Where not to go while you are on Tenerife

When you come to Tenerife, the first thing  you will see are many stands with posters showing animals. This posters are here to attract tourists and offer them cheap entertainment. No, it is not cheap in the meaning of money, but it is cheap in the meaning of entertainment.  All this animals are in captivity and all because of entertainment, Loro parque for example is doing shows with whales in small tanks. It is well known that some of the whales attacked their trainers. Did you know that orcas (whales) in natural habitat swim more than 100 km per day,they have one of the most sophisticated technique of attack that are transmit to other generations. In small tanks, this is impossible for them.  In aqualand you can see shows with dolphins. But why? You can see dolphins and whales in natural habitat if you book trip with boat or submarine in the nearest booking office. I have once walked near the aqualand and when I reached the top of the street, I could see when the show in aqualand was over, the dolphins in small tenk swimming in the circle.It is the same as someone trap you in a room and you are going in circles all day long. Very sad. Other animals which are captivated in Jungle park, Loro park, Monkey park are 18 hours exposed in a small spaces with unnatural light only to be shown to people. This animals often develop bad behavior which is not strange at all. Even in siam park which is famous as the best water park in Europe, the sharks are captivated in dirty water and small space. I think that nobody who have any common sense will go in a places like this. There is so much more to be seen in Tenerife than to see modern slavery.

From internet: aqualand

Froom internet:loro parque

Dolphins in natural habitat

Aqualand

Siam park

Barranco del Infierno

Beginning of the trail

On sunny Sunday I decided to go hiking in Barranco del Infierno. The entrance is officially closed, but the truth is that the fence and doors are broken so everybody can pass there. The goal is to reach the waterfall.  Approximate time to reach the goal and to return is 3 hours. The path starts by the restaurant Othelo , the charming restaurant where you can find traditional dishes from Canarias such as mojo for example. I passed the Othelo and the fence, and entered through the wooden doors for the Barranco del infierno. The first meters of the trail is small hiking road but the more you walk, the more the path is leading down into the canyon. When I reached the bottom, I seen a creek which extends until the end of the path.

 On this hiking tour, you have to be careful because there are many rocks and wet surfaces where you can slip in the minute. The reason why the barranco is closed is because of the deadly accident that happened there few years ago. The truth is that every barranco on Tenerife can be equally dangerous if you are not careful. Barranco del Infierno is very interesting in archaeological term, because many guanche mummies have been found there. I didn’t saw caves because they have been enclosed with the rocks after findings so people couldn’t enter in. After my Indiana Jones adventure, I went back just before dark. This three hours are really worth your time.

What is it on this photo?

The goal accomplished

Teide-La Orotava-Icod-Garachico-Masca

Road trip to Teide

Today I went on an excursion and visited Vilaflor, Teide, La Orotava, Icod de los vinos, Garachico, Masca, Santiago del Teide and down to Los Gigantes. I passed half of island  in a single day. This is how excursion work. When you have booked an excursion, first you have to choose a pick up point, you will get few places where the bus will pick you up at scheduled time. Very simple. After pick up, we left from Los Cristianos to Vilaflor which was our first stopping point. As we traveled by road, I had a wonderful view on Los Christianos which was peaceful fishing village before it started to expand for touristic purposes after 1980. I did not know until the tour guide told us that village Vilaflor is highest village in Tenerife with more than 1400m from sea level. Now in January I needed to wear my winter jacket because was near 5C° outside. Brrr… What a difference between Los Cristianos where was at the moment aprox 20C°. When we arrived, unfortunately, when we entered the caffe bar, it was full with people from two more excursion buses which were parked outside, our bus was third, so I used that opportunity to look around a bit. Whell, Vilaflor is mainly a village with “scattered” houses with large gardens. We left this charming village after 20 minutes and headed for Teide. 

Teide

The road to teide is filled with beautiful view on pine forest and view on La Gomera and La Palma (2 islands which we didn’t able to see because of the clouds). Before we arrived to the National park of Teide (full name on spanish is Parque Nacional de Las Cañadas del Teide , their warned us that we cant pick any plant or rock and take with us or we would have to pay 100€ for every piece we took with us. Well, the main problem with me is when someone tell me don’t, I had to do the opposite but not if the nature or animals are involved, so of course I did not took anything this time, part of because I respect nature way too much and part of is the reason that I asked myself a question; What if every of more than hundred tourists that are coming to Teide every day took something? This is important especially because the natural park is rich with black stone(s) which is known in jewelry by the name Opsidian. It is a semiprecious stone. If you understand more in semiprecious stones, you must know that every stone has healing powers, Opsidian also. After they permitted us to leave the bus and take a few pictures, we came to the bus where tourist guide told us more information about Teide. It is highest peak in Spain. The volcano is asleep at the time, the last eruption of pico Teide was couple of centuries ago. Did you know that in the time when Guanches lived, Teide was mutual space used by domestic animals. You can go there with a car, bike, stay overnight in the nearest mountain lodge, watch the sky at night in watchtowers, many possibilities at Teide. We proceed to La Orotava, just passed by because in the centar we couldn’t go with transportation. There is another excursion which is organized to go in the center.La Orotava is famous by the House of many balconies. Casa de los balcones, the carpets made of flowers at corpus Christi holiday, the big carpet with Christ on it with pictures of Christs passion. If you want to stay in La Orotava few days, you have Rural Victoria hotel. The prices on the north are cheaper then in other parts of island. 

