Katie Regan

Writer. Editor. Explorer. Creator.

Tag: Spain

Two+ Weeks on Tenerife: Impressions and Specifics

July 1, 2018 / / 3 Comments

What I ate, saw, did, and thought of it all during my stay on Tenerife

Black Sand Beach Tenerife

Black sand beaches were a definite highlight

My broad impressions of Tenerife over the past two weeks or so are thus: It is surprisingly dry. The neighborhood I was staying in is very small, and if I wanted to go to a specific village or to a specific beach or on a specific hike, I needed to take the bus. The bus, or guagua, however, is incredibly easy to navigate, but it can be a hurdle nonetheless.

Where to Stay

Las Americas Tenerife

Strolling by the waterside in Las Americas

If someone were to ask me for advice before a trip to the island, I would probably steer them away from Los Cristianos or Las Americas. These are the main tourist towns on this side of the island, and they just strike me as a bit inauthentic. Out of the two, I prefer Los Cristianos a bit, as my impressions of Las Americas were that it is similar to the Vegas strip or Disney World. A fake pop-up town, if you will, with the main goal being the collection of money from its visitors. Let’s just say that what I read of pink, British tourists eating fish and chips was actually pretty spot on. At least in these areas. Of course, some people are looking for this, but it’s not what I would recommend.  

Though, there was a REALLY beautiful mini-golf course in Las Americas that I would have loved to play if I had a friend. 

La Laguna Tenerife

La Laguna, the historic university town

In general, if I were to return, I feel like I might prefer to stay in the villages to the north or the inland villages. They seem to be where people actually live and have a bit more character. My time here probably would have been very different if I were located in a different neighborhood. But again, the free time and tranquil location were perfect for my writing ambitions.

Visitors and tourists looking for a beach vacation but wanting to avoid the tourist traps should look into staying in the area near Los Gigantes. The scenery was much more beautiful, it seemed like a bit more of a real town, and it’s closer to some of the lovely wilderness. This area also has access to a lot of the tourist activities that Los Cristianos and Las Americas have (ferries, water sports, scuba diving and snorkeling, hiking, etc.) without the insanity.  

Los Gigantes Tenerife

Los Gigantes

That being said, I’ve only been here for about two weeks and wasn’t out hoofing it every day. I really have only scratched the surface of Tenerife. These are my assumptions based on my limited experience. I was fortunate enough to meet some incredibly kind and generous people without whom I would have seen much less of the island. 

Food

I’ve been eating at home more than I do in the States (pat me on the back, please, I love eating out). This is despite the fact that fresh produce was either hard to come by or very expensive on the island. My home-cooked meals were modest, to say the least.

A majority of the meals I have had out have been pretty damn tasty and just what I was looking for. Most are served with mojo, two colors of sauces that you apply to your bread, meat, potatoes, and whatever else you’d like. A very welcome addition that reminded me a little bit of Peruvian cuisine.

Restaurants of note:
Meat Mountain Casa Odon Tenerife

Meat Mountain @ Casa Odon

  • Restaurante Casa Odon:
    • We stopped at this spot on our way back from Puerto de la Cruz. Legend says they specialize in mushrooms and meat, and boy do they! We got the ½ portion of mixed mushrooms (delicious) and a ½ portion of mixed meat. I don’t want to know what the full portion of meat looks like because what they brought us was meat mountain. Everything was super tasty, though (and I had meat for a week!).
Restaurante Otelo Tenerife

Restaurante Otelo – Delicious Fried Chicken!

