Tenerife Summer 2012

We were lucky enough to go and visit Jaime's family this summer in Tenerife. Of course Lela had our apartment ready for us and filled with the touches of Love only a Grandma can do. As always, she made us feel right at home, and the boys loved being able to run upstairs anytime to visit with her and Lelo and to see if she might be making some bizcocho.

Another cool thing was the fact that a family reunion was also scheduled for this Summer. Cousins, Second Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles all came in from wherever they lived to meet up with all the family in Tenerife. There was quite a crowd. The largest cousin gathering ever assembled from what I'm told. Two weeks flew by faster than one could have imagined. We had a great time hanging out, sight seeing, and visiting with family......and the boys had a blast!! See you again next year!

Random Octoberness

And here's the rest of what we were up to in October:

Family Picnic

The day after Halloween was a holiday here in Spain, so we took the leftovers from our Halloween party and headed to the mountains/forest with the family for a picnic and some "hiking." It was a relaxing and delicious day.

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N

This past Sunday we decided to throw a Halloween bash as a sort of "Adios" party. It took some looking around and a few trips to different stores, but we found lots of goodies for our fiesta. Alex was Dracula and Connor a Rumba Guy. We had food, games, music, and fun. While it started off a little slow, it turned out pretty great in the end. Happy Halloween everyone!

Bodegas Monje & Icod de los Vinos

We planned a trip back to Loro Parque one day last week, but decided to stop at the Bodegas Monje instead. I'm so glad we finally did. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful little winery, and we had our own private tour and tasting...

Afterward, we headed to Icod de los Vinos in search of a particular artisan Jaime liked on a previous visit. Because of all the traffic the artisans caused, the local government told them they could no longer sell their wares there...Oh well, we had to settle for some wandering around and a menú del día in a little cafe instead. It was rough, but someone had to do it.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!!

Besame Mucho

Los Gigantes and....

We used my birthday this past weekend as an excuse to finally head out to Los Gigantes. Los Gigantes means "the giants," in Spanish and it describes the Acantilados de Los Gigantes which are vertical basaltic walls reaching heights of 500 metres (1640 feet) in some places. In the times of the aboriginals, the Guanches, they were known as the 'Walls of Hell."

We took a tour/whale/dolphin watching boat and headed out on a three hour tour. We got to see pilot whales, a couple dolphins, and plenty of beautiful cliffs and scenery. Afterward, we drove to Los Cristianos and hung out at Playa Las Vistas until it was time to head home.

Back at the casa, Jaime's family surprised me with some snacks, a cake, and gifts before Jaime and I headed out for some really delicious fusion tapas at a place called Victor Cruz in Santa Cruz. It was a full and wonderful 39th birthday!! Thanks boys!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Boys!!

Kim and Megan visit Tenerife

My cousin, Kim, and her daughter, Megan, made the trip from Oregon to Tenerife to spend 12 days with us on our little island...here's what we did:

Mother's Day #1 (Video)

It was Father's Day here in Spain last month, and Mother's Day this past Sunday. My friend Eliza (a new mommy) suggested we have a BBQ in the mountains to celebrate. Before we knew it, we had quite a group put together for the festivities. It was a beautiful day, and everyone was exhausted by the end of it.

Monkey See, Monkey Do (Video)

Last weekend we finally went to a place here in Tenerife called Monkey Park. I've been wanting to go since I first read about it almost 2 years ago, but we've just never really been motivated especially since we have season passes to Loro Parque.

For whatever reason, we decided last Saturday was the day. It wasn't the easiest place to find, and it was a bit run down (which we were expecting), but we had a really nice time.

It's a small park with several monkey/animal encounter areas. You can bring your own fruit or purchase snacks at the entrance to feed the animals. We brought our own apples and bananas, which weren't nearly as well received as the raisins a couple of tourists shared with the boys later in the day. The monkeys were pretty friendly with the adults, but were more cautious with the kids. The boys had a great time feeding and talking to the monkeys, and Connor even tried to teach them how to share their raisins.

The park had other monkeys in cages or behind glass, as well as several different types of birds, turtles and guinea pigs of all things. Like I said, it was a neat experience for the boys and we certainly had fun...but we hear Loro Parque just acquired a couple otters, so I think we'll be heading there next.

Happy (late) Easter!!! (Video)

I didn't want to just bunch up all my posts...so I waited a bit before showing you how our Easter went. We had a small yummy brunch with family and friends and the boys ate entirely too much chocolate...Hope all y'all had a great holiday too.

Forest or Beach? (Video)

We couldn't really decide...so we did both!!

No naps plus full weekend days equals getting out of the house whenever possible! Saturday was off to the forest where we walked, collected and threw pine cones, "made" our own playground, hunted for bugs, and then stopped for lunch. Sunday we headed to the beach for some sun, sand, and toddler nakedness!

This is how we do it.... (video)

As promised, here is a little video about what we've been doing lately. A visit with friends, a trip to Loro Parque, and then mostly just hanging out around town and around the house. We did do a forest/beach weekend, but that's for the next post...

"A Playful Path is the shortest road to happiness."
~ The Oaqui

The Village of Masca (Video)

Masca is a picturesque village of about 80 inhabitants on the Northwest side of Tenerife. Until somewhat recently, it was referred to as the forgotten village because it was very difficult to get to due to inadequate roads. It still took us over and hour and a half to drive the 50+ miles through windy mountain roads. It's an excursion we've been meaning and meaning to do, but we just never wanted to spend all that time in the car...until this past weekend.