Many banana plantation

We proceed to Icos de los Vinos and stopped there to see Drago the tree, but I forgot my camera in the bus so I I don’t have a proof that I saw the famous tree. Well, you just have to trust me. For me, it is just a tree, for botanists it is a protected specie, the largest in its sort (18m height). The tree age is estimated about 800-1000 years, but the legend says that is old more than 5000 years. Allegedly, Guanche people respected the Drago tree very much. The legend also says that when dragon dies, he become drago tree.  In Icod you can also seen Cueva del Viento which is the largest volcanic cave in the world (17km long) and near by is Pueblo chico, the park with miniatures 1:25 of everything that is well known on Tenerife. While in Icod, we got the enough time for lunch. We also got the option to eat in local restaurant for 13€ (they offered ready menu) or to eat wherever and whatever we want to. Few recommendations of the hotels and apartments in this area: Apartamentos Estrella del norte , Emblematico San Agustin hotel, San Marco hotel. After the lunch, we proceeded to Garachico, small city with natural pools which designed an architect which died in a car accident later (isn’t amazing how we always remember some odd details in a story).

Garachico

Garachico with natural pools

 This little city almost turned in black powder when volcano (Moñtana Negra) erupted in 1706. and flowing lava lasted for 9 days. Luckily, the old city survived. Only one hotel here in this little and charming village. Here, we stopped to catch some photos and move on to are next and last exit-Masca. I couldn’t believe what skills do you have to have to ride those roads in Masca. On the road which is, by the way, situated on the height of several hundred meters and where only one and half car fit, without of problem passes both buses and cars in the same time, what a skill. But if you are a lousy driver, I do not recommend you driving through the Masca. We took a rest of 20 minutes in Masca which I used to take a walk through this magnificent village.

Masca

 Masca have amazing nature. Habitants are mainly older people or people who only came there for a weekend. Masca is really worth to see. It was late afternoon so we proceed to Los Gigantes  through Santiago del Teide. The bus stopped for every person in the pick up point. If you are fun of cars, there are many variants with rent-a-car also.

