Tenerife - Papas Arrugadas & Poolside Hangouts

After galavanting around Gib and Ceuta for a while, we hopped on a pretty quick plane out of Málaga to Tenerife. To help with geography, check out this map of Tenerife. Our first stop was Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the northern part of the island. Then we spent one night up near the volcano in the center of the island, and ended the trip in the south, near Playa de las Américas.

We arrived in Tenerife on New Year's Eve - just in time for some awesome local celebrations. Our first few nights we stayed in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is on the north side of the island, usually thought of as the less touristy area.

By the time we got to our hotel it was about 9pm. We had to look around for a while to find an open restaurant that was still serving food, and ended up sitting outside at this little cafe-style place. 

Here's WP enjoying a jarra of the local brand of cerveza, Dorada. I think I also took this photo to try to capture that character in the tuxedo standing behind Will. He had bright red hair and came out literally every 2 minutes to smoke a cigarette... and of course, he's wearing a tux. He seemed like a character that would be in one of those CSI style crime dramas set in Boston. Just saying. 

After dinner we wandered down to the main plaza and were pretty impressed with their New Year's set up. Leading up to midnight they were playing club hits and everyone there was dancing in the square. It was fun to see families, some other tourists, young Tenerife kids and everyone else just hanging out together and getting pumped for the New Year. A lot of people were also very dressed up - men in suits or tuxedos and teenage girls in what looked like prom dresses.

Before everyone was brave enough to start dancing this one little boy was tearing it up to Shakira and Wyclef's "Hips Don't Lie." Hilarious and adorable:  

They do the whole midnight part of New Year's differently than we do. There is no countdown from 10 down to the new year. Instead they play 12 chimes (or if you're in a square with an actual bell tower they ring the bell 12 times) and with each chime you're supposed to eat a grape for good luck. It was pretty hilarious standing in the plaza with every Spanish person around us hurriedly gobbling grapes (made harder by the fact that grapes in Spain are almost always with seeds). We forgot to buy some grapes of our own, but a nice lady next to us offered us her extra grapes. Glad someone is looking out for our 2012 good luck! 

Right after the grape gobble they did an awesome firework show over the water! 

After the fireworks they brought a live band onto the stage and the festivities really got started. The Spaniards were probably out until sunrise, but being the Americans we are we snuck away at a respectable 2am. 

On January 1st, we set out to explore Santa Cruz. The weather was just right for walking around - probably in the low 70s most of the time. Right next to the city, there are some mountains (much lower than the main volcanic peak, but still impressive) that make for a dramatic skyline. 

Right after New Year's, all the extra Christmas-like decorations for Tres Reyes (Three Kings or Wise Men) went up. The kids in Spain usually don't get presents from Santa on Christmas morning but presents from the Three Wise Men on January 6th. This comes from the Bible when Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar show up on horse, camel and elephant with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for baby Jesus. In the main plaza in Tenerife (and probably many Spanish cities) they have this "Royal Mailbox" where you can drop your letters to the 3 different kings. Cute!

We also found some funny storefronts that reminded us of home in weird ways - the Cafeteria Snuupy (is this their way of avoiding a trademark lawsuit?) and clothing store New England. 

In Santa Cruz we had some pretty amazing meals. At this restaurant we went to for lunch I got the most beautiful avocado salad. Mmm making my vegetable dreams come true! 

The menu at this restaurant was written on a chalk board and we didn't know all the words for the different types of seafood they served. When we asked what bogavante was the waiter told us it was similar to a shrimp but a little bigger. And by "a little bigger" he meant a lot bigger...Will just ordered a lobster. The chalk board menu also didn't show prices... but according to WP it was 25 euros well spent, and we won't forget what bogavante means! 

The best food we tried in Tenerife was the local specialty of papas arrugadas, or wrinkled potatoes! They had these at pretty much every restaurant we went to (whether or not on the menu, it is the kind of thing they always have if you ask for it) and are so delicious. They boil these special small potatoes (papas negras) in really salty water for a long time until they become soft. Then they're served with two sauces - one made of cilantro and oil and the other of red peppers. Delicious!

Down by the water in Santa Cruz there is this really cool theater building that kind of looks like the Sydney Opera House, designed by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. 

Here's a different view of the theater with a billboard of sorts out front. We thought it was funny that instead of an actual sign they painted the side of an 18-wheeler truck and dropped it off near the building. We checked with the box office and the play was actually The Sound of Music, only they translate the title into "Sonrisas y Lágrimas" or "Smiles and Tears". Had we known earlier we might have tried to get tickets!