  • Restaurante Otelo:
    • This restaurant sits at the foot of El Barranco del Infierno, and would be the perfect reward for a hike well done. Even if you don’t do the hike, they have an extensive patio with amazing views of both the sea and the gorge. They specialize in Pollo al ajillo (delicious, seasoned fried chicken). We accompanied this with roasted potatoes, salad, and of course, wine. Everything was so tasty, and the salad was the first serving of fresh veggies I had in some time.
Tajao Tenerife

This view was a short walk from Restaurante Manolo II

  • Restaurante Manolo II:
    • I didn’t take any pictures here because I was too busy meeting new friends and eating delicious, freshly caught seafood. This restaurant is in the little fishing village of Tajao, which means everything is fresh, fresh, fresh. Essentially, you go up to the counter, pick which specimens you would like to devour, and they cook them up for you right away. We ate everything tapas style with plates coming out at different times that we all shared. Treats such as: chipirones (fried baby squid that you pop in your mouth whole), calamari, a couple of whole fish, roasted potatoes, and lapas (limpets). All washed down with wine, of course.
Panadería Croquant Los Cristianos Tenerife

Delicious birthday cake from Panadería Croquant

  • Panadería Croquant:  
    • I arrived on Tenerife the day before my birthday, and my hosts being as sweet and generous as they were, insisted on buying me a birthday cake to celebrate. She took me to this bakery and had me choose my flavor. I chose the banana, rum, and caramel flavored cake pictured here. They were both a little skeptical of my flavor choice, but it turned out to be one of the best cakes I can remember having and everyone had multiple servings. 

My hosts also took me out for a birthday dinner in Costa de Adeje. We had tapas and paella and they were quite delicious. There are many restaurants in this little area, and the sea views were beautiful. Since there are so many there, and it was my first day, I don’t remember which restaurant we went to, but just a walk in the area should help you find one that suits your tastes. 

Activities

As I predicted, nature has been the great highlight of my time on Tenerife. I know I haven’t seen nearly enough. Most of the beautiful sites I’ve seen, I probably wouldn’t have without the wonderful generosity of new friends. I do not have access to a car or bike here, and sometimes getting motivated to take a bus ride to a far away place proved challenging and time-consuming.

Tenerife Sur

Getting thirsty just landing at Tenerife Sur

In general, I was surprised how dry and brown everything was. I was expecting a volcanic island paradise and must have forgotten that the Sahara desert is right across the water.

Thanks to the help of friends, I was able to see black sand beaches, rocky shorelines, and the relative lushness of the north, which has a totally different climate from the south. I was also shown some of the striking beauty of the south that I wouldn’t have even known to look for on my own (Los Gigantes, La Tejita, El Médano).

Masca

I had really wanted to do the Masca hike, but was unable to because it was closed for repairs of their jetty. I guess not too long ago some young hikers got stuck out there overnight due to the broken jetty. The hike, if open, apparently goes from the little mountain town of Masca, down through the gorge to a little secluded beach, and is said to be incredibly lovely.

El Barranco del Infierno
El Barranco del Infierno Tenerife

The start of the hike to El Barranco del Infierno

Barranco del Infierno Helmet

Not sure this would have stood up against a falling boulder, but its worth a shot

Instead, I was able to hike El Barranco del Infierno (hell’s gorge). This one can allegedly be quite dangerous. They make you wear a helmet, as a woman died last year from a rock falling on her. In fact, as I arrived, the man at the gate was on his walkie-talkie discussing a woman who had gotten injured in there and needed a helicopter out. We saw her in there before the end and it appears she either broke or sprained her ankle. Either way, as we rounded the corner to the waterfall, we were greeted by her shrieks of pain as the rescuers attempted to stabilize her ankle. Fun!

Despite these horror stories, I did not find it to be an incredibly challenging hike. You just need to make sure to keep your footing. Also keep in mind that on a sunny afternoon, there is NO shade for most of the hike, so bring sunscreen and plenty of water. 

El Barranco del Infierno Tenerife

The waterfall at the end of the gorge

El Teide
El Teide Tenerife Volcano

Majestic El Teide – my first volcano!

Originally, I was hoping to do the hike up El Teide, stay overnight at the hut, and hike up to the crater. Once arriving and seeing how dry the landscape was and short and scrubby the brush, I was glad I had a ride up the mountain. Still seems like a cool experience though and apparently, the star view from up there is unparalleled.

