouverites found it very chilly but walked around anyway after putting our luggage into storage (for a hefty fee of 32 quid!). London was cold and colourless, and I am sure there are worse places to be in winter but after spending a night in Gatwick airport getting little sleep listening to security announcements over and over, we were happy to board our 7 am plane to Tenerife.

Tenerife belongs to the Canary Islands. They are part of Spain but are located 300 km off the coast of Western Sahara so technically speaking they are in the continent of Africa. I guess you could say they are to the Europeans what Hawaii is to us (and judging by a few “Canarias no es de Espana” graffiti signs, there are some locals who also feel they are not part of the bigger country). We arrived to a slightly muggy cloudy island and picked up our rental car. My first impression as we started driving northeast into sunny skies from Tenerife Sur airport was “pretty landscape, ugly buildings” but that soon changed once we headed north to where we are staying in a beautiful house near a small quaint town called El Sauzal which is about 20 min drive west to the city of Puerta de la Cruz. The structures all fit well into this hilly landscape and Mac was surprised how many gates and walls there are that line the streets and homes. He mentioned yesterday how glad he is that our car is standard as some of the streets here are reeeally steep!).
We arrived Feb 2nd but we were so tired we slept a lot the 1st couple of days which was just as well since it was quite rainy. During our first night, jetlag woke us and Mac got up at 3 am to put the bikes together. We found out on the news the next morning that prior to our arrival the sunnier south part of the island had horrible damaging flooding but we didn’t see any evidence of it here in the north.

We drove to Pt. de la Cruz Wed morning and had a yummy cheap breakfast (café con leche only cost ~1-1.40 euro). They seem to eat a lot of buns (bocadilla) with cheese and ham here. We walked around for a bit but realized we were illegally parked so we moved locations to find ourselves in the “*wrong part of town” in La Paz. After searching high and low in a downpour (which quickly ended) for a supermercado to buy some groceries, we walked around again to find we were surrounded by *German retirees and quickly departed! This island draws a lot of Brits and Germans and it is evident some areas cater to them.

We went to the cuidad of La Laguna (“the lake”) our 2nd night to find some internet access but also to see this Unesco heritage sight. It was getting dark and almost impossible to park not to mention I didn’t have a map of the city so we didn’t see much. We found a bike shop where we were able to buy some CO2 air (se-o-dos!) and to replace Mac’s bike tool that was confiscated by Gatwick officials. We also got in touch with Leslie Brown, an Aussie who has been living here for 4 years and rents bikes-Mac had been emailing him from Vancouver to get some info about cycling here on Tenerife (http://www.tenerife-training.net/). We drove to La Orotava at 9 pm to meet him to get a map and route suggestions. It was kind of funny- he told us to meet him at a roundabout and then seconds later he appeared walking up the hill. It was like we had a secret service meeting as we looked at the map on our car hood lit by the street light. We found out that the weather had been terrible recently but that it wasn’t typical. Leslie recommended what seemed to be a hard to find restaurant called La Bodeguita de Enfrente but we found it without incident and enjoyed some tapas and wine and walked into its Bodega (wine cellar) which also stored fresh veges.

We woke up Thursday to find clear blue sunny skies and by the time we got to Los Realejos near Pt. de la Cruz it was comfortably warm. After spending an hour in a bike shop there trying to figure out Mac’s cranks (turned out he wasn’t missing a part just needed to be tightened with a torque tool), we drove to La Orotava and at the 6 km marker started our ride up Mt. Tiede, the world’s 4th tallest volcano. It wasn’t our plan to have a long hill climb as our first ride (think ~3 Cypress climbs with just a bit of flat at the top) but the weather was perfect so off we went. Our winter legs felt pretty good but I was worried about running out of water. Luckily at the 32 km marker there was a restaurant so we fueled up for the finish. This island is known to draw Tour de France riders for its steep warm training but we have seen a variety of riders so far.

There we met Jan from Germany who had ridden up from the bike shop (we saw him there). He rode up on his mtn bike so he could take the trail down. We rode to the base of the mountain together which stopped just after the 42 km marker (2358 m). The last 10 km is worth it since it is up, down and flatter not to mention the landscape gets really interesting due to the unique setting (a bit similar to Haleakala Crater, Maui, only with canyons/cliffs). The middle part of this ride goes thru the Los Pinos forest so it was peaceful, cool with little traffic; easier than Mt Baker and Haleakala but can be made longer depending on where you start. The descent was chilly for the first 15km so I was glad I had a jacket but could have worn two.

Friday was a lazy day, doing laundry, shopping for groceries, going to an internet café, checking out the town of El Sauzal and reading by our private pool. We have neighbours in the other part of the house from the UK but I have yet to see them so it is very quiet and private here, not to mention we have a beautiful view from the terrace towards the water but there is no beach for swimming in this area.

Yesterday we drove along the windy, steep coastal roads east of el Sauzal and started cycling from the town of Valle de Guerra which started flat but less than 2 km into the ride we started climbing again non-stop through Tegueste, Tajina and thru the Monte de las Mercedes range (beautiful quiet windy route); our goal was to cycle to Chinobra which is the NE tip of the island but we met a very large cycling group (more than 60 men) at a rest stop/café who said they were riding to Santa Cruz and shortly after we met another guy who recommend we go to Santa Cruz as well and then take the streetcar from there to La Laguna (~30 min) where we could resume our ride back to Valle de Guerra.

The descent towards S. Cruz turned out to be amazing and the views were stunning-it was hard to tell what country/continent we were on and there were very few cars which made going fast around the tight corners safe and fun. We rode along the ocean to the busy city of Santa Cruz, eventually found the streetcar route (there a lot of one way streets!), stopped for a drink then caught the Transvia streetcar to La Laguna. We got off at the last stop which put us into the most beautiful part of town full of pedestrian only cobble streets. The architecture of La Laguna is stunning and worth an afternoon but all we managed was a few photos with our small camera then back to cycling the return of our ride. What must go up must go down so we had a very enjoyable return ride to our car. We rewarded ourselves with helados and a short nap before walking over to a nearby restaurant for a less than amazing meal (the croquetas pescados were yummy). Last night I asked the waiter what “Dorada” means since it is both the local beer and the name of a fish that Mac prepared on the bbq-turns out it is a colour (golden). So far Mac’s favourite dish was the tortilla (~pastry less quiche) with onion and potato.

All in all we have really enjoyed our first week; weather now is perfect, my Spanish vocab increases daily and the cycling and sights so far are fantastic. Hopefully for Mac’s birthday tomorrow we can find an authentic Canarias meal for dinner (that won’t get ruined by smokers!). Mac is out for a solo ride right now; he started from “home” towards the same area we went yesterday, now that we know those roads are suitable for cycling. I will walk down the steep road to the cobble trail that takes you to the ocean’s edge/pathway. On Tuesday we move west to the historical town of Garachico for our last week where we will continue our exploration of this unique island.
Hasta la proxima semana y gracias por su visita nos blog.
Lisa and Mac