After a relaxing couple of days exploring Santa Cruz we took a couple buses to get to the base of the volcano, "El Teide," that sits in the middle of the island. In fact, the entire island of Tenerife was created by this one volcano, similar to the Big Island in Hawaii. The bus ride up the mountain was pretty crazy - lots of switch backs on the narrow road. Inside the bus things were also pretty funny. We apparently were on the same schedule as a group of German mountain bikers who were all decked out in their gear and riding the bus up the mountain with plans to bike back down. At least WP got to get some practice listening to some German.

Here's the awesome view of the summit of the volcano. We took this photo from about 8,000 feet and the summit of the volcano is at a little over 12,000. Crazy!

Up in the national park that surrounds the volcano (Parque Nacional del Teide) there is only one place to stay - the nationally-run Parador hotel. Luckily they had a discount for young people, so we were able to stay there. Here's a photo of the hotel with the volcano in the background. 

The area around the hotel and volcano had some pretty cool rock formations reminiscent of places we've seen in Nevada, California, and Arizona. 

We did a short hike around this one area called Los Roques de Garcia. The hike took us past some really crazy formations that reminded us of the Pinnacles National Monument in California. Here's me with some of the big roques and the volcano in the background. 

Here are a couple more photos from the hike:

This one reminded us of something out of Lord of the Rings. Very sinister but cool looking! It is a little bit hard to tell without a human reference figure in this photo but this rock formation is several hundred feet tall.

Seeing the volcano and rocky terrain was great, but after only one night up there I was happy to descend to some lower altitudes and warmer weather! On the bus ride down we got a pretty cool view. As you can see we're up above a layer of clouds that had settled over the ocean in the distance. That darker area in the middle of the ocean and clouds is actually the neighboring island of La Gomera!

After all the traveling through Morocco and around Tenerife we were very happy to check into this hotel for 4 nights of doing nothing but relaxing by the pool. The southern side of the island is known for being more touristy, probably because it is several degrees warmer! In Santa Cruz I wouldn't have been walking around in a swimsuit but in the south where we stayed it was in the 80s everyday. Here's our balcony! 

And the view from the balcony - beautiful! 

Here's the pool area at the resort where we spent so many hours laying in the sun and reading (got through a big chunk of the Game of Thrones books here). December and January are popular times for other Europeans to travel to the Canaries to try to warm up a bit. At this hotel we didn't meet or hear any other Americans, but there were a ton of Germans, Scandinavians, Russians, and UKers. 

They had this little display set up from Christmastime, I thought it was cute and therefore made WP sit amongst the tiny snowmen for a photo op: 

Near our hotel there was this rocky beach by the water where people have stacked hundreds of rocks into little towers. If you look real closely you can make out the island of La Gomera in the background. 

Also, this was in the elevator at the hotel. I didn't know Spain instituted China's one child policy! (jk)

Our last night in the fancy resort we got dinner at the Japanese restaurant inside the hotel. It was so fun to be out at a restaurant eating Asian food in Spain!

After dinner we got a nice bottle of cava - honeymoon style! 

On our last day at the resort we did some more poolside lounging and also decided to check out the mini golf course.

Then we took the bus, or guagua (this term is used in South America and the Canaries but not usually the rest of Spain, pronounced wahwah), to the hotel near the airport where we stayed the last night.

We had time to explore a little before leaving town and ended up finding some pretty amazing things! Number one amazing thing - more Asian food! This place looked like a normal Chinese restaurant but had dishes from all over the region, including real kimchi, mapo tofu, and Sapporo beer. Yum!

We also found this detailed replica of Picasso's Guernica made out of coins. 

And finally, got to see a pair of really weird and cool looking dragon trees! 

The trip was so fun, crazy, exciting, and romantic. We will definitely not forget how we spent our first Christmas and New Year's Eve as married people! Thanks for reading all these posts about our honeymoon travels this winter - it has been great to share our stories with friends and family. 

From now on the posts will (hopefully) get back to normal - I've already got some more photos to share of adventures we taken since getting home from the honeymoon. Tomorrow our friend Jimmy gets to town, so you better believe more crazy stories are on the way!

Wait, What Country Am I In? - Ceuta & Gibraltar

Our last hour in Morocco was spent riding in a taxi to the border with Ceuta, Spain. Most people taking them split one car between up to six customers to lower the price (and wait to leave until the cab is full), but as tourists we thought it would be worth the extra cost to have the cab to ourselves. From the train station in Tangier, Morocco we negotiated with a cabbie until we settled on a price we were OK paying. We were momentarily taken aback when he pulled out an "official" document that had the price of the ride to Ceuta written on it as 500 dirhams (about $58 US), but after a little negotiation, including walking away at the right moment, he was willing to lower it to 300 dirhams (about $35 US). Guess the price wasn't too official if he was willing to knock off 40%! 


