2. Tenerife Candalaria & Los Gigantés

Our next stop was Candelaria, a small sea side village with one of the most important Catholic Churches on the island. Every year all the citizens of Tenerife WALK from their homes to the church. It takes some over 15 hours!

There’re also eight statues of the past indigenous kings for eight kingdoms on the island. They were known as the Guanches, a Berber people who were likely descendants of North African Berbers, and who were conquered by the Spanish in the 15th century. The king that represented Candelaria held a spear with two pigeons.

While we were there two kids came up to me and mom to practice their English for a school assignment. They were very polite and friendly. It reminded us of Japan…during the bit of free time mom and I found some super cute purses we couldn’t resist…

Back on the bus we headed for the Giant’s Cliffs which were so huge the Guanches people believed giants made them. The make up of the island is mostly volcanic rock, but many different volcanoes were part of the process. This created areas with different colors. The make up of the ‘cake’ layers were basalt, obsidian, pumice, sulfur and many others. There was one mountain in particular that seemed white which the Guanches believed was a sleeping giant since they saw a profile of a face in the mountain.

As we started up the mountains in the southern part of the island the weather and landscape shifted drastically from tropical to desert. Because the island has many micro climates, Angél said we’d have three seasons in one tour. Part of the reason for this is the ‘Calima’ winds. These winds bring sand from over 250 miles away from the Sahara Desert in Africa.

Next up: the world’s oldest Dragon Tree…Read more