Tuesday 31 January 2023
Breakfast at the weird little bakery/cafe around the corner: good coffee, and a really weird pastry that is a bowtie-shaped twist of incredibly light flaky pastry complete covered with a bright yellow sugar and egg glaze that is crispy on the surface but still gooey underneath. So sweet. Very good. Icod de los Vinos would be a nice little town to stay in, at any warmer time of the year.
Today we felt tired from the 500m climb yesterday (and I was in the middle of getting a vile cold) so we settled on a hike at more than 2km up in the caldera of El Teide. Hiking at 2km in the mountains? You’re expecting exhausting climbs and tricky descents, right? But this whole walk was almost flat on an easy track for 18km. That’s because we were walking around the inside-wall of what is a truly huge caldera. The temperature was only 4C on the hike, but after a cloudy start the sun came out, El Teide was (briefly) in full view to our right and we even found a sheltered enough spot for a picnic. Jamon de serrano and manchego in a baguette is all anyone needs.
The landscape was wonderfully bleak and rocky, it looked like a film set from the Wild West with the scattered little round pompom bushes and occasionally spiky shrubs among the ochre sands, red rubble lava and black crags of basalt. For almost all of the hike we had it completely to ourselves and with no other sign of humanity it seemed like the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly, there were some long-abandoned goat and sheep shelters up here. Just how crowded must Tenerife have been, for anyone to bother bringing their animals 2km uphill to where there’s only one bush every twenty yards?!?
By the time we reached the Parador visitor centre I was frankly a bit chilled and feeling miserable. Physiologically, anyway; a little bizarrely I was actually feeling really happy because it had been a lovely hike! But I badly needed to huddle in the cafe for an hour with a hot chocolate until the bus arrived to take us back to our car. I dozed on the bus, so had enough life in me to enjoy the long drive across the mountainous spine of Tenerife to our next accommodation, in the old capital of San Cristobal de La Laguna. The weather had really closed in though, so it was only thick fog for us to marvel at all the way.
Our apartment here was even more historical, a beautifully restored 18th century nobleman’s house set around a central courtyard. The ceilings were epically high, with towering shutters on the windows… and once more it wasn’t exactly warm, with a pair of radiators that worked feebly and our jackets on in the evenings again. Sigh. Nava Suites would be a really lovely place to stay any other time of year!
We popped out for dinner and fell into a nice little place called La Tasca de los Platos that did an absolutely fabulous plate of arroz negro with lots of chunks of cuttlefish in it, as well as perhaps the best little jamon croquetas I’ve ever had. The local wine is also good, easy to drink but with good depth and warm peppery flavours.
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