volcanoes and bocadillos

I'm back and sunburnt! And it snowed today. I can't believe just yesterday I was on the beach in a bathing suit that I bought for 9 euros at a Chinese superstore and today there's snow all around me. I can't deny that I'd much rather be in Tenerife than in Bilbao, the trip was an adventure indeed. To keep up with my excellent travel habits (losing my passport, forgetting my most important things at home, etc..) I ripped my boarding pass in half in the airport in Santander on the way to the Canary islands. Oops! But no pasa nada, all was well and they still let me on the plane. Renner and I landed on the islands around midnight and made our way through the airport to the car rental desks to pick up our little baby blue Fiat 500 (his choice). Little did we know that automatic transmitions are very rare on the island, and Europe in general, and our car that we were so excited to rent was not an automatic at all. So what did we do having never driven stick before? We, well Renner, tried. Thank god it was 1 am and no one was in the airport parking lot where we stalled out a few hundred times and if it wasn't for a smelly French neighbor passing by we wouldn't have been able to put the car in reverse. After about two hours of learning to drive after a three hour flight after an hour and a half bus ride after a rushed morning we finally decided to hit the road and make our way to the hotel. Naturally we got lost and had to ask some local police in very poor Spanish where our hotel was, they didn't really know, but we found it, parked the car somehow and checked into our Paloma Beach Apartment fully equiped with a kitchenette, living room and our own patio!

Waking up and realizing you're surrounded by volcanoes and the Atlantic ocean is an exhuberating feeling and after such a long night it felt so surreal to be there. We walked over to the Superdino supermarket and did our grocery shopping: cereal, fruit, soap, paper towels, milk, water, and a baguette to make our bocadillos (sandwiches) with the chorizo, ham and cheese our host families so kindly donated to our budget. The island seems to be very confused: it is ownded by Spain but technically closer to Africa but it is inhabited by mainly English and German tourists, a very strange place indeed. Our hotel was filled with old British people and we were definitely the youngest people within 10 mile radius and definitely the only Americans. After packing up lunch we got back in the little blue car and drove around the island. Getting gas was difficult but the nice man running the place could tell that we clearly had no idea how to do it and he helped us out. We drove to the Teide National Park to make sure we knew where it was before heading there the next day to climb the mountain. We drove up the winding roads through the spacelike scenery and up towards the giant volcano where we stopped and ate our bocadillos. After admiring the astonishing views we drove towards the north of the island and looped around along the eastern coast back to our hotel. After a very American meal of hot dogs, green beans, and croquettas fried in butter we got a few drinks and relaxed. All we wanted to do was swim in the heated pool but unfortunately it closed at six.

Monday morning we accidentaly woke up at 6:30 instead of 7:30 because of the hour time difference but the extra time lent us a relaxing morning before heading back up to Teide. It took about an hour to get to the base of the mountain where we bought our cable car tickets and enjoyed some coffee before making the ascent. The cable car takes you up 9/10 of the 12,000 feet and from the drop off point we could see in the distance the silhouette of Gran Canaria, another canary island. UNESCO is trying to preserve Teide because it is a World Heritage Site and because of this they limit the number of visitors that can make their way to the top. Well Renner and I sort of got the required permits but we didn't really follow up on it to secure them. So instead of showing some man our permits that we didn't have we climbed over to the trail that goes up to the top. The thinner air and the high altitude made it quite difficult to breathe and we almost instantly stopped to eat our bocadillos that we packed. Such a great idea. After refueling we started to climb to the top. The wind picked up and I could feel my hands and face burning, I didn't anticipate the cold weather and wind and was very very unprepared but we made it to the top! The view was spectacular and as a nice British man was taking our picture I thought for a second we were going to get blown right off the top of that mountain from the harsh winds but we caught our balance. I wish we could have stayed up there longer but it was just too cold and windy to bare but at least I snatched a rock from the top! We made our way down the mountain and back to the cable car that took us to the base where we bought some souvenirs. Repeating the same route as the day before, we drove to the north where we stopped at Loro Parque, Tenerife's biggest tourist attraction. Its essentially a zoo and an aquarium in the city of Puerto de la Cruz but as soon as we entered it felt like we stepped into the jungle, it was pretty nice. We spent a few hours walking around and admirning and feeling sorry for the animals and then headed home. Across from our hotel there was a mountain that overlooked the ocean and we climbed up to the top for sunset, making sure not to step on any cactuses to any snake houses. Another amazing view. We quickly climbed down to avoid having to navigate the rocky slopes in the dark and we walked back to our little supermarket to get dinner supplies and play house again. We cooked up dinner had some wine and then made milkshakes with the tiramisu ice cream we got, yum!

Tuesday we woke later than we expected and had to pack up our stuff super fast to check out on time. Well we were late but thats okay because we went to the beach! We drove around for a half hour looking for parking and ended up at the beach closest to our hotel which was annoying but it was so nice and relaxing and it felt so good to be in the sun and not bundled up fighting the cold and rain. Well since my body hasn't seen the sunlight in months, my skin burned and it hurts but the tweety bird islands, as my dad called them, were excellent and I definitely would like to go back someday. We left around 2:30 and got to the airport with enough time for one last bocadillo before getting on our plane. We missed the last bus back to Bilbao and had to take a taxi into the city away from the airport to catch a different bus but somehow we made it and everything worked out!

We got back into Bilbao around midnight and Rosa had a full dinner waiting for us when we arrived. That woman is too sweet. I had a full day of class today but tomorrow is my last day of class for the week! Then on Friday we're off to Pamplona and Rioja!

Don't worry pictures will come soon!