Puerto de la Cruz

On Sunday I had a bit of a lazy day. I wandered around town and the botanical gardens for a few hours but also managed to sleep in. Much needed.

Puerto de la Cruz bay

The town

The gardens were ok but honestly I think there are better things to do in Puerto. They are by the road so not very peaceful and quite small. But if you have a few hours to killed, not bad and cheap.

Taking over

Big tree

After the gardens I tackled the stairs again. I hurt my knee earlier last week and it is now an interesting shade of blue and black. And stairs (and yesterday) did not help. It was killing me by the time I got to the bottom. But thankfully there was a ice-cream place at the bottom to cheer me up. Though it turned out a little bigger than I was expecting.

Enormous ice-cream

The beach is ok in Puerto. And popular with the surfers. Not sure I would try surfing there considering the number of rocks in the bay.

The beach

Because of said rocks, they also have a very nice looking pool area which was mostly deserted when I was there but then the wether was not really swimming/sunbathing weather. 

Pool

I walked/limped around for a bit, mainly trying to find the trim stop for Loro Parque for the next morning. It is pretty place and worth a visit.

And another beach

Feeling Christmassy now

I wimped out and got a taxi back to the apartments. And then begged the lovely lady at the pool bar for a bag of ice. I spent the set of the afternoon, reading on the balcony with the ice on my knee. I also managed to find real fresh milk! I have only been able to get long life which works in tea but is just not good to drink. I drank so much milk with weekend.  :)

Chilling out. 

Teide, Masca and Garachico

As there was a bank holiday here on Tuesday and I HAVE to take my vacation days (according to the department who were most insistent as they don't want to pay me for the days), I decided to book the Monday off and spend a long weekend in Puerto de la Cruz. It is in the north part of the island and only about an hour on the bus, but I got a great deal  on an apartment with an ocean view and it saved a lot of traveling (and early mornings). The apartment was very basic but the view was amazing!

Sunrise in Puerto de la Cruz, from my apartment.

The Calima was really bad Thursday to Sunday. This is dust and sand that comes over from the Sahara and descends on the Canary Islands. Everything gets dusty and the sky is really hazy. But it can make for some good photos. And some bad ones.

Snow on Teide and Calima.

I got into Puerto on Friday night and basically just got food and chilled. Especially as my apartment is at the top of a cliff. And the supermarket is of course at the bottom. (I did not do this walk again after this first time. It nearly killed me.)
For Saturday I booked a tour around the North coast of the island and Teide. The tour was full but most of the places we stopped were not so it was well timed. Unfortunately nearly everyone else on the tour was German. And my German is even more limited than my Spanish which says a lot. So I didn't get to chat with people.
It was an early morning :( but a good day.
First stop - overlook for Puerto and Teide. The Calima killed the view of both. But the tour guide  pointed out a tree called a strawberry tree. No idea why as it does not grow strawberries but these little orange fruits which ferment in your stomach when you eat them and get you drunk. There weren't any low hanging ones to try this, and I was not keen enough to climb the tree. Though some did.

Strawberry tree

Next stop was where I went last time to see the sunset. Apparently this is the area where they filmed the "Clash of the Titans", which I haven't seen.

Martian landscape

But not dead.

The rock formations here are called the Roques of Garcia and are famous for appearing, in front to Teide, on the 100 peseta.

One of the roques de Garcia

I took a walk around and headed for the quieter areas. I had been in the busier areas, which include the steps used to film 'the 10 Commandments",  another film I haven't seen.

At some point on the way there, the tour guide pointed out the Finger of God formation. It was on the other side of the bus and everyone on that side seemed very excited. I couldn't figure out what they were looking at. This is the only thing I could see which sort of resembled a finger, but it wasn't very exciting.

"Finger of God"?

I did try to recreate the image on the peseta note. But they must have been able to climb of the rocks to get that shot.

Roques of Garcia and Teide

Love seeing flowers in December

On the way to the next stop, we pulled over at a truck stop. It was in the middle of nowhere. Literally. But very popular, because the food was really good. I can't say what it is because some people (likely reading this) are getting some of them for Christmas. (I managed to get most of the Christmas shopping done this weekend.)

Best food truck around

View from the Truck stop

For lunch we headed to Masca. From here you can do the hike down to the ocean and boat back to Los Gigantes, which I debated last month but wimped out. The road to Masca is interesting. And really not built for buses.

Road to Masca

The bends were a little tight. And for nearly every corner, the driver had to do a 3 or 5 point turn to get round it. And it is very well orchestrated. Only buses can either go up or down. Not at the same time. Thankfully some buses saw us coming and waited. There is no where to pass.

Little tight!

The drop was a little disconcerting at times. Not for those with travel sickness!

