The work this week is a little different, or well, the person who comes up with the work has mainly changed. Lon is in charge this week instead of Amanda (and Jap a bit too). This time we come up with all the tasks and largely determine who will do what this week. The chief boss, Amanda, went to Germany for a few days this week so someone had to be there to take over her duties, and she trusted us fully.
The apartment under the Finca has been rented out to a digital nomad for a week now. We had already mentioned that we had made a website and photos for her to make it easier to rent out the apartment and it turned out to be a great success. She already has tenants for the apartment until the end of February. As an extra, Amanda, together with us of course, organizes a weekly ‘family dinner’ where we all eat together and played games. Last Sunday it was the first and we all ate homemade gnocchi after which we played a game of Kemps with the 8 of us which we had learned from Eva earlier. It’s a really fun game especially with so many people, we laughed a lot and everyone was fanatical. It was also December 5th and everyone had put their shoes out on the previous day and we had received something delicious and fun from Amanda and Rianne and Enzio.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we would have “weekend” again and we wanted to do the itinerary that we planned for last week, so we set out for Punta de Teno on Monday evening. The road to the most north-western tip of Tenerife is only open for normal cars after 7 pm, so it was already dark when we could drive to the tip. It is always stressful to drive without streetlights on winding mountain roads, and the twisting and turning wasn’t a success for Lon. The last part was very stressful because there were no cars in front of or behind us, which made it even darker and we had no idea how steep the cliffs we were driving along were. It was also very difficult to estimate whether we were driving on a steep or not so steep road. Once we arrived at the point Lon was so nauseous that she could only lie on the bed and thus we quickly went to sleep. The next morning we explored the point, when we woke up we could finally see where we had been sleeping. It was a peninsula into the ocean where you had beautiful views of the cliffs of Tenerife. There was also a small lighthouse on the island. Although the views were very nice, we were done quickly. We also had to keep in mind that we needed to drive back on the road before 10 am because it would also be closed for passenger cars after 10 o’clock. We then drove on to Puerto de la Cruz where we explored the city for a while and soon ended up at the same restaurant where we had eaten tapas with Eva before. Here we sat for a long time and ate a nice plate full of tapas. In the meantime, it had become so late that the walk we had planned for today around the Teide volcano would no longer work. So we decided to play games in our sleeping place in the van and we were very happy with this choice because it soon started to rain.
The next morning started very cold, we were also at 2500 meters altitude, so that was not a big surprise of course. But that’s why we used our heater again for a long time. After a quick breakfast we started the walk, we had nice views of the mountains around the Teide and it started as a lovely walk. After a small climb and a break with carrots, we, unfortunately, took a wrong turn. Normally we walk either a well-marked route or a route via an app so that it is always easy to find your way. But this time we had found a route through a website. There was a description with it, but unfortunately, it fell short on a crucial point. This caused us to walk in the wrong direction, downhill, for an hour before we realized we had gone wrong. Luckily we ran into people with a map so we quickly saw where things had gone wrong. We had to walk back up the mountain to take the right turn, however, we lost almost 1.5 hours due to this and the 4.5-hour walk suddenly became 6 hours. We had also made a big mistake by not bringing lunch and only bringing carrots, which made the second half of the walk mostly a mental challenge/exhaustion. We had to do our best to be able to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and to ensure that it was not just a journey. In the end, we managed to reach the end of the walk on carrot power. We were both pretty over our hunger since it was already almost 4 p.m. so we drove past the concept store, Mar de Nubes, on the way down to the Finca where we chatted with the owners for quite some time. We drank a beer and a coke here, luckily we got some olives and nuts with it to get rid of the worst hunger. We have already sent a lot of people to this super nice shop, they only have local stuff here, about which they can tell very nice stories. It was also nice that they expressed their gratitude to us for sending people over. Then we drove on to El Chamo for a delicious dinner together, which we deserved after our walking tour.
We spent the rest of the afternoons after work with Rianne and Enzio. Two afternoons Enzio and Jap went surfing at Playa de Las Americas because the surf was really good. It was great fun to be in the water with someone you know. Once we even got to ride a wave together which was fun. Another afternoon the four of us did the Chinyero walk, which we had done twice before but which is beautiful and not too challenging. The four of us had a nice chat and even though we have been working together all day, it is very nice and cozy to spend the afternoon together with the four of us. After the walk, we immediately drove on towards the El Chamo where we seem to become regulars. Here we again had a delicious tapas meal with the four of us which nicely ended the day.
After all the time we have already spent on the island we start to get the feeling that we have seen the island, of course there are always places to discover, but we have seen the most and most beautiful places. We have seen the island from left to right and top to bottom. We are both looking forward to moving on and exploring the other islands. We will stay at the Finca for another month where we can occasionally play the boss because the chief boss will be away a couple more times, which is a very welcome and nice change. After 3 months here at the Finca, it’s enough.
Lots of love,
Lon and Jap
Spendings of the Week
Budget per day €54 and per week €378 and per month €1700
| What/Where | Cost (€) |
| Camping | – |
| Eating out | 110 |
| Parking | – |
| Activities | – |
| Groceries | 15,19 |
| Diesel | – |
| Other | 58,65 |
| Total | 183,84 |
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