In search of the perfect beach

When planning our week-long vacation together, Melissa and I considered many places: Athens (no, too far and not warm in winter); we considered the north of Spain (too complicated/expensive to get to); finally, we agreed on the Canary Islands: it would be warm and cheap! Just off the coast of north Africa, they are like the Bahamas of Europe.

Our only goal for the week was to be on the beach everyday by noon.  Melissa's sunburnt hands and red chest, in addition to my new freckles on my face are evidence of our success.

After saying adios to Dad the night of Friday, January 6 (the Day of the Stolen Bike incident), Melissa and I woke up the next morning, took and train to Madrid then a flight to the island of Tenerife.  We landed late Saturday night in the south, in the city of Los Christianos, and woke up the next morning in our apartment-style hostel to views of the ocean to our right and volcanoes to our left.  It was unreal.

When Melissa and I told our hostel owner that we were leaving later that afternoon to go up north to the city of La Orotava, he was shocked.  Why would we possibly want to leave the warm beaches of the south and go up to the cooler, isolated and boring beaches of the north?!  Surprised, Melissa and I realized we hadn't done our homework; we had decided to go to La Orotava because the pictures on Wikipedia were beautiful.  What if we got there and it was cold and horrible, like this guy was suggesting?!  We probably spent 45 minutes conversing with him about what to do.  We compromised; we would spend the day in Los Cristianos, but would head up to La Orotava that evening.  The hostel was already booked, and it was half the cost of our hostel in the south.

But our initial excitement about Los Christianos wore off as we spent the day on the beach and exploring the city; turns out, Los Christianos, while it is warm and beautiful, is also full of retired couples, vacationing families, and strip malls.  It was a city built for the tourist.  Lacking any sort of culture, we crossed our fingers that La Orotava would be better.

Beachin' it: day 1

The hordes of tourists 

During our 45 minutes, 12 euro bus ride up north, I met a couple vacationing from Finland.  The woman actually knew where Vermont was, because she had studied abroad in 1999, and had attended Mt.  Mansfield Union HS and had lived in Richmond; literally a couple towns over from Essex! What a small world.  She was a writer, and her boyfriend/husband, who was a student, couldn't tell me enough about how great Finalnd was. Ugh.  Finalllllly, we arrived, in the dark, in the city of Puerta de la Cruz.   From there, Melissa and I caught a bus up the hill to the small town of La Orotava.  Was it cold and freezing like we had been informed? NO! Ok, maybe it was a couple degrees cooler, but certainly not as bad as we had anticipated.

Our hostel was owned by a friendly, middle aged Austrian man who had converted a house into a hostel, furnished with a small kitchen, living room, four bathrooms and 5 bedrooms.  Right away, we met our fellow guests.  Most notably, we had Moira, whom I referred to as Queen Elizabeth (Lizzie for short), about 70 and from England; there was Richard, the middle aged Polish man who, at first glance, appeared to be in his mid-twenties, but as you got closer you realized his hair wasn't actually blonde, it was gray (he was the social-coordinator, always trying to get people to go do things with him); there was the guy from New Zealand, who didn't like La Orotava becasue there weren't enough "wild parties" (he was Party Animal); Star Gazer was the girl from Denmark who slept on the roof, because she was "connecting with the stars;" the Professional Speed Walker, whom we never actually met, but only heard about, was know to take epic walks around the island; and finally, there was the smily roommate from Poland who was going to hike the volcano. 

Melissa and I got a few laughs about the whole group.  I wonder what they thought about us? The two, young American sisters, in search of the perfect beach.

Perfect beaches we did find.  Known for its black sand beaches, the coastline of Puerta de la Cruz was absolutely gorgeous, and it was everything that Los Christianos was not.  Sure, there were plenty of tourists...but not the loud, annoying British families that we had encountered the day before.  They were replaced by more adventure type people, looking to hike the volcano close by and enjoy the nature that surrounded us.  Unfortunately, Melissa and I couldn't hike the volcano since passes were required in advance...but oh well. Instead, we stuck to the beach!

This is a picture of us exploring the rock formations around the black sand beach

About to enjoy a delicious and cheap dinner of pasta and vegetables at the hostel

For my surprise 21st birthday present, all Melissa told me was that I had to be ready to go at 10 am on Tuesday morning.  My guesses were anywhere from a mani/pedi to a surprise visit from Mom.  Instead, we went paragliding! Tuesday, actually, we drove around the island ALL DAY trying to find the best spot to jump.  The winds weren't right, so we couldn't go...but instead we basically got a free tour of the island! We saw the beach by the capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the white sand was imported from the deserts of the Sahara:

Some more gorgeous views we encountered: 

The inactive volcano of Mt. Teide; this is the highest mountain in all of Spain!

Staying warm while we watch others make the jump into the valley below: 

The next morning, we were picked up again at the same time and headed back up the mountain to La Coruña, a small village that sits on the cliffs above.  The wind was just right, so after strapping on a backpack and kite, we make the jump into the valley below! And IT WAS AWESOME! We had spectacular views of the ocean and the valley.  THANKS MELISSA FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE & INCREDIBLE BIRTHDAY!  

