I write to you as a new person, in the Canary Islands my sunburn was so bad that my entire top layer of skin peeled off and I am now a little tanner and full of a lot more freckles, probably skin cancer prone also, but I am trying to stay positive. These past two weeks have been very fun and adventure filled here in good ole Espana!
First of all that Friday for lunch I was surprised by my madre with Kraft macaroni and cheese for lunch, obviously I freaked out. It was left by one of her old students and we laughed and I took pictures of our epic meal. Our plane left for Tenerife from Santander a city located about two and a half hours away so we met up at the bus station around three and enjoyed listening to the classic American music they played and watching the A-team in Spanish. We flew with Ryanair, a very cheap low budget airline, which allows you one carryon, or you can pay 25€ to check a bag. We just bring backpacks and pray they are small enough to fit into the overhead bin. We arrived in Tenerife after a three hour flight around 11:30 pm. Our hostel was about 15 minutes from the airport by taxi and I have to say this was the most accommodating hostel I have ever stayed in. That night we ran down to the beach, a two minute walk, and walked around the pier and shore area, there are like a million cockroaches there at night too, so that was a little scary.
Tenerife is an island volcano, and is home to many black sand beaches in the north from the volcanic ash. The next morning we got up and made the two hour bus trip to the north side of the island to find these beaches. It was Sunday and a lot of things were closed and the only sunscreen we could find was 20 € for a small bottle, so we judged that I was cloudy enough for us to avoid any real trouble, wrong. We found the black sand beach and it was absolutely incredible, I smuggled home a sample. The ocean water was fairly warm so we played in the water, running from and jumping over waves. The rip tide was pretty powerful so we were really careful whenever a huge wave would knock us off our feet. Eventually we were tired and it was still a little cloudy with more clouds lingering around the volcano so we assumed we would be safe for a nap. I woke up about an hour later in the blazing heat and I could already feel the burn. I am the only fair skinned person there, so alone I relocated to the shade for an hour while the others continued to soak in the rays. We went swimming again later and explored the pier area where there were crashing waves and crabs. Around six we began our bus ride back down north, and stopped for about an hour halfway through to eat snacks and get café.
It was on our bus ride home that the effects of the sunburn really started to sink in, I am pretty use to sunburns but my other tanned friends had never been sunburned badly before in their lives. We got back to our hostel and our first mission was aloe, it’s funny that we are too cheap to spend 20 € on sunscreen, yet then we will drop 30€ on aloe. We ordered pizza up to our hostel room and spent the evening lathering each other up; it was really quite the bonding experience, and trying to move as little as possible. The next day Hanna and I were hiking up to the volcano and had to be up and ready to go by eight, we were slightly concerned about the state of our bodies. The next morning was worse than the day before, I was redder and couldn’t lift my hands above my head; this was not one of my shining moments. You could hear people as they would get dressed because they would softly moan and whimper; we were pathetic.
Our amazing hotel staff offered to drive us to the mountain bus station for free so we got into a cheap van with one of the staff who told us his life story and some fun facts about Tenerife. Finally we boarded the bus and it was a 3 ish hour drive up through the windy mountains to get to the top. I don’t know how but somehow I have changed in Spain and I don’t get that motion sick anymore! So finally we drove up above the clouds and made it to the base of the volcano. There is only one bus a day from our southern location so we only had about five hours before we HAD to be back on the bus. We stopped by the tourist information center and they gave us a map and some shorter trails to hike at the base of the volcano. The volcano was absolutely gorgeous, and it was a beautiful clear day. We hiked around on old lava flows, the last eruption was 1796 I believe, and obviously I collected a few rocks. The paths were beautiful and always had a great view of the volcano, Teide, in the background. We tried to do some lizard hunting. Hanna actually succeeded in catching one once but the tail detached and she freaked out. It was pretty winding up in the volcanic valley and the surrounding mountain ranges prevented you from seeing the ocean, Teide is the highest peak in Spain and is the third largest volcano in the world after two Hawaiian Volcanoes, so I’m happy we went.
The bus ride home was a lot faster, and slightly more frightening winding down hill but we made it back to our hostel and found Carrie and Corinne napping from their lazy beach day. We decided to stroll down town stopping at the beach for awhile and hitting up the supermarket. That evening we ordered pizza for the second night in row and relaxed and watched youtube videos.
The following day was our last day and we were pretty sad to go. Our plane didn’t leave till four so we hung out on the beach for most of the day. I sat in the shade, still wounded by the sun. Wind surfing is really popular in Southern Tenerife since it is so windy so we watched the traditional surf board with a sail, but then also there were people on wakeboards who would hold onto a parachute and use the wind to jump of waves and do tricks, it was pretty amazing. Carrie and Corinne found a beauty place where fish eat the dead skin off your feet like in Korea and had to try it, it was pretty funny to watch them giggle and laugh and see all the old people come into watch. Oh I don’t know if I have mentioned this but Tenerife is the number one German and old people vacation get away in the world. The signs were in Spanish and German and when we asked people to take our pictures we had to use more English and thank them in German, was bizarre.
Eventually we got back on the plane and I made it through security with many rocks and smuggled sand. We made it into Santander at 9 pm and unfortunately buses to Oviedo stop running at 8 and resume again at 3:30 in the morning. We had a long time of sitting in cafes and hanging out, outside the bus station.
All in all it was a very fun and successful weekend. I got to miss two days of school so it made last week’s classes a breeze to sit through. By sun burn had entered the blister peel phase so my constant itching is causing me to shed dead skin all over our house, I feel bad for my madre. The rest of the week was spent hanging out and catching up on school work.
This last Saturday I went on the school trip to Picos de Europa national park for the most beautiful 21 km hike I have ever been on. We picnicked in beautiful fields of wildflowers and hiked through caves and along the edge of a canyon gorge. Spain doesn’t have safety regulation so you literally hike alongside a 50 foot + drop without a railing or anything, I got the best pictures. Our hike left us exhausted but ready to go out that night. My madre told me she was amazed by the energy of the youth and didn’t know how we did it! Sunday was spent sleeping till about noon, and then hitting up night mass with all the other old people in Oviedo.
Last weekend was a little cheaper but equally amazing Picos de Europa was on my things to do list and we actually didn’t know that was where the school trip was going! What a pleasant surprise. My mommy comes tomorrow and we head off to Ireland for a week on Friday! I am so excited we will have too many adventures I am sure. I have two sets of pictures, one from Tenerife and one from Picos de Europa on the the Ruta de Cares.
I can’t believe it is already April and how fast time has flown here, I only have about six weeks left! I am sure they will fly by and I can’t wait to return to America and see all of you!
Things I have learned:
1. Hotel staff courtesy goes a long way with helping you figure out bus schedules and things to do.
2. Bananas in Tenerife are grown in huge white tent complexes and bagged with a blue plastic bag when they have matured enough to attract animals.
3. In Tenerife they don’t speak Spanish with a lisp like they do in Spain, it sounds a lot more like Mexico.
4. Spaniard shout when angry, happy, sad, or just having a normal conversation, it tough to feel out the mood of the people in the next room.
5. Kids here wear jump suits and track suits to school, all matching and in uniform.
6. They literally do play soccer in the streets.
7. I have grown accustomed to ironed underwear and socks.
8. The game Parchís in Spain is very similar to Parchisi in the US and is highly competitive between old women in cafes.
9. When you tell someone you are sunburned you say “estoy como un cangrejo” like a crab instead of lobster.
10. Black sand is the best sand!
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