Island Explorations

We have had a few days off the bikes, and now a few days back on.  This octopus' garden goes on for acres.  Just imagine the thousands of people from all over the world that have left their small mark on this beach.

The climate and much of the flora of Tenerife is very similar to Central California, but the farming techniques are reminiscent of Southeast Asia.  Everything is so steep, and so much of the topography is volcanic in formation, that small plots of land are carved out of whatever small spot that yields some farmable soil.  At this point we had climbed about 1500' above sea level.

This picture does not do the view credit, sadly.  If the ocean looks a long ways away, it is because we are 6000' above the town and the sea.  We haven't even started to climb the freaking volcano yet, at this point! As I was doing the ride today, I was planning a picture I would like to stage; all of the warm clothes I have packed with me on this trip that were sitting in my drawer back at the apartment. I have warm gloves, a hat, leg and arm warmers, wool socks and shoe covers.  I have in fact invested a lot of money in said accoutrements, and a lot of planning went into the packing of those items. When we left town today, at 1000' of elevation, it was a pleasant 16c.  By the time we reached our start point, it was down to 9c.  No problem, we thought, we will be climbing, and it will warm up. Well, wishful thinking on our part.  Going downhill for 8 miles in the 52 degree weather, which was now also foggy and windy was a tough haul. 

And as a final note, lunch at the magnificently politically incorrect name of a restaurant with equally oddly "throwback Thursday" attitude was just fine! (yes, it is called la negrita)
Hasta luego, amigos!

Rainy day food

The Canarian cuisine is mostly Spanish based, but they have a specialty, which are these small potatoes that are baked in sea salt, then served in these small clay bowls with 2 sauces on the side. I talked with the owner of the small "cafeteria" where we ate today trying to figure out what was in the sauces.  Pimento verde, aciete olivo, sal, y vinegar, y pimento roja, etc.  Seriously, my Spanish is from Mr. Faulkner at Roger's HS, DECADES ago, and this is what we were able to discuss.
(Green pepper or red pepper, olive oil, vinegar and salt) They are quite tasty, but not what I would build an entire area's cuisine around....

I also had a wonderful moment with the woman selling post cards. She wanted to learn how to say the English "h" sound.  It doesn't exist in Spanish, and even less in French.  It was quite charming. I left the store with both of us giggling.  I said to Larry as I reached the street.... I love people!

Rainy day musings

28/03/2014
See, I am trying to go as European as possible.  That includes eating lots of bread, which I don't do at home; not because of any weird diet issues, but because it just doesn't factor into my buying and eating routine. Here we go buy fresh bread everyday, eat real butter, eat full fat yogurt, and walk daily.  Most days we also ride our bikes.  However, we will never be able to adopt the Spanish daily routine of the 3 hour afternoon siesta, dinner at 10pm or later, and prime time TV begins at 11p.m. Fortunately, where we are staying now, we can live our own schedule, which has gotten a bit later than at home, but nothing crazy. 
Today we awoke to rain and wind, which puts our bike riding on hold.  We just don't like riding in the rain, and we have 4.5 months of riding; we can skip a day.  We have been riding up the volcano road trying to get a little further up every day.  For example, the 25 mile out and back was 12.5 miles of constant climbing, about 2800'.  Nothing extreme, but unrelenting.  But the views!  Que bonita!  As we get higher up, we have views down to the sea on both sides of the road, and it is a very dramatic 6000' below us.  And the volcano, covered in snow is still visible ahead.
Yesterday was finally a warm day, and we ventured down to the beach town of Puerto Cruz.  They have black sand beaches (volcanic sand) a lively and touristy old town and plenty of tourists.  We did the ultimate turista move.... ate in a seaside restaurant with a menu printed in 6 languages, with pictures and laminated to boot!  Food was fine, the beer was cold, the sun delicious on my back and I loved every minute of it.
Ciao for now.

riding to the sun!