Here's a video of Melissa taking the jump off the cliff into the valley:  

View of the ground below; I'm FLYING!

Beach by day, exploring by night.  We saw some awesome sunsets and fell in love with this small town.

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Wednesday afternoon we strapped on our backpacks and hopped on the bus to the airport, where we caught a flight to the island of Lanzarote.  This was the island we were most excited for. Whenever we told people back in Spain that we were visiting the Canary Islands, they always asked if we were going to Lanzarote. "Of course!" we replied; according to all the people we talked to, Lanzarote was the BEST island, the most beautiful and with the most gorgeous beaches.  The anticipation made saying goodbye to Tenerife not as bad.

Like Tenerife, we landed in Arrecife, Lanzarote in the dark, so it was hard to get our bearings.  After a short taxi ride to the town of Puerto del Carmen, we met Miguel, a chubby, dark haired, middle aged Spaniard who was incredibly friendly and funny to talk to: he took us to our room in his apartment complex, which, much to our surprise, ended up being a two bedroom condo equipped with a small kitchen, bathroom, and living room.  Quite spacious and quite clean. Quite opposite the bunk beds and group bathrooms of our hostel in La Orotava.  Though it was relaxing to have our own space and freedom to spread out, in a way, it was lonely.  As annoying as Richard could be with his pestering question, and as weird as Star Gazer was, those people made our experience that much more interesting!

But no worries.  We woke up the next morning and made fried eggs and ate giant oranges for breakfast, having gone grocery shopping the night before. Grand total: 10 euros, which provided us with various staples, and, more or less, was able to feed us the rest of our trip.  Nothing like spaghetti with pan!  Unfortunately....the town of Puerto del Carmen ended up being quite similar to Los Christianos of Tenerife.  It was a city essentially built for the tourist, full of cheap restaurants and gift shops, lacking any sort of culture or real community.

And quite unlike the lush valley of La Orotava, Lanzarote is a desert.  There is absolutely NO natural vegetation, and, being 140 km (~86 miles) off the coast of Africa, a lot of sand from the desert gets blown over, making the air appear foggy at times and also preventing anything from growing.  To keep the island looking different from the rest of the islands, all the buildings no higher than 5 stories and are white with green trim.  This was due to the efforts of native Cesar Marique, who designed many other eco-friendly, tourist attractions on the island.

This also means it is incredibly easy to get lost, since all the buildings look the same!!!!!  (And  yes, we did get lost. I am terrible with directions and maps and frankly, I don't understand why! You would think that it would get easier in time...but no. Also, it might have helped if we had remembered to write down the name of the street we were staying on before we left our first morning...)

 Our little stone enclave to protect us from the wind on the large beach of Puerto del Carmen.  Did I mention that it was a bit cooler on Lanzarote? It's because it was so WINDY durning the day, so even though it was sunny, it was harder to feel the warmth of the sun. Very misleading tanning weather!

Melissa, trying to stay covered from the sun...

In search of the perfect beach, our second day in Lanzarote, we woke up early and took a bus south to the town of Playa Blanca, and then another bus to Playa Papagayo.  Forget the crowds and strip malls of Puerto del Carmen; we figured anything had to be better than the endless rows of folding beach chairs and umbrellas (which you have to pay to use!).  Instead, Papagayo was like a nature reserve on the tip of the island; there were no paved roads to the beaches, which meant no restaurants, no stores, and no annoying tourists!  We had to walk about 20 minute to get there across the dry, dead landscape. It was eerie yet strangely beautiful, like walking on the moon

Here's the little beach we found!  PERFECT! Took some work go finally make it there, but in the end, it was all worth it.  The only other people we shared it with was a naked gay couple and a semi-clothed couple.  It's worth mentioning that pretty much everyone here laid out topless. Totally normal for old ladies to walk around the beach with only their bottoms on. Eeek!  That took some getting used to.  Here, though--we saw it all! QUITE a shoker!

Our last day, trying to soak up the sun before we headed back to the cold of Madrid.  I got hand-stand lessons from a Spaniard who was working at the beach! Can you tell which one's me?

We were both very sad to say goodbye to the Canary Islands, but also very excited to be heading back to 2nd semester.  In conclusion, I would say our search for The Perfect Beach was a success; they were all perfect, in their own way.  For our farewell dinner, we splurged on a meal of Paella for Melissa, and a burrito for me. And, of course, a pitcher of Sangria!  By that point I think we were both getting sick of spaghetti...then the next night, in Madrid, we splurged again, this time on Ethiopian food, since I had just finished reading "Cutting for Stone."  An excellent choice; both the food and the book!  Sunday morning we left our hostel at the crack of dawn and parted ways on the metro.  See ya in May, Melissa! 

~So even though I still have two more weeks of vacation until my classes start...that's plenty of time for me to organize a couple intercambio's and meet the new ISA students!  Salamanca round two, here I come!

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my hermanito Caleb y mi prima Carrie! See you both VERY SOON!!!