Instead, my hosts drove me up the volcano, and I’m so glad I got to see it. I’ve never been on a volcano before and it was beyond cool to see how the different colors (read: ages) of lava flows stacked upon one another. A must-see if on Tenerife.

Saying Goodbye

As always for me, it’s weird to be leaving a place. Especially a place you got used to living for a short while. How quickly you internalize your every day. Yet, I will never see that place again. Never sleep in that bed, brush my teeth in that sink, see any of those cats. I know this is normal and not out of the ordinary, but it feels strange to me. I can be so sentimental.

Black sand beach Tenerife

Adios, Tenerife!

Things I am glad to leave behind:

The water. The water is desalinated sea water. It is incredibly hard and my hair and skin have been staging quite a revolt.

Things I will miss:

Perfect weather every day. Regular sea vistas. New friends. 

 

Baby’s First House Sit: Tenerife

June 25, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Some thoughts and reflections from my very first house sitting gig.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are two specific things that are making this journey possible for me: my Registered Companion status on a major US airline, and various house sitting gigs through Housecarers.com. We all know that house sitting is a genius idea that I stole from travelers before me. I get to live somewhere for free and meet and hang out with new animals, it’s perfect.

Cat Lounging

Grey taking a wee nap

Before I came, a friend pointed out that she wasn’t sure she would like it; wasn’t sure she’d be able to feel at home or be cozy in someone else’s space. So far, that is not the case for me. I remembered just a few days ago that, in my experience, even when one temporarily rents out an apartment in a foreign city, it is usually already furnished. You don’t populate an apartment with your own stuff. This is more or less the same.

Also, besides the animals, you are in the place by yourself. It’s not like being a guest in someone’s home and always being concerned that you are in their way. Just keep everything clean and functional and keep animals alive and you are just fine.

There is one important distinction to note. Traveling alone by house sitting is not the same as traveling alone by hostel. At hostels, there are all sorts of people doing the same thing, out of their respective elements, looking to make friends. House sitting, you don’t get that immediate network. House sitting, there are all sorts of… cats who want you to clean up after them. They’re also usually pretty unwilling to go out and grab a beer or a bite.

Lots of Pets

It’s a veritable menagerie in here

Something that I didn’t necessarily consider before, but will consider in the future, is the number of animals in any given house sit. Going into this gig, I figured seven cats aren’t much different than one, and birds and fish are easy. Turns out, the fish actually required the most work. Some of them have a special diet, which needs to be prepared, AND their water needs to be changed every four days. Seven cats means seven opportunities for vomit. Seven cats means a lot of fur. Seven cats means you can’t wake up and immediately get to writing with fresh ideas, because overnight seven cats have been using the litter box and eating the food and they need both those things freshened before starting the day. Birds are pretty easy, though I feel badly for them regularly. Birds also poop, a lot, and they don’t really care where they fling it

It has been fun watching the cats slowly but surely come around to me. When I got here, they were all pretty spooked, some even hissing and running away. The first few days were dedicated to winning them over. Slowly, one by one, they stopped running (some of them stopped hissing), then, they started to be okay when I initiated pets. Finally, they would come to ME for cuddles. As of writing, there is only one cat who is still not into me, but he HAS voluntarily sniffed me a few times.

Cat snuggles

When they snug, they SNUG

Judgemental cat

Fufy is not into my shenanigans

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, my first house sitting gig was quite successful. My hosts were beyond friendly. They treated me as a part of the family as soon as I arrived. They took me all around and even bought me a most decadent birthday cake. The animals, while time consuming, have been wonderful. It’s fun seeing the different personalities of all the cats. The home is clean and safe, plus there is a pool! Not too shabby for my first experience.

Casualty count: 1 fish, 1 bowl, 1 lock… could be worse.