And steep

Masca itself is very pretty, though small. It is only about 30 years old and I think mostly built to cater to tourists doing the hike. But we stopped for a nice lunch overlooking the valley. I was put on a table with a very sweet German couple. But the conversion was more like charades!

Poinsettia.

View down Masca valley at lunch

One place I was happily surprised we stopped at (I have been wanting to go here and didn't read the tour info properly) was Garachico. It used to be a bay but during the last eruption of the volcano (1798), it was filled with lava and created a series of natural pools along the coast. They have built walkways so you can wandered around the pools and swim if you are luckily. We didn't have enough time for that sadly.

Garachico pools

Walkway

still 

The water looked very inviting and really clear. There were a few people swimming. The weather is warm but not the ideal swimming weather.

Super clear water

Stormy

And you have to be on the ball as occasionally a large wave will come over the wall and refill the pool. And knock you about a bit if you are in it! But it did look fun. :)

Replenishing the pools

Perfect for a swim

We had a reasonable amount of time at Garachico. A little more than expected I think as the bus had to go and take a girl to the hospital. (But she was ok and we picked her up on the way back). The town is really pretty and I recommend it to anyone on Tenerife. They have preserved all of the old buildings.

To the town centre

Church

Inhabitants of a hotel

Everything is getting ready for Christmas. I admit I am still getting used to Christmas lights and palm trees.

ready for Christmas

Town square

On the way back we stopped near Icod to see the Dragon tree. It is in a botanical gardens now so we stopped at a view point. They have no idea how old it is, though at least 500 years. And is apparently part of the lily family. And important around here. Though again I am not sure why.

Dragon tree

The trip was fun but a really long day. Over the weekend I ended up just eating at the apartment every night. I saved money and frankly couldn't face the hill! But sitting with dinner, a glass of wine and the view from my balcony was not a hardship!

Casa del Vino

On Saturday a group of us from the IAC decided to go to Casa del Vino, which is literally house of wine. They sell all Tenerife wines and generally better ones at cheaper prices than in the supermarkets. The bus trip was as usual fun, as google maps is failing epically on Tenerife at the moment. But thankfully the bus driver helped. (And the others speak a lot better Spanish than me, which isn't hard, so that helped.)
First step, wine tasting!

let the tasting begin!

Here you have to buy the "glass", so we got 2 each glasses (more like 1/4 glasses) of 4 whites and 2 reds, between the 4 of use. The first and last 2 were amazing, the middle 2 ok. But we all loved the last red, 1861 which was amazing. Of course, probably one of the most expensive but so good. I think we all brought a bottle (or 2 in my case - they are going home! Maybe.)

Best red (photo stolen/borrowed from Heidi)

tasting room

We ended up spending about 2.5 hrs there, partly because the tasting lady kept wondering off and leaving us. But we had wine and cheese and a cute cat to keep us occupied.

chilled out (or drunk) cat

After the tasting, before our dinner reservation, we wandered around the museums. The wine museum was interesting and happily translated into English. I wish I had thought to get some photos of the buildings before it got dark. But we were all too eager to get to the tasting room. :) The best I can do is an shot of the model of the place. It really was a very pretty place. And the view was amazing down the coast and of the ocean. (Of course I forgot to get a photo of that too until it was too dark.)

what the place looks like

Poetic

I was quite surprised how many wineries and vineyards there are on Tenerife. Traveling around, I have mainly seen banana plantations. And the wines real are very good and reasonably priced. Unfortunately they don't export them our of the Canaries. :(

ranges of Tenerife wines

There was also a Bee museum. Most of this was very random and all in Spanish so honestly I had no clue. But the big honey comb complete with bees was both cool and creepy.

Bees!

Slightly creepy baby bees

And they had left a bee keeper outfit out. So I had to try it on. Of course! (I am a big 5 yr old and love the museums for kids as they are the most fun by far!) I was the only one as everyone else was being very sensible.

Playing bee keeper

breaking the bee hive. Oops!

 We walked around randomly and found a tunnel to no where.

Following down a random tunnel

 And also an agricultural museum. Which was vaguely interesting.

Something to do with removing wheat.

In the end we got to the restaurant (part of Casa del Vino) quite early but thankfully they weren't very busy and let us in early. The food was ok. I think I picked the wrong thing. It's usually a good assumption it is a bad choice when it comes with chips. :( But the wine was good, the starters very nice and the company lovely. We did miss out on dessert however as they seemed to forget about us. You can never say you get hassled or rushed in a Spanish restaurant. We were there about 3.5 hrs!

I would recommend Casa del Vino to anyone visiting the north part of Tenerife. Definitely worth a visit for a chilled out and relaxing afternoon.
We got a taxi back to the tram. There was a festival on in town, which I thought about going too, but I was carrying my wine and it was packed. So I decided to just go home to bed instead.