01/09/2024
As I promised in last article, here is the continuation for Tenerife.
In this article, I will write about wandering throughout Tenerife and about our few days stop at Lea’s place in Madrid and wandering around.
Tenerife
Day 7 [Jan 7th, 2024]
Car Rental and Island wandering
We get up at 6 and have nothing to wear. How quickly the excitement passed from how we looked forward to taking everything off and washing ourselves and all our clothes. The washing machine was closed and it was wet, so it smells badly, but probably the worse thing is that the apartment is not exactly the warmest and there is no heating in any of the rooms, we washed the clothes in the evening but nothing dried till the morning, so we dry them with a hair dryer.
I’m leaving for the bus, which according to our experience goes exactly the opposite which means earlier than according to the timetable (when we were young, me and my brother were taught at home that we can’t go too early because we would think about doing stupidness during waiting time … so we stick to it to those days). I did not make it so I’m looking for another connection, but it doesn’t go directly to the airport, but a short distance from it, I cross the main road and I’m at the airport in no time (bus prices with their card are literally for free, but you can’t completely rely on it, that’s why we want a car).
Right at the airport, I am unpleasantly surprised by another “problem”, we booked the car again through booking, paid full insurance, but after Madeira I naively think that it will be ok, that I have the card with me after all. The problem is that you need a credit card for the deposit (stupid rules), I’m angry, the lady at the counter understands, she says she doesn’t have a credit card either, but she has to follow the rules. They advise me to get a refund from booking for insurance, that the credit card information is listed in the terms and conditions that they send only after payment and to pay for their insurance, when no deposit is needed. The next time we will take a car without booking, at the moment when a person does not have a credit card and therefore has to have full insurance directly from the rental company, then the booking.com is just as an unnecessary third party.
We get a BMW with an automatic transmission and we’re all used to a manual, so we struggle a bit with it at the beginning (me the most, I wasn’t even able to drive out of the parking lot and had to humiliatingly ask for a briefing). I pick up Lu with Pajinek and we set out to explore Tenerife. When I was picking up the car, I have received an answer regarding the Masca trail, where they replied that the trail is available only after prior reservation, so I responded once again whether it is possible to make a reservation online, that there are no available dates on the website until the end of the year. They told me that the dates have been listed until the end of February and they haven’t been listed since March, but according to their information, you need to reserve a place as soon as possible in advance, or check regularly whether the date has become available. Well, nothing for now, at least we have a reason to come back here.
My brother had the task of finding where we would go surfing, so where there are waves and there is a rental shop nearby, we go to San Cristobal de La Lagune (Bajamar beach), the rental shop is a bit above the beach and doesn’t open until 10, we decide to look at the ocean first, we look at natural pools where there are a few swimmers and in front of them two guys fooling around on bodyboards, but it’s definitely not for surfing. We decide to go to the rental company and ask where is the best place to go surfing. The rental shop is still closed and doesn’t look like it’s going to open. Me and Lu are already saying that we are not destined to surf together, because the first attempt in Porto didn’t work out, nor did it in Madeira, and now it looks like nothing will come of it either. We postpone it for now and continue towards Anaga, for a walk in the park, a very nice place in the north of the island with very nice views and a pleasant climate, a great place for trail running.
Since we are already in this part of the island, we continues to playa de Benijo, where there are very nice waves, but we don’t see a surfboard rental anywhere, people probably come here to surf with their own equipment or bring it here. We spoke with our families and we found out that it is about -10 degrees celsius in the Czech Republic so we are enjoying even more the local hot weather and swim in the ocean. We had a snack and we return to the switchbacks we came through and enjoy the view once more before we continues to San Andrés, where according to Pajinek research should also be possibilities to surf.
