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TENERIFE!
15/02/2017
Yep, here I am! Three thousand kilometers as the crow flies from home.
Actually, I drove some 2300 km with Geko (stretching out for places like Madrid and Toledo, where I hadn't been before), plus 36 hours navigation with Naviera Armas from Huelva's harbor to Santa Cruz de Tenerife's. I left Verona on January 21st, and I set foot on this beautiful island at around half past two in the morning of February 6th. I'll stay here for about two months.
Many people are familiar with Canary Islands. But to whom who knows a little or nothing, here's some data (for anything else check Wikipedia out).
It's a seven islands archipelago (with Tenerife and Gran Canaria as the main ones) which curiously - as it's just in front of Morocco and Sahara - belongs to Spain.
The coolest thing is probably the weather: Tenerife, indeed, is also known as the "Island of the Eternal Spring", with temperatures ranging between 15 e 30 centigrades for basically the whole year. A good thing for who, like me, quite hates cold and gets frequently sick during wintertime.
Life expenses might indeed be quite cheap (an example out of many, diesel fuel at 70 €/cents per litre), but you need to watch out for skimmings (and, in some cases, even frauds), as you'd do in any highly tourist place. Actually, these islands quite boomed in the last years, both because of the crisis (which leads more and more european elderly people to get here wintering or enjoying their retirement), and for terrorism related risks, which made many people diverting from spots like the Red Sea.
Tenerife (and Fuerteventura) is also the Makkah of surfing. A constant wind blows in some areas, which is just perfect for this kind of activities. This, together with its lovely weather, makes the island's human wildlife extremely diverse and somehow quainty (many hippie communities inhabit huts and "cuevas", namely caves). Furthermore, it's worth considering a fascinating vegetation (lots of cactuses!), many endemic species, and breath-taking and sometimes even "lunar" landscapes (as on Teide, a barely sleeping volcano which, with its 3700 mt in height, is the tallest mountain in Spain). But I believe this rough description is not enough to explain why I'm here.
Well, I don't know either to a large extent. I just started hearing a call from here, around a year ago. I could feel some kind of magnetism, of the kind which exotic places usually have over me. I've been in love with volcanic islands (Sicily and Vulcano just blew me away), palm trees, sand in my feet, saltiness fragrance and the roar of the waves for some time now.
So, after a year-long planning, here I am. With a (reasoned) leap of faith. By which I'd like to test me on one side (while on-the-road you need to cope with daily little challenges), and to test my professional route either, hoping for it to suit me, with some proper adjustments (and with the help of this website), as a perfectly sized dress. One of those that are so comfortable you'd even go to sleep with.
I'll keep the blog updated along the way. I shot many nice clips with my Go-Pro, I might upload something if I understand how to handle them. Meanwhile...
...SUERTE! :-p
Andrea