In the valley of Masca

Masca road to hell

Danas sam otisla na jednu ekskurziju i posjetila Vilaflor, Teide, La Orotava,  Icod de los vinos, Garachico,  Masca,  Santiago del Teide pa sve do Los Gigantesa. Prosla sam pola otoka u samo jednom danu. Evo kako ekskurzije funkcioniraju…. Kad bookirate ekskurziju, prvo morate izabrati tocku gdje ce vas pokupiti autobús. Prodavac karata ce vam dati par mjesta kao opciju koju mozete izabrati za pick up tocku, isto tako cete dobiti i raspored kad se morate pojaviti tamo. Vrlo je jednostavno. Nakon prikupa putnika sa zadnje tocke u Los Christianosu, nastavili smo za Vilaflor  koji je bio nasa prva stajalisna tocka. Dok smo se vozili, imala sam prekrasan pogled na  Los Christianos koji je prije razvoja turizma bilo mirno ribarsko selo. Vilaflor je najvise selo po nadmorskoj visini  od 1400m na Tenerifama.  Sad u sijecnju sam morala obuci zismku jaknu koliko je bilo hladno, oko 5C° je bila temperatura. Brrr… Koja razlika izmedu Los Christianosa gdje je temp bila oko 20C°. Nazalost, kad smo stigli, jos dva autobusa su bila parkirana ispred kafica, a unutra je bilo puno ljudi tako da sam iskoristila priliku da malo prosetam po selu. Znaci, Vilaflor je sarmantno selo sa “razbacanim” kucama koje imaju velike vrtove. Da, to je sve sto sam stigla vidjeti prije nego sam se vratila u kafic da se ugrijem malo. Uskoro smo napustili ovo malo hladno mjesto i krenuli za jos hladnije Teide. Dok smo isla cestom za Teide, vidjeli smo puno prekrasnih prizora na borovu sumu i jedva jedviti pogled na La Gomeru i La Palmu ( otoka koja se nisu dobro vidjela od oblaka). Prije negó smo dosli n Nacionalni park Teide (puni naziv na spanjolskom je Parque Nacional de Las Cañadas del Teide).  Vodickinja nas je upozorila da ne smiju ubrati biljku niti ponijeti kamen sa sobom inace cemo morati platiti 100€ po svakom uzetom komadu, ako nas policija primjeti. Najveci problema kod mene je sto kad mi se kaze ne smijes, ja pocinjem smisljati kako to sprovesti. No ovaj put nisam iz razloga jer previse cijenim prirodu. Isto tako, tlo je bogato Opsidijanom koji se koristi kao poludragi kamen tj. Kristal. Kao ste bolje upoznati sa kristalima onda znate da im se pripisuju iscjeliteljska svojstva, tako je i sa Opsidijanom. Sto bi se dogodilo kad bis vi mogli nositi sa sobom sto zele…. Pustos… Nakon sto su nas pustili na malu pauzu na Teide, da slikamo krajolik. Nakon sto smo usli u bus, saznala sam jos malo informacija o Teide nac.parku. Teide je najvisi vrh u Spanjolskoj. Vulkan trenutno spava, a zadnja erupcija je bila prije nekoliko stoljeca. Okruzen je s jos nekoliko vulkana koji su bili aktivni i nakon Teide vulkana. Da li ste znali da su Guanchesi koji su prije vise od dvije tisuce godina dosli na Tenerife i podijelili ga u 10 kraljevstva, Teide smatrali zajednickim prostorom koji je sluzio za ispasu domacih zivotinja. Do tamo se moze doci i autom, biciklom, prenociti u najblizoj planinskoj kolibi, gledati nocno nebo u obliznjoj zvjezdarnici….mnogo mogucnosti na Teide. Nastavili smo prema La Orotavi, ali smo samo prosli okolo, mismo mogli u centar jer je zabranjeno za vozila. Ima jedna druga ekskurzija gdje se ide centar la Orotave. Orotava je poznata po kuci sa balkonima i tepisima od cvijeca koje se rade na Tijelovo. Nastavili smo prema Icod de los Vinos i stali na pauzu za rucak koju sam iskoristila tako da odem do poznatog Drago tree-stabla. Nazalost, fotoaparat sam zaboravila u autobusu tako da ce mi ostati samo sjecanje na Drago tree. Za mene je to samo stablo, za botanicare je zasticena vrsta, najvece u svojoj vrsti na svijetu (17m visoko). Procijenjena starost je stabla je 800-1000 godina, ali legenda kaze da je starije od 5000 godina. Jos jedna legenda kaze da kad umre zmaj, postaje drago tree. U Icodu mozete isto tako vidjeti Cuevo del viento ili u prijevodu Spilju vjetrova koja je najveca vulkanska spilja na svijetu (17km duga). Odmah blizu je Pueblo chico, park sa minijaturama 1:25 od svega sto je poznato na Tenerifama. Dok smo stali u Icodu, imali smo dovoljno vremena za rucak. Dobili smo i opciju da jedemo u lokalnom restoranu domace kanarsko jelo za 13€. Nakon rucka, nastavili smo za Garachico, mali grad sa prirodnim bazenima koje je dizajnirao arhitekt koji je umro kasnije u prometnoj nesreci ( fascinantno mi je kako uvijek pamtim cudne detalje u prici). Ovaj mali gradic se skoro pretvorio u prah kad se vulkan (Montaña negra) probudio 1706. I eruptirao. Lava je tekla punih 9 dana. Srecom, stari dio grada je ostao citav. Ovdje smo stali da uslikamo par slika i nastavili prema nasoj zadnjoj ruti- Masci.  Nisam mogla vjerovati koje vjestine ljudi koji voze aute ili autobuse po uskoj cestici Masce imaju, na cesti koja je smjestena na visini od nekoliko tisuca metara i gdje doslovce stane jedan i po auto, bez problema se zgura autobus i auto u isto vrijeme. NO ako niste vjest vozac, nikako ne preporucam voznju po cestici Masce. Zaustavili smo se 20 min u Masci koje sam iskoristila za setnju i slikanje tog fascinantnog sela. Masca ima velicanstvenu prirodu, stanovnici su vecinom stariji ljudi i ljudi koji dolaze samo za vikend u Masca. Vjerujte mi, Mascu se stvarno isplati vidjeti. Bilo je kasno poslijepodne kad smo nastavili prema Los Gigantesu kroz Santiago del Teide. Bus je stao na svakoj pick up tocci na zavrsetku naseg izleta.