In San Andres, we go to probably the most occupied beach on Tenerife, Playa de Las Teresitas. I discover a baraquitto in the coffee drink menu so I’m trying to check what is it. Baraquitto is a popular drink in Tenerife (condensed milk, liquor 43, whipped foam, espresso, lemon peel and cinnamon or cocoa). I want to try it, but none of the beach bars have coffee anymore. whaaat? So I don’t like this beach, you can’t surf here, it’s overcrowded and they don’t have coffee yet. We’re moving on. Our last stop today is the capital city, Santa Cruz. We park next to the palmetto, where they are supposed to close in half an hour, but we see some lights, so we go to ask if they also have night tours, and they say they start in about an hour. Great, then we’ll wait for darkness and go later, it doesn’t end until 10 in the evening. For now, let’s take a look at the auditorium, a wonderful building for musical performances (there is even going to be Dvořák’s Rusalka in March). At the coast they have stones with faces of famous musicians painted on them, cool. Finally, my brother and I try Baraquitto and I already know that I won’t drink any other coffee in Tenerife. We have booked the palmetum from 7:15 PM, an incredible mass of people is waiting before the entrance. The entire tour takes about 40 minutes and we are amazed at how extensive the palmetum is. Lighting and sound effects are elaborated to the greatest detail throughout.
“At home” we find out that we won’t even look into the largest cave in Europe, Cueva del Vinto. So for the following day, we reserve at least the largest waterfall in Tenerife, Barranco del Infierno. Considering that all the surf rental shops don’t open until around 10 o’clock, we decide to go to the waterfall first, start time at 8:30.
Day 8 [Jan 8th, 2024]
Surfing for life and Hard Rock Cafe
As we soon found out the morning time of the waterfalls was a good choice not only because we are not baking in the sun but also because we are walking almost alone, while on the way back we meet crowds of people. The nature is beautiful along the way, but the waterfall itself is not worth much for me personally, maybe there is not enough water, but it is really tiny.
After visiting the waterfall, we move to Playa de la Américas surf beach. It’s noon and we have a problem to park a car, we drive around the nearby parking lots and try our luck to see if anyone is leaving and finally we ask at the rental company where we wanted to rent a surfboard and the gentleman says that we have no other chance than park our car close to the hospital. It helped, so we finally parked, but we are hungry, so we go on a detour, my brother wants octopus or some other seafood. I looked for a restaurant where I could have fresh tuna with their chips, but they didn’t have octopus, so we continued. In the end, Lůca had tuna (it was divine), my brother had octopus, but it was somehow kids portion, and I had a plate of seafood (more like soup) and my brother and I actually saved each other, I received a portion for 3 and my brother a child’s portion, so he helped me out and we tried some local cocktails (we plan to continue with them after the surf).
After the lunch, we literally roll for surfboards, we walk along the beach and while watching the waves and people surfing, we can’t wait to be there too. We rent boards and wetsuits for two hours, and as it turns out later, that’s more than enough for us. The beach is very rocky and slippery when you are entering and there are a lot of surfers waiting for theirs moment. The waves are getting bigger and I always choose one that I catch but am unable to ride, so I don’t surf standing up but on my knees. Other wave catch me well and after that one, others and others, for a while I feel like I’m fighting for my life. I try to get out of one washing machine after another and in the meantime “dodge” the surfers who caught the wave, but for a while I can’t get out of it at all, I’m totally exhausted and flop on the shore and I’m surprised that I didn’t come to any harm.
After two hours of splashing around in the water, we go to the hard rock cafe for happy hour, or two hours, where they have drinks and beer for half, we taste everything we don’t know, and some we already know. Their tip mamasita with banana liqueur is also a clear winner for us. The day is over and we are moving to our beds.
Day 9 [Jan 9th, 2024]
Not everything goes according to plan
The last day in Tenerife awaits us, we plan to try surfing on another beach, a sandy one, which is also supposed to be a surfing beach “El Medano”. Surf rentals don’t open until 10, and we have the Arico gorge on the way, so we stop there to admire this amazing place and take some nice photos.