We were able to get on our bikes today. The weather finally cooperated, and we found a lovely road to ride on, although it is all up, then you turn around and go back down. Each day we will try to get further along the climb. Again going into a tour over fed and undertrained. But look out come August, when we will have been here for 5 months, and riding most days. I hope to have les jambes de fer, not de creme fraiche!
Adios, amigos, por ahora.

tennis anyone?

American efficiency

I love traveling, and all manner of going native, but today was a testimony to American efficiency and our "can do" method of approaching life and how to get stuff done.  The first stop was the Vodaphone store.  We had already tried to get a SIM card on Saturday, but waited for over 1/2 hour and still the same customer was ahead of us.  Really not too different that the Verizon store at home.  Today we waited another 1/2 hour, but did get our SIM card.  Passport always required for every transaction.  That is a given.  Then the difficult task of exchanging $$$ for euro.  Easy, right?  We finally found a bank that would do the deed, but they would only exchange $300 per day.  This took at least 1/2 hour.  We then tried several other banks in town.  All only have one teller working at a time.  Again, not much different than Bank of the Worst, but I digress.  This is a fairly busy town, but one where everyone knows everyone, like Truckee.  Again, many waits in line, only to be told "no cambio".  One bank in town will exchange money, so I guess we will go back tomorrow.  Then we hit the road, still looking for our sweet spot for bike riding on the island.  There is not a map to be found that shows all of the small roads, and no map would be able to convey the steepness of these "roads".  Remember, I have ridden all over Sonoma and Napa Counties, and nothing compares to what they have here.  20% seems to be the norm, and all roads are about 10' wide, and two lanes.  Even using your imagination, you won't even get close to how gnarly they are.  And these same roads have an endless stream of traffic.  Daunting, to say the least.
These challenges are all good for us.  It keeps us on our toes, and makes you appreciate all of the different ways to get things done around the world.  Spain is such a contradiction at times.  Some things are just so slick, and then sometimes the bureaucracy just hits you upside the head.
Hasta luego....

Dateline La Orotava, Tenerife.
The journey over to the Canaries was fraught with a few problems, some that could only be solved with acceptance and outlays of cold hard cash, and others that could only be solved with massive amounts of wine and beer. But we landed in the greatest little place, and Ziggy is very happy with her new found freedom and abundance of grass.  We are on a finca, which is an old banana plantation with the large old mansion converted into separate apartments. We have this very roomy one bedroom with a big kitchen, huge bathroom, living room and spacious bedroom. On the property the lush landscaping is backdropped on one side by the snow topped el Tiede volcano and the sea below on the other side. We are able to walk to the charming town of La Orotavaa in about 10 minutes. One thing that has surprised us is how populous this area is. We are a bit worried about riding on these roads with all of these cars. Hopefully today we will be able to get air in our tires. This has been more of a challenge than you might imagine. And today, being Sunday, we have been warned NOTHING will be open.
We drove part way up the road to the volcano yesterday. It was shrouded in fog, and we turned around about 1/2 way up the 20 mile road. It is our ultimate goal while we are here to get to the top, 10,000' high, on our bikes. Dreams are free....
Later, folks.

We gave our experience so far an A-, after expecting it to be a horrible trial. After all, we had to turn right as we got on the plane (which means flying in the village at the back of the plane...) oh, don't judge me...when you have been blessed to fly internationally in business a number of times, knowing you will be packed in for the next 12 hours with another 250 people and your dog, with absolutely no place to put your feet makes you dread what was ahead of us.  Ziggy was amazing, never cried or freaked out. However the floors in the Munich airport may never recover. I had brought almost enough paper towels.
For those of you who know Larry at all, I should have documented our pizza and beer experience at 1 am in the hotel bar. So, after a non restful night, we are off today to our first destination, the Canary Islands. Can't wait to settle in someplace and unpack.  I have been living out of bags and planning my packing, doing my packing, rethinking my packing and then forgetting what I have packed, stored, given away, and just plain lost over the past 2 months as we have bounced around California, relying on the kindness and generosity of our family and friends.
Catch you later everyone, from Tenerife.