Tag Archives: kite surfing

Montaña Bocinegro, Tenerife

February 8, 2025Tenerife, Travelbuskers, El Médano, kite surfing, Montaña Bocinegro, Sunset, WWII bunkerkarenfranza

Feb 7 – can we top yesterday’s adventure for sheer excitement? I don’t think so, nor do I want to! Today we are walking up the teeny weeny elevation next to yesterday’s Montaña Roja. It is also called a mountain, but it’s just a bump in the landscape. The sign tells us it is called Montaña Bocinegro, literally the Black Horn, also the local name for the sea bream, a popular and plentiful Atlantic fish.

The shops are not open yet, but I just love the sentiments on this door. Only one who knows how to be small is great in life. For death or for life, food comes first! (It rhymes in Spanish)

The Black Horn is just a bump to the left of yesterday’s mountain. We are up before the kite surfers. The wind seems milder today.

We passed a morning yoga class, and a guy doing Tai Chi on the beach

In two shakes of a lamb’s tail we reached the top. Jim laughed when he read the sign (below)

There may be a risk of falling, but we can’t see the height shown in this sign!

Looking behind us at the side of Montaña Roja that we didn’t see yesterday. Can you see the tiny people climbing up the trails?

Here’s more of the red volcanic rock. The loose rock makes the path slippery – I’m glad I brought a hiking stick.

Google says these are “curious geological formations”. They look like a sea creature’s tunnels, but they are rock, not sand. We see them in several places along the beach.

A bunker from WWII. Spain was officially neutral, but built bunkers out of fear of invasion from both sides. The Allies and the Axis both wanted use of the strategic Canary Islands, and it is said that Spain turned a blind eye when the Germans used the islands to resupply their U-boats.

We continue to marvel at the kite surfers. We watched one young man as he repeatedly barreled toward shore, then lifted up into the air and flipped over with his board before landing gracefully back on the water. What fun!

We drank a café con leche as we watched the surfers. I liked the mural depicting this little town.

After supper we gathered with our fellow tourists to watch the setting of the sun

We were serenaded by this talented combo, who played songs from the last century like Fly Me to the Moon and All of Me. A young girl joined in to add French vocals to Strangers in the Night. Quite lovely.

Farewell El Médano. You’ve been grand! ❤️

El Médano, Tenerife

February 6, 2025Tenerife, TravelEl Médano, kite surfing, Mandela, wind surfing, windykarenfranza

Feb 4 – Today we are thankful for how-to videos on YouTube. Our modern apartment has a newfangled induction stove that we couldn’t even figure out how to power on. Turns out we’re not the only ones – several helpful videos came to our rescue. Ditto the microwave/broiler (a strange combination, don’t you think?) Tomorrow maybe we’ll tackle turning on the clothes washer that looks like a cheese grater…

The little tourist town of El Médano is on the southern end of Tenerife and is all about any sport that favors a windy beach. Kite surfing and wind surfing are mostly what we see. There is a constant wind of 15 – 20mph.

Lots of folks soaking up the sun and getting their feet wet, and a few brave swimmers

Lots of fit Germans in shorts that show off their bulging calf muscles and lots of considerably flabbier Brits are in evidence here. Also French and Italians, in smaller numbers.

Which way is the wind blowing? These artsy devices seem to agree that the winds blow from the east

One industrious soul creates a Mandela that will soon be erased by the wind and water

The surf carves ridges that sunbathers use as windbreaks. The sand is darker and more densely packed than our beaches – the sand doesn’t get in your shoes!

Where the boardwalk ended we found the trail that will take us up Montaña Roja (Red Mountain), but we didn’t climb it today

Back to town for a smoked salmon poke bowl – some restaurants here follow the Spanish custom of closing in the afternoon for siesta, while others open at 2pm, so we can always find something to eat.

After supper we walked to the place where everyone gathers to watch the sunset.

Tenerife

February 4, 2025Tenerife, TravelEl Médano, kite surfingkarenfranza

Feb 1, 2025 – We’ve had a few weeks of actual winter in Virginia, with real snow and freezing temperatures. It’s time to travel someplace a bit warmer, don’t you think?

We’re off to Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands that sit off the coast of Morocco and the Western Sahara Desert. The islands belong to Spain, so they are part of the EU.

What do we know about the Canary Islands? The name means Islands of the Dogs (think canine), as sailors back in Roman times noted the abundance of monk seals, called sea dogs, that lived there. The yellow canary bird was named for the islands.

There are eight islands in the Canaries, of which Tenerife is the largest and most populated. It is a popular holiday destination for Europeans and Brits. Winter weather is not tropical, but a very pleasant 70F on most days. Mt. Teide on Tenerife is the third largest volcano in the world and the highest elevation in Spain (12,188 feet).

That’s all I know so far!

Feb 2 – Son Peter dropped us at the airport Sunday, where we boarded our flight on time, but sat on the runway for a long time before takeoff. No worries, United – we want you to look both ways rather than running into anything midair!

When we got to Newark, it had started to snow, which wasn’t good. We grabbed a bite, then boarded on time just to sit for a reeeally long time – we watched an entire movie before the plane was de-iced and queued up on one of the only working runways. Once in the air, things were fine, and we arrived in Tenerife in 7 hours; a bit sleep deprived, but no worse for wear.

Feb 3 – Customs was a breeze, we found an ATM right outside the airport, then tried to find the right place to stand for the #10 bus to get us into town. We stood under a big sign that said “#10”, but after two #10s flew past us without stopping, we figured we needed a better plan. We figured it out eventually, and two buses later, we are here in El Médano.