I am writing on a post telling a beautiful story about God's Eye in Los Gigantes, Tenerife. Have to work extra today, had too much time off last week ;-), so the post will not be finished untill tomorrow. Meanwhile - enjoy this photo of our last Tenerife sunset, taken in the terrace in the appartment where we stayed in Puerto Santiago, on the western coast of the volcano island.
Text and images Britt Arnhild Wigum Lindland
We both enjoy walking. During our week on Tenerife we hired a car for three days, for driving around and to take us up in the mauntains for hiking. The other days we walked around in the three small towns close to each other, where our appartment was in the middle.
We walked without a map, up and down steep roads, around corners. loving what we saw. Like these coloured houses, reminding us of Burano, still so different.
Loving the palettes used, and the way the houses are built to fit the road.
Sitting down at a bar near the beach, looking at each other in disbelief when a woman at our neighbour table refused the sit there because an old Fiat stopped right outside the bar, furiously leaving her husband to pay the bill without time to finish his beer.
(I loved the Fiat, made me feel like sitting in the middle of an old French movie)
Finding beauty around every corner.
Walking along the Atlantic Sea promenade, walking there again and again. The sea, the waves, the smell, the noise....filling ourselves with it.
Sitting down at a small café near the cliffs for a coffee. Coming back here the last day for a baguette for lunch. Not wanting to leave.
Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
I promised to tell you more about our search for the botanical garden, and here it comes:
In the end we decided to give up, we continued to drive in a circle, no botanical garden anywhere. We headed for the main road, intending to drive back to Puerto Santiago and I unfolded one of the maps of Tenerife in my lap. Then I saw it. The Botanical Garden, written in black, not in La Orotave but close to the nearby town of Puerto de la Cruz. "Look Terje, I found it. Take a U-turn up there, go back and there it will be"
We took the U-turn, we did drive back, we even found several signs to La Botanica. But did we find the garden? Well, my photos should give you the answer, but let me tell you, it was not easy. Again we drove back and forth and in the end told each other - let's just give up the whole idea......
Then we saw a sign we hadn't seen before, still with the same letters, La Botanica, and we decided to give it one last try.
And there was the garden, open, waiting for us.
My joy? My smile? Well, take a look yourself
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Thank you Terje for never giving up!
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Do you have a travel story to share? Where you found what you were looking for in the end? Or may be you never found it. May be you are still looking?
We had planned to go to the beach for a swim on our last day. Only to be met by the red flags - the waves were too high, no swimming allowed. Instead we sat down at a promenade cafe, soaking up the atmosphere, the sun, the noise of the sea.
We are back home after a long flight. Were met at the airport by Torgeir, the others were at home preparing dinner.....and coffee with Ingrid and Marta's cupcakes.
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The botanical garden tale will be continued, and there will be several more Tenerife tales in the days to come.
Now I must unpack, wash clothes, shower, prepare for work tomorrow......
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Thanks for all your comments. I love them so much!
Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
You know me by now, don't you? You know that I never travel anywhere without researching, without reading all I can get my hands on about the places we are going to visit.
Finding litterature about Tenerife proved to be a hard task. I found a small Danish guidebook with some useful information, then right before Christmas a Thomas Cook travel book about the Canary Islands and also a Norwegian book about hikes on Tenerife. I read them all from cover to cover, making list of what I wanted to see, what I wanted to find.
I really did search for litterature by authors from the island, but did not succeed. Instead I searched my shelves at home for what I had by Spanish writers. Started to read some Lorca poems and also a biography about him, packed down an anthology Spain in my Mind by Alice Leccese Powers and a book about Guernica, a fictional novel, which also includes Picasso and his famous Guernica mural.
During our week here I have kept on my search, but there are not many bookstores to find, only a few books in the souvenir shops. I have managed to find one about the aboriginals of the islands, and have of course read it from start to end.
But with all this dramatic nature and history there must have been folktales and legends, tales told through generations, shared during the dark nights. Are they not written down? Are they all forgotten?
But here I am, rambling on about literature from the island when I planned to write about our search for the botanical garden.
