Monday, April 11, 2011

Tenerife


It's been a while since I last posted, and as I have a lot of catching up to do I thought I'd begin with my trip to Tenerife. Tenerife is another capital island here and is the main tourist island of the Canary Islands. So when my aunt sent me an e-mail proposing a trip there, I was absolutely going to say yes.
She and I visited the island by car, starting in Puerto de Santa Cruz, which is a ferry ride from Gran Canaria. We visited the town of Orotava, which is a world heritage site because it's still a remnant of colonial history, and saw the Casa de Balcones and the beautiful cathedral there.
Another stop on our trip was Mount Teide, which is a still-active volcano which formed the island. Hiking in that area was completely amazing-the volcanic formations looked otherwordly, and after an "easy" three-hour hike around one of the craters and a beautiful picnic lunch, we decided that our favorite part of this area was the fresh pine smell from all the Canarian Pine trees. The area is so unblemished, in fact, that there is a major observatory there (a kind of sister project to the observatory in Hawaii). The skies are so clear that it is from this point that a significant portion of the photographs of space are taken.
We also loved walking around the tourist towns around the port. There are some great parks and monuments dedicated to Christopher Columbus, who started his voyage to the americas from the port here. I learn something new every day?