Anaga Part 2

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The next morning I headed down to the Anaga coast for sunrise as it was cloudy up in the mountains. There was very heavy rain and thunderstorms the night before and rocks were strewn all over the road and it was very difficult to drive. After passing an area where they completely covered the road I got a puncture in one of the front tyres and couldn't go any further. I stopped for a bit and flagged down some very nice guys who changed the spare for me and sorted everything. I still managed to make it for a bit of the sunset which was ok and get some great misty pictures of the Laurel Forest.

I had to head back to the car hire place as the spare was only temporary. They gave me a new car and I headed back to the beach to chill. I then went for a quite scary walk along one of the mini mountains in the area which had great views of the coast from above. After this I headed back to a town called San Andres for sunset and dinner.

Anaga Part 1

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After collecting my car, I drove to the Anaga area which is in the North West of Tenerife. It is a breathtaking area of scenery with Laurel forests, a spectacular coastline and volcanic mountains. I drove down the coast as it was very sunny and got my first impressions of the area which is so beautiful. It almosts reminds me of Hawaii in some areas. The coast in parts as collosal rocks in the sea. I had a quick coffee and then headed up to check in to my hostel.

I checked into my hostel which is one of the only places to stay in the area. It was a very nice hostel but noone was staying there which made it slightly creepy. I then did a lovely walk through Laurel forest and went to an apparantly amazing viewpoint but it was cloudy so I didn't see much. After this I went to a lovely beach and chilled there before heading back to the Anaga coast for sunset which was very dramatic. I then went for dinner and had some very nice seafood.

Getting to Tenerife

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I took a flight to Tenerife which was around 30 minutes. It was thirty minutes too long. A man next to me who looked rather rough fell into his seat after being the last one to board the plane. Throughout the flight he proceeded to shout at the stewardesses, spit on the floor, throw his drink on the floor and actually call his friends mid flight (the planes don't go too high between islands). The staff should've opened the plane door mid flight and chucked him out. Take that for your rudeness.

La Palma

Well, the weather was a bit crap for the last couple of days, today was absolutely torrential rain and I couldn't escape it. This is a beautiful island and I've still not seen or done half the stuff that I wanted to and didn't get some of the pictures that I wanted to. But that means I will definately be back here.

North West (The Next Day)

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I got up lazily and headed towards the North of the Island. This area is pretty inaccessible and the road was pretty windy. This area is so beautiful, covered in rainforest it almost looks like somewhere in the tropics. It was raining at this point and I was hungry so I headed back to where I was originally staying and had some food before heading to an area of the rainforest called Los Tilos. This area's full of walks and hikes I could have done hadn't it been for the rain. I gave up and headed to the south as it looked sunnier.

North West

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There was torrential downpours where I was staying so I decided to head to the North West coast area where I'd heard it was pretty sunny. This area is supposed to be very green and beautiful with amazing gorges and ravines. Some of the gorges are simply breathtaking and some of the scenery on this side of the island wouldn't be out of place in somewhere like Hawaii.
I staying in a little village called San Andres. This is the only village I really loved on the island. They all tend to be a bit industrial. This however, was lovely with cobblestone streets and a lovely square. I couldn't decided where to go to for sunset. I decided to go up to Roque de Los Muchachos. This was the wrong decision. It was so cloudy, wet and windy up there I quickly decided to head down the mountain before it got dark. The next morning I attempted to go up again for sunrise but the Pension I was staying in had the locked the door and I couldn't get out. I went back to bed though and had a good sleep!

Puerto Naos Area

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I decided to take a relaxed day and headed on down to the beaches in the area of Puerto Naos. The beach was great being the perfect temperature for sitting in the sun. I then ate a nice lunch before driving around trying to find a good spot for sunset which I found. Some lovely volcanic rocks and a good view of the coast were to be found!