It's an area of deep ravines interlaced with lush green flora. On this particular day, we could even see the island of La Gomora from the top. Visitors can make the 3+ hour hike down the ravine to the Bay of Masca (thought to be an old pirate hideaway), and then catch a boat from there to the Port in Los Gigantes. Obviously, we didn't take that hike when we were there...but we did enjoy a yummy patio lunch and then walked around enough to exhaust the boys.

Since the boys fell asleep too early on the way back down, we decided to stop at a beach to let them run off a little more energy before completing the trip. It was a tiring but fun and beautiful day (the pictures don't do it justice, but it's better than nothing).

...And the rest of our visit with Alise (video)

Other than eating pizza, the Carnaval parade was our very first outing after Alise arrived...followed by an evening of tapas and bedtime.

The next day, we had a nice morning with breakfast near the ocean including churros and chocolate. The late afternoon/evening brought heavy rains and strong winds...so much so, that businesses closed, festivities were postponed, and the Canarian government urged people to stay in their homes....

The rest of our week was either cloudy with a chance of rain, or sunny and beautiful. We spent our time hanging out, watching movies, shopping, eating, visiting Loro Parque, basking in the sun & playing at a beach in the South, enjoying the Parque García Sanabria, and hiking and exploring the Taganana Mountains.

We also had one failed attempt to see the snow on the Teide followed by a more successful attempt a few days later, as well as a failed attempt (flat tire) to spend another day in the South followed by a visit to Playa Las Teresitas which is much closer.

Overall it was a busy and eventful visit. We're glad the sun decided to show its face at least once or twice so that Alise could bring a semi tan "home" to cold and snowy Chester, England. Now, it's back to life as "usual."

Santa Cruz Carnival Coso 2010 (Video)

Okay, so much for keeping up with the blog while my cousin was in town! Even though we had a few days of not so great weather, we did manage to keep ourselves pretty busy during her 9 day stay. She heads back to England and her studies tomorrow...so maybe I can get caught up on everything now.

We'll start with finishing up our view of this year's Carnaval. Alise arrived in Tenerife last Tuesday...just hours before the Carnaval daytime Coso (Parade), and we got there just before the action began and with enough time to still score some decent seats.

The boys had a great time watching, playing, dancing, and catching (eating) tons of candy...We all "sat" through most of the parade before wandering up the street a bit to take in more sights and grab a bite to eat.

The last of the 4+ hour parade was passing by just as we called it a night and headed back to the car. We did our very best to condense all that entertainment into this under 10 minute video. Hope you enjoy!

It's Carnaval time in Tenerife!!

Yep, it's that time of year again....it is Carnaval time in Spain. As you might remember from my post last year, the celebrations here in Santa Cruz are second only to the world famous Carnaval in Rio de Janerio. Even Wikipedia has a lot to say about the fiesta here in Tenerife. This year's original theme was "La Historia de la Hunanidad," or the ‘The History of Humanity,' but was changed to "Tenerife, story of a carnival." They almost changed the poster too, but decided to keep it in the end. (I could speculate as to why, but I'm not entirely sure...so I won't.)

There are lots of contests, fiestas, concerts, pageants, etc. that take place during Carnaval, but we pretty much just check out the things we can reasonably bring the boys to...I know, maybe not as exciting and glamorous, but we are "old" boring parents now...so take what you can get. I will try and do better about posting this year, especially about the daytime parade which is next Tuesday.

Tomorrow we have a chance to see the elected queen and her consort, and, so far, we are planning on doing that as well. We might also check out the antique car procession next Sunday...other than that, I'm not sure what else we will attend, but I'll let you know.

Oh, and my cousin, Alise, will be here visiting us starting Tuesday so we will (no doubt) have lots of excursions and whatnot to post about...maybe not in the most timely fashion, but I'll get around to everything as soon as possible.

Anyhow, today the boy's school had their own official kickoff party for Carnaval. The kids were just too cute and Alex and Connor did an excellent job of parading, singing, and dancing. It was hard to get good photos without them seeing us, and most of my videos turned out really shaky, but, take a look, and see what you think of our sweet little bugs:

Major Storm hits Tenerife (Video)

Some (The Miami Hurracane center) are calling it Tropical Storm "Candelaria," and others are calling it a hybrid storm (since the waters here are technically not warm enough to sustain a tropical storm)...whatever you call it, it brought high winds, high waves, and torrential rains.

On Monday, the government of the Canary Islands declared an orange, or ‘Level 2,′ state of emergency, closing schools and advising people not to leave their homes.

Water flows of up to 144,000 liters per minute were measured in Tenerife. Roads became rivers, slowing or stopping traffic. The roads were washed away in many places, and some roads even caved in, exposing water and sewage pipes. Tons of soil, vegetation, stones, logs and branches were carried down through towns and into the ocean.

From our place in Taibaiba, we saw plenty of rain, flooding, curtains of water falling from the expressway, and lots of waterfalls where it's normally dry. We lost power and water service for over 6 hours the day of the storm, and then lost water again the next day while they were repairing it.

We were home safe and sound during the entire storm. Jaime did his best to keep our patio from flooding and I entertained the boys with flashlights, shadow animals, and play-doh by candlelight...Then, it was dinner in the dark and an early bedtime for all of us.

Luckily, Tuesday was an Island-wide holiday so most people already had the day off from work and/or school. We headed out to check out the damage. By the time we got out of the house, crews had been working for several hours already, so we didn't get to see the "best of" things. We did still see plenty of flooded cars, roads, garages, businesses, and streets...we saw bulldozers, tow trucks, emergency vehicles, and a tour bus load full of emergency workers just in our town.

They are still cleaning the island, but things are starting to return to "normal" around here. As you watch this video, keep in mind that this is a normally dry area...the "waterfalls" do not exist at any level on a regular day.