Not easy to stay on track, is it?
I knew I had read somewhere that there was a botanical garden in La Ortava, one of the towns north on Tenerife. WE had hired a car for three days and decided to go north the first day. First of all to visit Masca, a small, remote village which will need its own blogpost, and then continue further north, to Icod de Los Vinos and the 3000 years old Dragonblood Tree, and continue to the botanical garden.
Sounded easy, didn't it......
Well, we drove to La Orotava where I was sure to find the garden, but no signs to help up. Stopped a couple of times to ask for help, but no luck, so there we drove around for more than one hour, in the middle of the city.
La Orotava is beautiful though. Some day we must go back, not to just drive around looking for a sign or good luck, but to really explore all the beautiful old houses.
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.....to be followed, as the wifi connection is so slow I am unable to upload more photos at the moment.....
Photo Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
A photo from the gondola up to Mount Teide, the highest mountain in Spain, the third biggest volcano in the world.........
.....while I am working on more blogposts....
....or considering if the tales I have are for an essay instead.....
Text and images Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
Yesterday morning we put on our old worn hiking shoes, packed our backpacks with bread, salami, water and bananas and drove up in the mountains behind Los Gigantes.
Had coffee in a small village and then started our hike. Among the almond trees.
The almon trees were all blooming.
A local anecdote tells about a man deeply in love with a Scandinavian woman. He planted the trees for her to remind her of the snow she missed. When the almond trees are blooming there is a slight resemblance to newfallen snow.
A beautiful story of deep love.
Our hike was long, steep and absolutely wonderful. I coudn't stop telling Terje how much I enjoyed myself. Wrong - at one moment I really stopped. We met two dogs, a mother with her baby, barking furiously at us. I am afraid of dogs, completely afraid, and refused to go on. We had to find a detour, which we did, and I could continue my praise, now also telling Terje (and myslf) that I was sure the detour was so much lovelier then our actually planned route.
Tenerife is built on lava stone, and from almost everywhere we are we can see the highest mountain, Mont Teide. It is a vulcano, the top, which is more than 3700 over sea level and the highest mountain in Spain, is covered in snow.
We plan to visit Teide today. I wonder how my feet will be, they were pretty shaky by the end of our walk yesterday.
Text and image Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
The mornings are dark, and as I sit here in the silence on the terrace of our flat in Puerta de Santiago, on the western coast of Tenerife, the darkness is slowly filling with colours.
A few stars are fading, hard working fishermen have been out for hours already, the silhouettes of Los Gigantes, the giant cliffs named by Cristopher Colombus, can be seen more clearly by every minute. When the sun comes, it will first reach the giant cliff with a hole through it. "God's Eye", which makes the village Los Gigante free from evil spirits. God is also looking down on me through this hole, I can feel his precence as a light brushstroke of love.
I have my computer open and look though the hundreds of photos I've already shot. A palm tree against the blue sky, laundry blowing in the wind, Terje busy talking on the phone on his birthday, through the front window of the jeep we are driving down narrow hairpin roads, the 3000 years old Dragonblood Tree, black lava, two dolfins playing, the octopus I ate for lunch yesterday (I don't think I will eat another octopus in a loooooong time), two plastic cups of coffee and two pieces of homemade cake, cactus and banana, on a blue, blue tray, flowers in the botanical garden.
My memory chest is filling up, and in the dark mornings I play with words. I want to savour it all.
This sunny week is like a dessert eaten and enjoyed in the middle of a long winter dinner.
(By the way, we both chose Helado de higos con salsa de chocolate - fig ice cream with chocolate sauce)
Text and photo Britt-Arnhild Wigum Lindland
A lesson in how to get full attention from seven Spanish men:
And then it is time to walk away. Hand in hand with the man you love Terje
And while you walk, wrapped in love, you can keep om looking at other men.......as long as it is for a good shot!
.......
though the internet connection is quite slow.
Who cares anyway. I am here to enjoy Terje, sun, sea, flowers........
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POsting this from out terrace, just watched the most amazing sunset. Yes, there might be photos tomorrow.
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