The taxi wasn't allowed to drive us across the border, so when we got there he dropped us off and we made the crossing by foot. I've made some border crossings by foot before (Peru/Bolivia, Ecuador/Peru), but this one was by far the most confusing. On the Moroccan side there were probably at least 50 people wandering around trying to sell us "official border crossing papers." Even after ignoring them and saying no for several minutes they continued to hang around, I guess waiting for us to change our minds? The weirdest part was the Moroccan policeman standing around watching this happen and not doing anything to stop them. That made me wonder whose side they were on.


When we got up to the official windows there was one for Moroccan citizens trying to go to Spain (with a bunch of people crowding around) and one for everyone else. Only the window for "everyone else" had no-one on the other side, so we ended up just huddling with the rest of the mob around the first window. While waiting for them to choose who they would help next we met a nice Spanish guy also making the border crossing who let us know which paper to fill out (which we got for free from the office, not from the shady dudes hanging around outside). 


Once through the Moroccan side, the Spanish equivalent was pretty easy (probably due to our US passports) and there was a line of taxis waiting for border-crossers like us. I wish I could have snapped some photos of the border, but we read ahead of time that it is generally bad to be taking pictures of government operations/buildings in Morocco... and probably in most countries these days. 


If you're wondering what Ceuta is, maybe this map will help. Ceuta is an autonomous Spanish city (not a colony or territory, but a part of Spain that has the same democratic rights and responsibilities) surrounded by Morocco. It has been ruled by Spain or Portugal for over 600 years, and was first established as a fort because of its strategic position across from Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean. Still, Morocco isn't too excited that Spain still rules here and in the similar enclave of Melilla (and a few scattered islands and forts along the coast), and there have been problems recently where large groups of migrants from across Africa try to swim over the border and get into the EU.

 

Once in Ceuta we were instantly struck by how "Spanish" everything seemed. I think I expected a little more mixing of Morocco and Spain, but once we showed up at the hotel it was clear we were back in España. There were Christmas trees in the lobby, nativity scenes in the plazas, and the types of wide pedestrian walkways you see in Madrid and other Spanish cities. It was almost as if Ciudad Real had been lifted up and plopped down in North Africa. It was pretty weird for us, especially after the border crossing and having recently been in the desert just two nights before. 


Here is a photo of the Plaza de Africa that was right in front of our hotel, complete with Christmas lights. 

They have a ton of shopping in Ceuta because it is tax-free, and they get a lot of visitors from Southern Spain who come across on the ferry to take advantage of the savings. Here's one of the pedestrian streets full of shops. 

In the main plaza we came across this funny spectacle: a bunch of people under a stage walking around. From the looks of the people involved we figured this was some sort of hazing ritual or maybe a public art project... but who knows. 

I think after having dinner we started going a little crazy - maybe we were just excited to be back in Spain! Here's me with a couple of statues. 

And WP conducting (or trying to, at least) a water symphony: 

The next day we did a little sight-seeing in Ceuta before heading out on the ferry. From this spot up high in the city along the old fort walls you can see straight across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain! The big rock on the left is Gibraltar and the rest of the land around is Spain. Pretty nuts that it is so close.  

This was a nice piece of street art we found, love for my sister Lala! 

After a morning of sight-seeing it was time to head out on the ferry. We realized we were running a little late and didn't think we'd have time to stop for lunch before leaving, so we stopped at the ferry terminal vending machine to grab a snack. Sadly, there was a chip fail:  

So after rushing to make our ferry and having a vending machine problem we ended up at the gate and realized it was completely empty. No one else was there lining up to get on and there was no ferry boat in sight. After waiting around for a few minutes we finally put it together that there was a time zone shift between Morocco and Ceuta, so we were showing up almost an hour late for our boat. The vending machine was not our biggest fail of the day. The next boat wasn't leaving for two more hours so we had some time to kill. In the spirit of the 3rd grade "Fortunately/Unfortunately" book I wrote: 

Unfortunately, we missed our boat. Fortunately, we had time to get some more food. 