After arriving on plage El Medano, we see a lot of kites, but no surfers. We observe the events on the beach for a while and try to evaluate the situation, finally we go to ask at the rental company, but there we learned that El Medano is primarily a beach for kiters and that the waves on the sandy beaches are not so good for surfing.
We leave the beach and go to see the biggest cliffs of Tenerife Acantilados de los Gigantes, because I’m **** and I said I won’t surf on that rocky and overcrowded beach. With a view, we drink Barraquito, beer and Lu has her cocktail, and I find that my watch has stopped working (the third time in the last six months, and I thought that those will be third and the best ones).
Our next stop was supposed to be for tapas, but unfortunately we found out that the place we had chosen was closed, even though the door was open and there were “open” signs everywhere, they sent us away, saying that they don’t open until 6 PM because they are understaffed. However, we had chosen another place for sunset, on the coast of the city of Adeje, so we are moving there. We choose a place for dinner and look forward to the west, the town is more “posh” than we are used to, but we also find one place that almost meets our standards – we see a sail, a umbrella in the rock and admire the place where someone has probably secured their refuge . After dinner, we move to the gorge on the beach, from where we will watch the sunset, which is also accompanied by a program, music is playing and a young lady in a dress is dancing on the shore, ending the last seconds of the sunset with a gong. We enjoyed a lot those moments there.We already know that we will come back to Tenerife for the Masca trail, cueva del vinto, banana experience (Finca Las Margaritas Banana Experience de Tenerife), Baraquitta and on that occasion we will go karting and Siam (water) park. I’m already looking forward to be there again <3.
Madrid
Day 10 [Jan 10th, 2024]
From executions to lovely dinner
We are flying to Madrid to meet with Lea, whom we met in Madeira and went on part of our hike together. It’s Wednesday, so Lea has to work, but she’s waiting for us at a hostel in the city center, where we can leave our backpacks, and she recommended us to try a free tour of Madrid. We had the original free tour booked for 2:30 PM, but it was canceled (because we were supposed to be the only ones on it and the minimum number is usually 4 people), which is good for us because we wouldn’t be able to make it. We go to meet Lea at the hostel and have something good to drink there, and my brother also something good to eat. Lea booked for us another tour that starts at 4:30 PM, that she will wait for us, because she still has a lot to do anyway. The guide girl told us on the spot that the others canceled it, so the free tour is also canceled, but that she will lead us and connect us to another tour. She told us that this disruption is not a standard, but the weather is not exactly the best, on the one hand it is raining and on the other hand it is not quite warm, so basically only people from Eastern Europe or the UK/Ireland come to the free tours, the others disrupt it. This tour is a lot about history, so not much for us, but in addition to what the king/queen did, we also learn some interesting things. For example, the Spaniards step on their tongues because of a king who was born to two siblings whose parents were also siblings and their parents as well and therefore had many diseases, a crooked face and a long tongue that he stepped on and therefore everyone else started stepping on his tongue so he wouldn’t feel bad. Another fact that surprised us a lot were the drastic executions, the guide lady colorfully describes how they took place (the person who was to be executed sat on a chair and had her legs, hands and neck tied with a narrow “collar” so this person was suffocating and at the same time its neck was screwed, the prisoner suffered terrible pain, it suffocated and died only after the thread passed through his bone, it usually happened that the torturer did not hit the first time and so the thread had to be re-screwed few times. Often the death of those people was accompanied by that they urinated themselves, or the men ended up with an erection) and that people bought tickets and went to the executions to watch …. The last such execution was carried out only and an incredible 50 years ago.
After the free tour, we go to Lea’s house and meet her wonderful parents. They prepare a rich dinner for us and we talk late into the night.
