Hotel Villa Gomera San Sebastián de la Gomera

... heel "kale" berg zijn, maar dan toch een heel mooie!<br><br>Pico del Teide (beschrijving op internet gevonden)<br>De wandeling naar de top van de Pico del Teide is een zware en uitdagende wandeling voor gevorderde wandelaars. De uiterste top is alleen te beklimmen met een vergunning. Deze vergunning is gratis, maar daarvoor moet je wel naar het kantoor van het Nationaal Park in Santa Cruz. In de vergunning staat de dag en het tijdstip dat je naar boven mag vermeld. <br>Vertrek op tijd ...

Vandaag eerst maar terug naar Santa Cruz om onze toelating voor de Teide te halen. Blijkt ook maar een formaliteit te zijn.<br>En aan het enthousiasme van de ambtenaar te zien, doet hij zijn job bijzonder graag. Pffft...<br><br>Na dit verplichte nummertje gaan we een wandeling doen in de buurt van Vilaflor.<br><br>Op aanraden van de ...

... La Taverne, Belgische uitbaters en Chimay Bleu in de frigo. Hier komen we nog terug!<br><br>Las Canadas<br>Las Canadas, op 2000 meter hoogte, bestaat uit een formatie van bizarre grijs, geelkleurige torens en kloven, die meer dan honderd routes bevatten, met alle soorten grepen en treden, en waar de boorhaken zich op normale afstanden bevinden. <br>Ook al ziet het er op de ...

I´m not expecting a lot of sympathy for this but it has actually been unseasonably cold on Tenerife for most of our stay, with lots of cloud! The locals are a bit chilly but I should make it clear that it still actually 20 degrees even under the haze. We have been comfortably ensconced in a studio at the top of Los Cristianos (good exercise) and doing some mellow walking and dabbling the toes in the sand - did do some swimming at the start but the ...

... window. It was pretty well set up - there was a communal oven, and some of the huts had radio masts and heavily locked doors. There was a pumping house with water fed down from the main road, and fairy lights strung up on the track down from the road... but all completely deserted. very bizarre. I haven't been able to find out anything more about it, but someone did suggest it might be the summer camp for all the hippies ...

... the language, although we definitely need evening classes to sort it out properly. Still, we can now do some quite technical shopping without resorting to sign language!<br>So, Monarch scheduled permitting, it is now time to return to friends and family (and large amounts of thick clothes!) before the next trip. ´´feliz navidad y feliz ano nuevo´´ as our friend the security guard has taught us to say - these journals will resume in the second half of January, hopefully from Hawaii.

... as appropriate. The hippies are not so alternative as to be above handing round a hat - as we are also sponging dropouts we don´t contribute. ;-)<br><br>Between hippy hippy shakes, we did lots more walking. We went on a loop round the valley, it was a wet day but this produced the most glorious rainbows. The next day we went along to the Las Salinas beach which is beyond the far end of the settlements, and as well as being tricky to access at high tide, houses a small ...

... then a manic ride in the<br>dark to Las Americas. If you´ve seen the end of ´The Italian Job´´, it<br>was like that, only faster. We´ve<br>also done some walks above Las Americas, where there are some<br>surprising routes even if the guidebook nearly got thrown into the sea<br>once or twice. We´ve had some rain in Spain and some serious wind, but<br>were back on the beach today. Weather permitting tomorrow, we´ll try to<br>get up early and get the bus up to the National Park for ...

... some likeable music, in the shape of a combo consisting of two Uruguyans, two Tenerifians and a lead singer from Gillingham, Kent. He and I are a large majority of the southerners in the place... ;-)<br><br>It´s now time to think about doing some more sightseeing, although we´ve mellowed out so much it may take a little organising.Send us an email or two as we like to keep in touch - internet cafes are all part of the Las Americas easy lifestyle.

... and 1.2km up and down (smug mode!) up this barranco (gorge) for endless wonderful views. We topped out at the tiny and empty hamlet of Benchijigua - place names here are best pronounced as if speaking the ´´Red Dwarf´ GELF language.Even walking through Playa Santiago takes you through a banana plantation where the ´weeds´ are colossal poinsettias. We are resisting scrumping the bananas.Today was an easy trip to a beach, with ...