Saturday 28 January 2023
The problem with countries where it is hot for ten months of the year is that they don’t see any point in adding heating into their homes and buildings for the short spell of cold winter weather. You look in a local cafe and see people having their lunches still wearing jackets and hats. They must wish winter over even more than we do (but then, it’ll be over in less than a month so perhaps that’s more bearable!).
So even though it’s 7-8 degrees warmer outside than it is in London right now, here in our apartment in Icod de los Vinos we are in cardigans and jackets and scarves and still not quite warm enough. Certainly not warm enough to feel like we’re on holiday!
It doesn’t help that the apartment is actually in a lovely old historic building over a banana plantation, with thin old windows, old single-skin walls and no insulation overhead: wooden boards, with roof tiles on top. Lovely. Just cold.
First impressions of Tenerife is that it’s mountains all the way, and that the north and west is greener and prettier than the sun-baked south. We stopped for a late lunch in Adeje and had some really splendid Pollo al Mojo, which was bits of tender chicken roasted in a spicy red glaze that had gone all crispy around the chicken. That’s Adeje, the 17th century village in the hills, not to be confused with Costa Adeje which is ten-times larger and a tourist mecca on the seashore.
Dinner tonight was bits of bread, cheese, jamon and tortilla from the local supermarket. But at least we’re now equipped with breakfast, picnic lunch makings and coffee! And in supermarkets here you can buy a whole or half of a gooey tortilla, like buying a cake. Civilised.
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