Day 11 [Jan 11th, 2024]
Explorers
Lea’s mother is going to Madrid around 9AM, and she offered us to go with her so we decided that we will go and we will continue to the airport to the car rental office. Coincidentally, a friend from Zaragoza send me a message the day before that he was going to a meeting in Madrid the next day and that he should have time around two o’clock, so we tentatively agreed to have lunch together. We don’t want to go to the center of Madrid, so we plan a trip towards Zaragoza. My brother found a nice, relaxing walk near the village/town of Alcalá de Henares, there are about two caves on the way – one of them has an entrance so low and small so we would have to crawl there, but the other one is cool, so we go inside to explore. It’s already about 3 o’clock and Carlos still hasn’t called and we’re terribly hungry, so we’re looking for a place to go for a lunch. I found a restaurant where they have a daily menu for about €15 and the daily menu includes a first course, second course, drink and coffee or dessert. Lůca and I try the local wine and my brother chose bull’s ears as the first course, he says it’s excellent, so he talked me into it and I try a piece. In my opinion, it’s definitely not an appetizer, and if it wasn’t for the slightly hot sauce, I probably wouldn’t have eaten it, my brother finally added that it was delicious, but that it was enough for a while.
Lea told us that her nephew will be celebrating his fourth birthday on Sunday and that he loves foxes, so we are going to the store to get some foxes and buy us some food for the next day. It seems like a superhuman feat to get a Fox in Spain, we went around several stores, spent forever looking but to no avail. Today we give up and go home. Let’s hope we will be lucky another day.
Carlos sent message in the evening that the meeting has dragged on and that we are welcome in Zaragoza, but unfortunately we don’t have time for that, we already have the few days in Madrid planned.
Day 12 [Jan 12th, 2024]
The snow, which we didn’t expect
Today we are going to Peňalara, the highest mountain in the vicinity of Madrid. We wanted to get up early, but we didn’t quite manage it. Ley’s father spoils us and prepares fresh orange juice for us every morning. Lea warned us that there would be some snow on Peňalara and the surrounding area, later it turned out that there was about a meter of snow, we don’t have any winter clothes, so we take a liquid sweater in the form of chivas regal for the trip.
We arrived at the parking lot under Peňalara around 10AM and find out that the parking lot is full, at least according to the man who operates it, when we looked at it from above, it didn’t look quite full, but the globe manager sent us away. In the end, we parked at a small parking lot 3 km away, from which we set off on foot. In the end, we quite successfully made it to our originally planned parking lot by hitch hiking. It’s Friday, so we’re surprised that there are so many people everywhere, and we’re even more surprised by how many Spaniards go to the backcountry ski.
It is beautiful, but we are still cold at the beginning, so we put on a liquid sweater, luckily the sun is shining, so we are not cold thanks to the way up the hill and also thanks to the sun. We meet a lot of people with backcountry ski and another lot of people with crampons and ice axes, we wonder where they are going. We reach the top around half past two, when the sun has just set and it’s very windy, we enjoy the views, take a few quick photos and literally run down before we warm up and before the sun starts to shine. In the end, we extend the journey a little more and try to go down the hill with my brother. He tries go down on the snack bag and me just on the jacket, sometimes it’s fun, sometimes not at all. Of course, we arrive at the parking lot completely soaked. We try to hitchhike to the car again and again successfully.
Today we still have Segovia planned, where we want to have a late lunch, walk around the city and then go for fox hunt … to the shop, not for the alive one. I found a restaurant with a daily menu again, and my brother’s wish was to try their specialty 2 month old piglet. I even found a restaurant that had this pig on the daily menu. So we park a short distance from the restaurant and pay for parking for about 2 hours. It took us a long time to eat, my brother was a little disappointed because he thought he would get the whole baby pig, but he got “only” part of the ribs, he wouldn’t have eaten it anyway, he already fought with this, but the meat was excellent, with its taste and texture ,it reminded us more like chicken. We mainly go to see the aqueduct and then wherever our feet take us, we wander around the city a bit and try to look for a fox, then we realize that we should go to the car, because we ran out of parking time about half an hour ago. An unpleasant surprise awaits us at the car in the form of a €60 fine. After reading all the attached documents, we find that within 60 minutes, it is possible to pay the parking fee for €4 and thus avoid the fine. The problem is that we don’t have any change left, my brother is running to get change and we are to understand the machine. It is not written anywhere from what they take the 60 minutes, whether from the “forfeiture” of parking or from the fine. We can’t make it by about 3 minutes from the lost parking lot, but we’ll try to throw it in there anyway and hope that the greeting to the Czech Republic doesn’t come.
