Another day, another adventure. Unlike the day before where we slept until we were woken by the sunlight, we had to set the alarm to get up early by holiday standards: 7 AM :)

Travel-tip #53: Use your phone as alarm clock because it will set the time correctly as well as the timezone.

We cleaned up and got dressed and half an hour later we were among the firsts to enter the breakfast hall being welcomed by fresh and tasty dishes. The number of people awake at such awfull early hours were I think only other travelers that had trips or early checkouts planned. Unlike the bowls of prepared food wqhich were full and cheerfully untouched, the sole cook running around his 5 stations to service guests looked a bit stressed out. It did not help that we always took two omelets to start our day.

Under time pressure we split up the tasks of food gathering, Ran was in charge bullying said omelets from the cook and I was tasked with getting juice and coffee. That's when I saw a woman filling up not a coffee-mug but a whole coffee with water from the juice machine (chilled, not room-temperature) to refill her plastic water bottle.
I am usually the one that is overly prepared for every type of apocalypse but I know that these day trips include enough stops to buy drinks and then later to step out.
In addition I made the experience in Namibia when a friend who kept refilling his camelback suffered from Monte Zumas revenge because he did not clean it properly, which leads me to:

Travel-tip #22. Keep using ceramic or metal water bottles that you can clean properly if you don't have access to fresh water bottles every day. More so in hot climate.

Later find we took gluten free pastries.

• Bus is late,

Highway to santa cruz

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is not to be confused with Puerto de la Cruz in the North.

Plaza Espagna

Here got off the bus and had about an hour to freely roam the city. Although a lot of shops were apparently still closed since the night before people celebrated into the morning due to the Festival of the Crosses.

La Laguna

San Cristobal de La Laguna as it was formerly known is the apt-names former capital before that role fell to Santa Cruz. It shows some of the best examples of traditional Canarian architecture.

A schoolclass admiring the classical elements of Canarian architecture like the reddish lavastone only military and nobles could afford to decorate their places. Or the wrought iron railing decorating the upper window. You can also notice that windows often have wooden blinds on the inside to keep the sun out. A solution to a problem seldom encountered in Luxembourg even during summer.

Inside of the Atrium of a rich families house. The lavastones reoccure but this time as stone columns.

Close-up of the old tree seen in the previous picture. Its age can be clearly seen by its bark and the fact that the path-tiles were cut to fit the tree.

Taganana

Taganana is a small fishervillage in the Anaga park which is known for its wine (rosé). In the olden days, ships would stop and the villagers would float the barrels to the ships waiting for their wine. In return ships would leave sometimes valuable presents. One such example is a statue of the Virgin of Las Nieves located in the local church.

Back to Santa Cruz

After visiting Taganan we took a different road to drive back to Santa Cruz to pick up the two Ladies that decided to stay there. But before we dropped by the
Playa de las Teresitas. It is the same beach shown in the cover photo for this blog post. Originally it was a small beach with the typical black volcano sand but in 1973 , 270,000 tons of golden sand from the desert of the Sahara was imported to create a new beach area. Now it is one of the only beaches in the Canary islands that is not black and certainly one of the most popular.

Traveltip #62: Always check the dresscode to avoid surprises. Though naturist beaches exist on Tenerife it is not uncommon to see women topless on the beach, sunbathing.

Evening

Sunset

Every night the Hotel not only has a Karaoke/dance show at 20:30 for the smaller kids to sing and dance, later adults can enjoy shows too. Sometimes its live music in the bar area, magic shows or as that night an ensemble of dances from all over the world. Here a French cabaret inspired performance.