Roque de Los Muchachos

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The weather was absolutely terrible so I spent the morning catching up on emails and updating the blog. The only way to get to the sun would be to drive up to the highest peak of La Palma - Roques de los Muchachos, which is above the clouds. This is one of the centrepieces of the island and is supposed to be stunning! The drive up there was absolutely horrible. It took about 2 1/2 hours with a stop for a late lunch driving though cloud, fog, rain, wind, ravines, huge drop offs and forest roads. Once I was up there though, it was absolutely amazing. This is one of the most beautiful sights - being above the clouds. I drove to various areas for photos and then to Roque de Los Muchachos. Along with Chile and Hawaii this is one of the most important astronomical sites in the world. After this I went to Pico de La Cruz for sunset and as you can probably see from the photos, the sunset was amazing. I then left for the long drive back in the dark, which actually turned out ok.

Fuencaliente

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I drove down the precarious coast which wound down to the area of Fuencaliente. This area is famed for it's volcanoes which have the most recent eruptions. The colour palette of the area is one of my favourites; black, green and blue. I walked up to the San Antonio volcano which isabsolutely stunning. An amazing black crater with green Canary Pines inside of it. After this I took a rather hectic and hot walk around the area moving though desolate areas of black lava fields and volcanoes. The cooled lava flows are like gravel which makes walking difficult and as they're black they retain the heat of the sun which makes walking stifling.

After a very steep and tired walk back up to the car I drove to Playa de la Zamora for sunset. There's not much in the area apart from the beach and a restaurant. I arrived for sunset in a hurry to had to rush taking photos. After this I headed back on the long, windy and dangerous road back.

Puerto Naos

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After an early siesta I headed to the beach halfway down the coast called Puerto Naos. The drive down is stunning with Palm trees and Banana plantations everywhere which gives the island a tropical feel. Puerto Naos has a reasonably nice black sand beach with palm trees but the town itself is pretty horrible. I stayed here for an hour chilling and sunbathing and then went for some lunch.

Caldera de Taburiente Sunrise

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I awoke to the horrible sound of my alarm and got out of bed and drove up to the Caldera. It was pitch black. The stars here are amazing. So bright and defined and so so many of them, absolutely beautiful! To get the sunrise spot I had to walk through a forest for about half an hour. It was obviously pitch black and it was pretty creepy! A lovely sight awaited me when the sun rose, lovely reds and blues and oranges filling the huge crater. It wasn't the amazing sunrise I had hoped for, but it was pretty damn good!

Caldera de Taburiente

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I bid farewell to Santa Cruz and collected a car. I then drove to Los Llanos de Aridane where I would base myself as it's an excellent jumping off point to the Caldera de Taburiente and the rest of the west side of the island. The drive was spectucular, heading up into the mountains and driving though clouds. After I'd arrived and settled in I headed to the Caldera de Taburiente. It's a bowl shaped crater covered in Canary Pine and rock formations and it's stunning. It is literally in the clouds and when I got there you could barely see anything. I did a walk to a couple of lookouts and the clouds parted sparingly. I decided to call it a day and head back to my hotel and have some dinner.

Los Cancajos

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After an early siesta I decided to go to a beach about 3km south of Santa Cruz. The weather was a perfect temperature for sitting on the beach without sweating profuseley. I got the bus to Los Cancajos which is a lovely black/grey lava beach with rock pools and lots of different sections to it. It had an amazing view of La Palma's east side. I stayed there for a bit, swimming, chilling and taking photos and then went and had a long boozy lunch and did some Spanish coursework. After this it started to cloud over a bit and it wasn't quite hot enough to sit on the beach so I went back to the hotel and had a long siesta until going out for dinner in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz de la Palma

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This morning I took a long walk around Santa Cruz de la Palma, the capital of La Palma. The town is very beautiful with lovely balconies everywhere. It is hemmed in by huge cliffs on one side and faces the sea. The archictecture is not classical Spanish but stunning nonetheless. It was lovely to walk around in shorts and t-shirt in November and the town had Christmas decorations up which reminded me of that strange feeling when walking around Australian cities and towns at Christmas.

Getting There

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Getting here was a slight disaster as I missed my flight. I had to book another and eventually flew out on Tuesday. After a mammoth journey involving trains, planes, automobiles and ferries I eventually arrived at La Palma after completely skipping La Gomera due to lack of time. It's quite warm here even at night and made a refreshing (or warming) change to England at the moment which is vile.