Lu found out that they should have a fox in a Primark, we go there and ask, but they say that they have foxes, but only in the “central”/biggest one in the city center. No way, we’ll probably hate foxes. We are in a shopping center that closes in about 15 minutes, so we each run in a certain direction and search. Lu and Pajinek found it in the end, so we can happily go “home”. We love foxes again.
Day 13 [Jan 13th, 2024]
The snow is against us
Today we are going to Siente Picos with Lea and her friend. Lea asked us if we could leave later, we spend the morning with her parents. Dad shows us his collection of kayaks, which is huge and contains a large number of types depending on what they are intended for. It also contains a few very interesting pieces, for example Luis’s thesis – a home-made kayak or a home-made boat, with materials and appearance similar to boats on which natives navigate the Amazon.
We also get to the topic of when Luis and Rosemary were in the Amazon to help and they showed us their album full of interesting photos supplemented with interesting stories.
We don’t end up leaving until around 11AM or 12PM and we don’t go to Siente Picos at all, because as we found out the road is closed or clogged with cars, because the snow started to melt the day before and it froze again overnight, so there was a slippery road and in Spain they don’t have mandatory winter roads tire so people are not prepared for it.
We came up with an alternative plan and park in Cercedilla and make a circuit of about 17km with at least a view of the Siente Picos. We plan to have a snack in Cercedilla, but we can’t get to the restaurant because the road there is closed again by the police, so we take something on the way. Just roulette.
Day 14 [Jan 14th, 2024]
Churros time
Last whole day in Spain, we plan to visit Tolledo, we thought that we can give one more chance to the free tours. I booked our tour from 12:30 PM, but the company changes the time to 11:30 in the morning, so we don’t have much time. In the end it was even worse than in Madrid, there was too much history, but there was no interesting information like in Madrid. I checked out Churreria on the way, so after the free tour we have a clear plan, but before we get there, they are closed. We try another place – a cafe where they also have churros, but the lady behind the counter told us that they only have cold churros and directs us back to the churreria which is closed. So we should be there in about 2 hours, when they are reopening. So we take another walk around the city and in the end we decide to go get the car, I’ll drop my brother off at the churreria, wait for him and we’ll eat it on the opposite side, by the castle. But my brother can not just see it and wait till we will be on the other side, so he is already working on his batch and puts the rest on the seat next to him, but a sharp right comes and all the chocolate ends up on Lu’s jacket and on the seat. On the top of it, it starts to rain, we classically blame each other and try to clean it up, and we’re all pissed off. I work on my portion and the coffee and I don’t enjoy it at all, at the end I find out that the churros cone has leaked oil into the drink compartment. I think it was my first and last churros.
We find out that the castle is not just any castle, it works as a hostel (Castillo de San Servando) and has very reasonable prices. We are asking about capacity, because we expected it to be booked for few months in advance, but to our surprise, the first free date is in two days. On the way home we stop at the store for some small gifts and in the evening we say goodbye to Lea because she goes to work in the morning.
Day 15 [Jan 15th, 2024]
Home-coming
On the last day we enjoy the last homemade orange juice from Louise. We invite Louis and Rosemary to visit us in the Czech Republic and say goodbye to them. The trip to the airport went quickly, the return of the car went smoothly and the trip home too. Around 7 in the evening, we are already sitting with our grandfather and tasting wine from Madrid.