We also had time to see this awesome wave sculpture outside the ferry station:  

So after a couple more hours of sitting in the sun we came back to get on the ferry! Here it is pulling up to the gate: 

After about 45 minutes on the boat we were back in Spain! You might be able to tell from the photo, but there are no outdoor observation decks (lame), so I couldn't get any good photos of the crossing. It was pretty cool to be able to look back and see Morocco in one direction and Spain in the other though! We took a short bus ride to where we were staying, La Linea, which is the Spanish town that borders Gibraltar.  Gibraltar is technically a "British overseas territory" (basically a euphemism for colony, but they do have a lot of self-governing rights, especially Gibraltar), and walking from Spain to Gibraltar you definitely feel like you're walking into England. 

Our hotel was just a block off this main promenade along the beach, so when we got in we had time to walk outside and see the Rock of Gibraltar in the setting sun. Amazing!

The border crossing between Spain and Gibraltar is very relaxed, a welcome change from the Moroccan experience. Going both directions, the authorities glanced at our passports, but didn't even bother stamping them. One hilarious part about going into Gibraltar is walking across the airport's runway. The only flat part of Gibraltar is located right after the border, so that's where they had to put the airport runway. Once when we were making the crossing all cars, buses and pedestrians were stopped to let a plane land! Here's the crazy sign they post going both directions: 

Right after you exit the border crossing they have this telephone booth - in case you had any doubt - you're in a part of the British Empire! They also had a red double-decker bus like the ones in London that operates as a city bus. 

Our first night in Gibraltar (or "Gib," pronounced "jib," as the locals/Brits call it) we went to one of the many British pubs in the main square. I was so happy to order a jacket potato with baked beans and cheese! It was a kick to walk into restaurants and hear the majority of folks speaking English with British accents. At this pub the group at the table next to us was speaking a special hybrid of Spanish and English, so we were guessing they were locals. It seemed like they mostly spoke British English until a word was more convenient in Spanish like venga or vamos. 

This one is for WP's brother Campbell and his girlfriend Lauren: the LONG CHICKEN meal! This silly ad is all over Spain, but we were surprised to also see it in Gib.  

On our second day in Gibraltar we went up the rock to visit the monkeys, who are technically "semi-wild" Barbary Macaques who live all over the summit of the mountain.  Before we went up the rock inside a cable car, we were bombarded with warnings: 

The view from the top of the rock was incredible! 

On the way up in the cable car we spotted a couple monkeys and got excited. Little did we know that we'd be seeing many more at the top! 

Here's a parent and baby hanging out with the view of Spain behind them: 

 

The little ones were pretty crazy with one another. Here's a couple playing or fighting (hard to tell which): 

We also got this video of these two running around on some wires: 

Here's a shot of me and one of the monkeys. Despite the warnings about not feeding the monkeys, some tourists there the same time as us were giving them water bottles. I think in this photo I'm watching this monkey slowly pour out the contents of his bottle. Silly guy. 

This little one was probably my favorite - he was tiny and adorable and clearly the runt of the family. 

Here's another shot of monkeys at play: 

This big guy was a little scary - he moved very quickly and I saw him snatch a bag of chips out of a woman's hands. After he got a hold of them he sat high up on a cement wall and proceeded to open the bag and eat them all. I guess that's what they mean when they call these animals "semi-wild". 

Ok, one last monkey shot. Believe it or not, I narrowed down which monkey photos to include in this post - we took so many pictures of these furballs! 

And here's one of a couple of (slightly) more developed monkeys: 

We had a great time in Gibraltar - between eating Indian food, drinking real British beers, visiting monkeys, and seeing the rock we had plenty of fun things to keep us busy. But WP had another one planned!  


Before we arrived in Gib, Will kept telling me there was a surprise for me there but wouldn't even let me try to guess what it was. On our second night hanging out in Gib we went on a walk around the city and ended up at this awesome old castle-like building toward the edge of town. The Gibraltarians have converted this old fortress into a "leisure center" - meaning movie theater, arcade, ice skating rink and (drum roll please), bowling alley! It was an awesome surprise because I love to bowl and we haven't been since moving to Spain. And yes, we were basically hanging out with all the 13-year-old Gib kids, but who cares, it was fun! Oh, and did I mention it is a black-light bowling alley that projects music videos too?   

Final scores - Kelly: 93, Will: 89. Just because I love it doesn't mean I can break 100... that's only happened a couple times. 

After bowling and then seeing a movie in English (another rarity for us), we headed back to the hotel to get packed up for the next adventure to the Canary Island Tenerife. 

Here's our room with clean laundry drying everywhere. Finally had to do laundry after a week and a half of travel! 

Next post will be all about our time on the island of Tenerife: New Year's Eve, hiking at the foot of a volcano, and relaxing in the sun! Here's WP with a dragon tree, native to the Canary Islands and a couple other places nearby: