Trip to Tenerife

When I first started my blog back in January, I remember telling my mom one thing - "I just don't want it to be boring." Of course, in her original and sweet motherly way, my mom reassured me "of course it won't be boring." Luckily, this semester, I've had a lot of amazing experiences that are hard for even the most inexperienced bloggers like myself to seemingly increase the weight of your eyelids. This blog post may be the exception to the rule, so, unless you're like my mom and are just absolutely interested about all aspects of my life, this post may not be for you.

I've already mentioned it numerous times, but from last Friday until Wednesday, I was on a trip with my friend Brad in the Tenerife Islands. It was definitely the most overall relaxing trip I've taken so far so there weren't a million events and things going on to write about, but it still had its fair share of hilarious memories and lasting memories. I'm actually planning on writing a whole separate post for our hike up to Mount Teide, so I'm going to basically skip over those days for now. Anyway, a summary of the trip:

What we did:
Brad and I set out to go to the island of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands located west of Africa, on Friday night. We spent the first couple of days maxin relaxin and looking all cool while getting sunburned at various beaches, climbed a mountain, and hung out by the ocean some more.

Watching the sunset from Puerto De La Cruz

Kite surfers on Playa de Médano.

Brad and I after hiking up to Montaña Roja, or Red Mountain.

Where we stayed:
The first three nights, we stayed at an awesome hostel called Los Amigos backpackers, where we got to meet and become friends with people from Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Mexico, and Finland! We stayed at the highest elevated sleeping quarters in Spain one night, and the next night we stayed in a (generously rated) 2-star hotel in the center of town.

How we got there:
With the exception of the whole "hiking a mountain" thing, the travel stories might be the coolest part of Brad and I's trip.

We underestimated/overestimated certain aspects of the island - we underestimated how huge the island was, and we overestimated how convenient public transport would be...

On the plane ride over there, we started talking to the college-aged student sitting next to us. She explained that she was originally from Venezuela but lived in Tenerife currently. Before the flight was over, she had volunteered her dad (who was picking her up) to give us a ride to our hostel! We had a little bit of trouble finding our hostel that was supposedly 10 minutes away from the airport (it took us about an hour to find) and Brad and I were constantly apologizing, to which her dad would reply "no no no, this is a religious experience for me!" We finally made it and were so grateful for the free ride.

Realizing that the bus near our hostel only came every 2 hours or so, we thought we'd give hitch hiking a try. The first attempt was way easier than we expected (probably because of our beautiful faces), and the very first car I "chucked the thumb up"to pulled over for us. The driver was a Chilean woman and the owner of a bar at the beach that we were headed to. Once we got to the beach and had our fun in the sun, we made our way over to her bar and had a drink with our new friend from Chile.

Hanging out at "Vetusta", the bar that the Chilean woman who gave us a ride owned.

We ended up hitch hiking two more times on the trip - once with a French couple that didn't speak a word of English and very little Spanish, and once with two older men from Belgium driving a rental mini van through the winding mountain roads like we were on the Grand Prix or something.

That's 4 different drivers from 4 different countries - Venezuela, Chile, France, and Belgium.

What we ate:
Brad and I went for the conservative/cheap route. In Spain, supermarkets sell fresh-made baguettes for ridiculously cheap prices, so Brad and I's main diet consisted of a few baguettes, some chorizo, cookies, and strawberry Fanta. Not the best food ever, but when you're paying 2 euro for a hearty meal, no one can complain.

What I'd recommend:
Like I said, we underestimated a lot of things about the island. Even though we had those awesome experiencing hitch hiking and adventuring, the times that we were forced to rely on public transportation were rough. To anyone traveling to the island, I would definitely recommend renting a car. You can get car rentals for as cheap as 65 euro per week, live stress-free, and be the person that picks up the new college-aged Americans blindly trying to get around the Canary Islands!

Why I'll never forget it:
Going on a trip with one other person (as long as they're awesome) is one of the most fun things you can do. The memories Brad and I made by getting in random people's cars, drinking Corona's by the beach, hiking up Mount Teide, and chilling with our bread and chorizo will be fun to look back on for sure.

That's all I've got.

Brad.