Broken Lock

I came VERY close to being locked in for my last 24 hours here

Tenerife Takeaways: Part 1

June 20, 2018 / / 4 Comments

I’ve been house sitting in the Canary Islands for about two weeks. Here are some takeaways.  

Tenerife Sunset

Sunset on my first night on Tenerife

I planned on writing about a post a week while I was here, but lo and behold, I am already down to the end of my stay, so, instead I wrote four posts in a day. Efficient? Maybe. Procrastinatey? Definitely. The remaining three posts will surface in the days to come.

Originally, Oakland was supposed to be my first house sit; getting my feet wet in a city with which I’m familiar and friends just around the corner. For many reasons, that trip falling through was a blessing in disguise, but it lead to me starting this whole process here, on a foreign island in a foreign country in not my native tongue. I’ve already learned a few things.

Tenerife El Teide Volcano

Halfway up the volcano. There’s green up here!

Language Sidebar: My Spanish is decent. I’m very good at reading it, not terrible at listening to it, and less great at speaking it due to forgetting words. It definitely gets better as I practice, but upon arriving here, I experienced something I never experienced before. For the first two days of interacting solely in Spanish, I felt it getting better. It was exhausting, but I was improving. On the third day, however, something very strange happened.

This was the day where my host had to explain all the animal and house-related duties I would need to carry out over the next two weeks. After hours of absorbing information in my second language, something broke. More specifically, my Spanish skills broke and I was sent hurtling backward. All of a sudden, I was unable to recall so many words and grammar rules that I already knew. I had tried to store too much in my brain at once and it snapped. This lead to me feeling embarrassed when I had lunch with my new friends the next day and my Spanish was not up to par. So strange.

Also, let’s all remember this when talking to people who are struggling to get a handle on our language. It’s taxing. Experience empathy!

For the first week or so, when I talked to people back home, everyone was asking questions such as:

“What awesome things have you been doing?!”

“Is it totally amazing!?”

When I wasn’t able to answer with the grand adventures I was having or the amazing things I was seeing, I started to feel guilty. Am I not doing enough? Seeing enough? Everyone was expecting me to soak up everything, to be immediately meeting all the new people and experiencing all the things. I let myself feel guilty for a while until I realized, that’s not the entire point, is it? The point of this journey is not to be a hard-partying, super active tourist in every location I go to. If I treated every destination the way I would a week-long vacation, I’d be exhausted, I’d get nothing done, and frankly, I’d be out of money pretty quickly.

Tenerife Patio Sunset

Sunset from the patio.

Yes, I could have gone whale watching or scuba diving and I could have taken a ferry to another island or even spent every day at the beach. I could have really hit the nightlife scene hard. But, for what? The point of this, at its core, is to give me a free place to stay so that I can get writing done; hopefully to create something worthwhile, but also to make my portfolio more robust so I become a competitive candidate for work that I really want to do. It is a (most excellent) bonus that I get to travel the world and do this in places that I’ve never seen before and experience cultures on a very local level.

So, I stopped feeling guilty. I’m sorry, y’all. I didn’t do all the tourist stuff. I didn’t go out and meet the random British partiers, or tons of locals. What I did do, was make a few awesome new friendships thanks to a connection facilitated by an old friend. I experienced generosity, was able to see a large part of the island due to this generosity (though it was still just the tip). Otherwise, I lived a pretty normal, kinda boring life… a lot of which involved caring for seven cats, seven birds, and two tanks full of fish.

Tenerife Cats

Four out of seven cats

Over the next few days, I will go over my island experiences in a bit more detail. This was my starter gig, and it helped me to navigate things such as jet lag, time management, animal care, and striking a balance between tourist and temporary resident. As for now, I will leave you with a snapshot of things I miss from home and things I love about being here.

