March started for a few days, the weather is getting warmer and better. It’s a lazy Saturday and we’re planning a barbecue. This will be the classic “stay 2 hours next to the grill, drink as much as possible, eat something, fall asleep” routine that we all love and keep doing every now and then.

Feeling happy that the food is nice, the weather is just fine and that everyone is happy, I post a photo on my 366 project as the photo of the day.

Little did I know when I posted it, that it would trigger a chain of events that would end with me writing this. Bloop bee boop de bop!, a text message comes from V., saying “well some are living the good life…”. For those who don’t know him, V. is my best friend of over 20 years, and recently moved to Tenerife with his wonderful wife, You’ll find them at the end of the first post about Tenerife that I wrote a couple of months ago.

So without any hesitation, I started to search for tickets. Not small was my surprise when I discovered a ticket leaving Bucharest (OTP) directly for Tenerife South (TFS) at less than 50 euro. My finger jumped on the “buy now” button, no questions asked. Looked for a ticket back home as well and that was it! Another trip booked!

I won’t talk too much about the flight itself, because I philosophised a lot about it in the “Single Serving Relationships” post. Long plane trips make up for great writing sessions!

On the road again…

Last time I’ve been in Tenerife, we spent most of the time on the southern coast, which is really great if you’re a tourist and need to wind back or play some golf.

Now my friends moved into a really nice house for a couple of months on the coast town of Puerto de la Cruz. I went there without knowing anything about the city, the only thing I knew was that they were there and there are enough things to do and see. Already knowing my way around the TFS airport, I searched for a bus route towards Puerto and hopped into the 10 bus that would take me to the island’s capital city, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where I’d have to change buses. The road was smooth and fast, covered the distance in about 50 minutes with a ton of really nice landscapes. I really love the way the wind turbine fields look, I’m sure they would make Don Quijote very very belligerent.

Arriving in Santa Cruz, I was smart enough to find fast the 102 bus that would take me to Puerto and lucky enough to have it leave 5 seconds after I took a seat. It was already getting darker, so I didn’t see too much of the landscapes of the Northern coast, so I decided to take a quick nap.

Puerto de la Cruz

Forty-five minutes later I arrived at Intercambiador de Puerto de la Cruz, where my friends were waiting for me. As a small sidenote, the buses in Tenerife are called guaguas (read as “wawa”) and I think that’s beautiful. As I didn’t have any plan, we just went to drop my bags and then we went for a stroll out in the town, to see the city at night and maybe grab something to eat.

After grabbing a bite, we went back home as it was getting pretty late and the town started to go to bed, and we decided to save our batteries for the next day, because Puerto de la Cruz is not a big city, but it’s properly spread across an area filled with hills and pretty steep streets and stairways, and navigating it is sometimes a proper workout.

With that in mind, we went the next day on the streets in full-tourist mode, with me stopping everywhere to take photos. And, man, I took a shit-ton of photos. Puerto de la Cruz is such a beautiful town, it blends really nice the old Canarian architecture with some new and tall buildings and while the new hotels are nice, the best part is still the old one closer to the seaside.

The narrow streets and the old houses are really beautiful, and in addition to the excellent weather outside, they seem to invite you to daydream about dropping everything you have and just move in one of those small cottages.

The old center is also filled with huge murals on some of the buildings, made by great artists. It’s a pleasure to just walk around and be amazed by each and every one of them. The food is just as good as anywhere on the island, but what I found interesting was that people in the North use the term zaperoco for the barraquito con liqor, which is the only approved way to have it. Of these, I had about 10 in the time I stayed there, don’t actually remember, I lost count because of how strong they make it.

The city, while touristic, features a lot of nice landmarks and places that one can visit, but the best part of it is that it’s beautiful on its own, roaming the streets giving nice views, really nice little homes and landscapes, as well as giving you a nice vibe.

And speaking about houses, I really loved the one where my friends current live in. It has a huge terrace and it is situated on a hill with a beautiful view combining the sea, hotels, old sites and more. The Puerto lighthouse would start flashing inside the house at night and it gave me the geebees one evening, but otherwise was nice. It also had a lot of vegetation, flowers, and some friends. We also had a fun neighbour dog, which inspired me to start a photo project the next time I arrive in Tenerife.

La Orotava

After we’ve roamed the streets of Puerto de la Cruz for a few days, we took a guagua towards Orotava, one of the big towns of Tenerife. It’s a very pretty town, situated about 20 km away from Puerto, placed closer to the middle of the island, and this means its altitude is also higher, situated at about 400 meters above sea level, the highest city in Tenerife.

We did walk a lot on the streets of La Orotava, which turned out to be quite the workout with all the stairs and steep hills, but it was totally worth it. While we didn’t have any big checkpoints to tick on a list, it is a beautiful city to roam in and if you’re not very fond of the beaches, it’s more “city-ey” and less touristy, so it’s definitely worth seeing. It been called the “museum town” because its city center still has that medieval vibe. What really stuck with me were the brilliant attractions of “Liceo Taoro” and the “Jardin Victoria”, situated next door, a really beautiful terraced garden with a brilliant view of the Atlantic and with a nice mausoleum at the top. The Holy Week is a nice time to visit, if you’re on the Christian spiritual side.

The Beaches and Coast of Puerto de la Cruz

While the city itself is really nice, the beaches are also beautiful. Their black sand is so alien looking and it’s a very cool experience. However, we didn’t spend any time sunbathing, as it’s not my jam in particular and also because the weather was pretty windy causing some pretty big waves, causing the beaches to be closed for swimming. Regardless, the beaches were filled with people sunbathing and I really liked how no one challenged the lifeguards and how the general atmosphere was relaxed. Not being able to swim, we decided instead to explore the boardwalks and other beaches of Puerto de la Cruz, discovering not only great views, but also a really nice neighbourhood with entrances facing the water and pathways over the cliffs. I don’t want to know how it feels living there on a stormy night, but we saw some houses that definitely had it rough for the last few years.

Now I’m in the plane, on my way back to OTP and trying to remember what was a week filled with great moments and time spent with dear friends, while seeing places that I want to become familiar for the first time.

As much as I wanted to beat the record of 90437 steps, I know that it would be hard and painful, as the cities I visited had pretty steep streets and walking was not as easy as it was in the South part of the island, where everything was way flatter. However, I was happy to see while I was writing this that I managed to make a few hundred more steps in this trip, albeit at the very costly price of having muscle soreness for over two days now. But it was totally worth it.

I’ll end this post on the same note and feeling as the previous trip to Tenerife. The most important reason to return is not about the places you visit, not about the museums and cities you see, it’s always the people that meet you there with open arms and open hearts.

Will be continued… Until then, enjoy the photo dump in the link at the bottom of the article.

Gallery