The Update #29 – The Far North

The arrival of Amanda’s father last week means that the jobs we are now doing on the finca are changing slightly. Where the focus was first entirely on the garden, since his arrival it has shifted to jobs in and around the house. Or actually especially the painting of the window frames, a job that we will spend many hours on in the coming weeks, because believe us there are quite a few. This week we also made a storage place in the bus for the surfboard Jap bought. For the time being, we mainly transported the surfboard on the bed, but this is not very practical. So after a lot of puzzling, we managed to make a storage place right behind the back doors, where the surfboard is the least in the way. At the bottom of the update you can read what has kept us busy at the Finca this week, but what is really the best thing about our time here are the trips.

This week we wanted to explore the other side of the island and for this we could already leave on Wednesday afternoon. We had suggested that Nicolo, the workawayer who is here with us, could drive to La Laguna with us. La laguna is a student town and our first stop on our trip. Nicolo would sleep in a hostel here and from there also explore the Northeastern side of the island. It was still a long drive, especially since we had decided to drive over the Teide. The first stop on our way north was at a huge tree, the three of us hugged the tree and took some pictures before continuing on. As we got higher we stopped more and more often to enjoy the view, especially because at one point we drove above the clouds. It was really a beautiful sight to be able to look down on the clouds like that, it looked magical. Because we drove above the clouds, the weather was immediately a lot better and with the sun it was even a bit warmer than on the Finca. Soon we got the first views on El Teide and we enjoyed this magical volcano in various places. When you drive here you really have the feeling that you are in a completely different place and no longer on the island where the Finca is located. The volcanic almost desert-like landscape is really beautiful. Last week we already had a taste of this, but now we could really explore it properly. At one point we were at a viewpoint where it seemed as if we were on Mars. Here we not only had the feeling that we had left Tenerife but we had the feeling that we had left our planet. It was a really beautiful road trip and we saw so many different views of El Teide, which confirmed once more how diverse this island is. It was also very nice to be able to share this experience with Nicolo and to show him a part of this beautiful island. It took half a day to drive here over this beautiful mountain to La Laguna, but that was no punishment at all as you have read. Once we arrived in La laguna we immediately set out to explore the town in search of a place to eat. You immediately noticed that it was a student city where many students walked the street and there was a cozy atmosphere. We wandered through the town for quite some time and found a nice spot for the three of us to have a drink and eat pinchos. After having satisfied our first hunger, we continued looking for a place to eat, ending up at a Pakistani tapas restaurant. The restaurant was full of pictures from Pakistan and prayer flags and the food was really delicious. After dessert we said goodbye to Nicolo who went to his hostel and we drove on to our place to sleep. We had found a spot in the middle of the Anaga forest, it was already pitch dark so when we arrived at the spot we couldn’t see anything of this beautiful forest. We had read very good reviews about this sleeping spot but it still felt a bit spooky, so we decided to crawl to the back without leaving the van and quickly lock all doors and go to sleep.

The next day when we woke up we saw how fantastically beautiful the place was where we had slept, in the middle of a super beautiful forest. We immediately understood why it was so dark when we arrived, because it was really a very dense forest. After breakfast, we put on our hiking boots and set out to explore the forest. The forest is really beautiful and we even saw Eucalyptus trees along the way, the scent always takes us right back to Australia. It was a relatively small circulair walk, but it still gave a very good feeling of how beautiful and different it is here. After the walk we drove back to La Laguna because our internet was not working and we wanted to get take figured out. We past by the Orange shop and then also passed a bakery that we had already spotted yesterday. Here they had delicious sweets for Jap and a super tasty frappuccino for Lon. After this we went to the beach, one of the most beautiful beaches on the island, Playa de Benijo. It is a black beach on a really beautiful location with super steep cliffs surrounding the beach. The sea here has a very strong current and was therefore not suitable for swimming, but more to freshen up. We enjoyed the view on the beach and especially the many photo shoots that were held here. It is always so entertaining to watch other people and how they explore and use these places. Here there were a lot of people who had whole photo shoots in the surf with a lot of different poses and the husband taking the pictures from all sides. For the sunset and our second night in the bus we moved 1 beach down. We were almost on the beach with the van and heard the waves breaking in the background. During dinner we were accompanied by Karl, we had diner together even though he was quite a fussy eater. Karl was the cat that walked around the parking lot here and chilled around our bus for quite some time. It was really funny and he kept meowing loudly the whole time too. We were lulled to sleep that night to the sound of the waves.

Our third day of this trip we started nice and quiet, we lingered around the beach for a long time. There were some surfers in the sea but unfortunately the waves were not really great so Jap decided not to go in and instead we drove back into the Anaga forest. We had selected a walk in Chimanada that showed another part of the Anaga NP. It was a circular walk where we started with a view over a very beautiful village with terraces and rugged mountains in the background. After which we walked back over a combination of road and ridges. The views were really beautiful and completely different from what we have seen of this island so far. When we got back to Bob we drove through the mountains back to La Laguna to pick up Nicolo again. Of course we walked quickly past the frappucino spot after which we went on our way to the finca. Along the way we stopped at a nice spot to enjoy the sunset and dinner.

Once back at the Finca we met Eva who had arrived at the Finca during our trip. Eva is also Dutch and happened to live really close to us in Utrecht. It immediately clicked very well with her. We also met Amanda’s mother who had also arrived during our absence. That evening we also played a nice game to get to know each other a bit better. The next morning Lon had a girls morning, Anna, Amanda, Eva and Lon went together to a spa nearby where they also had a nice lunch.

Lots of love,

Jap and Lon

Tasks of the Week

We have started sanding and preparing all the wooden framework for painting. Our mornings always start with a lovely walk with the dogs where we see a different sunrise every day. We planted potatoes and soya beans, for which we first had to clear the soil and fertilize it. Started filming the promotional video that Jap will make for Amanda.

Spendings of the Week

Budget per day €54 and per week €378 and per month €1700