It was ok. Different from any of my previous vacations, but this time that was the intention. What I desperately needed was a peace. I don’t feel I can fall into habit of having such kind of vacations often, as they’re only good for one-off purpose and once fulfilled, they are to be put back into the closet of Things-I-Wouldn’t-Normally-Do. But I did need a vacation just like this. Just a week of doing nothing, think of nothing, bother with nothing. For that I had to fly across the World coz, let’s be honest, if you stay at home for a week, you will never have a quality restful time. There are always things to do, matters to be taken care of at home. And on my return I’ve plunged right in the midst of all the issues I was running away from a week ago. Such is life though, I do not complain.
A week on Canary’s Island was peaceful. Tranquil. Undisturbed. A lovely house a friend kindly let us have at a “friendly cost”. The view…oh, the view alone was so worth it, even if I wouldn’t see anything else, I would still enjoy vacation. Nested right on the edge of an ocean little bungalow had a patio opened up right into the blue. Imagine lazy breakfast watching white sails gliding across the waves. An evening glass of wine with a captured reflection of a setting sun. Every night I listened to the ocean’s whispers as he strokes the shore gently, softly. Late at evening I used to sit on the patio in a silence of the absence of the humans, looking up to the night cover of the skies decorated with the stars and let my mind wander aimlessly through the random thoughts and ideas inspired by the setting. Ahhh…precious times.
We did explore the island too. Not bothering with anything extreme. But the general overview of the place helped to acquire a personal impression of what Tenerife is about and a little bit of knowledge gained from the guided tours made the pictures more time-dimensional with the added understanding of the history. Being a volcanic island, like all the Canary Islands are, Tenerife is “The Most” of all of them - the largest, the most populated and also a home to the third largest volcano in the world El Teide. It is an active volcano as well, last erupted in the 1909. It sticks well above the clouds with the height of some 3700 meters. They let you get up there with the help of a cable car, to the point of only 200 meters from the very top. Stunning views, as you can imagine, a sea of clouds beneath your feet, sensation of slight intoxication in your breathing, mainly from the lack of oxygen. An eerie “lunar” landscape of caldera stretched as far as your eyes can see. El Tiede is the main attraction of the island. Apart from that, there are only few things that could tickle your interest. Well, at least my interest. Some weird “dragon tree” that is apparently not a tree at all, but a bush, though it definitely looks like a tree, grows like a tree and has a proper tree trunk and branches and leaves. It brings to mind pictures in Salvador Dali style with odd fusions of multiple crippled creatures into one living organism or something like that. We also came across few sentimental old houses in colonial style here and there. Too much commercialised to my liking, filled with tourist traps and post card photo opportunities. I cannot really say anything more about the island. We did of course see other things, but none of them left lasting impression. Things like huge areas of banana plantations, the only agricultural product they do in commercial volumes. And some tomatoes too, perhaps. Dramatic Los Gigantos – the almost vertical backdrop of the cliffs 800 meters above the ocean. A fluffy belt of Canary pines around the mountains. A tasty local cuisine with the original way of cooking the potatoes – they soak it in a salty sea water first, then boil. What else…we didn’t really devoted much time to exploration, that wasn’t the purpose of the time away. But still I managed to take home my very personal perception of Tenerife. Even despite of A Very Lazy Holiday which it was. I might return back to few memories of it in my future entries, if feel inspired enough. But for the moment, that was a very brief Canarian Tale of mine.