Things I miss most (besides humans because that goes without saying and y’all don’t need to hear that shit):

  • Toaster ovens. Man, I really rely on a toaster oven. Making toast, making melts, reheating leftovers. A toaster oven can’t be beat. Sure, the “grill” setting on Spanish microwaves is cool, but it doesn’t really compare.
  • Swiffer. How can someone have SEVEN cats and not have a Swiffer? Normal methods of dusting just don’t come close. No, they don’t sell Swiffer here… or Drano. Challenges.
  • Fresh produce. I thought I was coming to Spain, so was excited about very affordable fruits and veggies like I used to get in Barcelona. What I forgot was, this is an island. An island essentially in Africa. I paid 4 Euro for an onion.

Things I love:

  • Spanish window shades. I first encountered them in Barcelona a decade ago and I don’t know why they aren’t more prevalent. I think they are meant to keep the sun out for temperature purposes, but boy oh boy they are good for sleeping.
  • Old friends like Schweppes Límon, Principe Estrella cookies, Non-USA Coca-Cola, Zumo de Melocotón (peach juice!), Receta de Campesina flavored Lay’s, decent chorizo for sandwiches. Also, somehow a Mars bar tastes way better than a Milky Way, even though they are the SAME THING.
Spanish Snacks

Snacks I can get in Spain! Yay!

 

Preconceived Notions: Tenerife

June 13, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Preconceived Notions is a feature I plan to do before traveling to a new place. I think it will be interesting to see how my impressions of a place change once I get to know it. Disclaimer: the whole point of this exercise is to expose my ignorance, please don’t @ me telling me how wrong I am. That is the point. Thank you.

When I first booked my Tenerife house-sitting gig, I was jazzed. I love the water, I love Spain, I love seaside cuisine (especially Spanish seaside cuisine). I didn’t really know all that much about the Canaries besides their location. I pictured little seaside towns, some tourist stuff, but mainly an idyllic island lifestyle, similar to the Balearics.

Formentera Cove

Originally, I was expecting something like this (Formentera, Spain)

Upon talking to folks and reading about it on the internet, however, a theme emerged. Tenerife is apparently a huge destination for British tourists. Not just any British tourists, but chavs. Clubs. Tank-top (or vest, to you Brits) sunburns. Anglicized culture. Pubs. Chips. The English language everywhere. This sort of scene is not usually what I travel for. It’s funny, when looking around the internet, I mainly saw a bunch of Brits railing on their Canary-visiting counterparts the way that only one who is truly embarrassed by their own family can.

Before I came, I asked for tips in a Facebook travel group, noting that I had already read about the main attractions, and a young lady suggested exactly the areas I was warned away from on Trip Advisor and other travel sites. I realized I didn’t quite explain exactly what I was looking for (I thought “off the beaten path” would have accomplished it). Then, I realized I’m kind of an asshole. Just because the type of travel she likes isn’t exactly what I’m looking for, doesn’t mean I should feel all superior about it, eh? I’m sure if I were a drunk, early-20s Brit, I would love that scene… just like I did when I was a drunk, early-20s American (yes, I know that America is a continent and not a country… but what would you call us? Statesers? Of the USA? I really want to know).

Beach Tourists

…but I think this may be more of what I will be getting.

I am still very jazzed. I will be by the sea. I will certainly find the little places that I enjoy. There is wonderful hiking, other islands to explore, summer festivals and parties that I can definitely get down with. I predict that a lot of my “tourism” will be nature-based. It seems like a lot of the towns that I’d really like to walk around are located on the north of the island, a few hour bus ride from where I will be staying (the tourist-saturated south), but I will get there.

And, on the bright side, any day where I am feeling lonely or fatigued, I’ll be able to walk out my door and find someone to chat with in my native tongue.

*Yes, I realize upon publishing this, that I have already been on Tenerife for a week. What you see above has been taken from previous notes and scribblings and I have worked very hard to not let any of what I KNOW about being here leak into the text. Stay tuned for my Week 1 Reflections.

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