Amidst the flurry of December visitors to Barcelona, we were able to set aside a full week for just us five to get away for a bit of R & R together. Ruth finished finals, Eitan completed his first semester at Avon, and we’ve managed to loose Ari from the Microsoft merry go round to just sleep late, enjoy some really nice 70 degree weather, do some sightseeing, and reconnect. I will be totally honest by saying that every second of our time together has not been mellow – we after all are a pretty normally dysfunctional clan. But on balance, this time was very cool – we now have three young adults along on these adventures!
Tenerife clearly is a winter getaway for the folks who flee the northern European climes. We stayed in Puerto de la Cruz in the northern part of the island – it is touristy but apparently not as much so as the southern cities, so there are lots of native folks here as well. The average age looked to be about 60 years old – but spritely they are for the most part. The youth gravitate to the lovely black beaches during the day and the raucous bars, pubs and clubs at night. There is a lot of sitting at cafes and drinking cervesas and the local spiked coffee called barraquito, and the pace is slow. Just what we wanted! Weather? Ah – 70 degrees F in general (You can bet the Germans and Nordics think this is heavenly) – we were very happy too. We lucked out using Airbnb once again and stayed in a great apartment in the center of town – stores, restaurants and the boardwalk right out the front door. We became friends with Leo (short for Lenora) the server at the corner café who quickly learned our post-run breakfast order…we had our share of local gelato (that’s why we keep running), and we got a cross section of Canarian, Italian and even Chinese food along the way.
By far the most memorable adventure was a trip up Mt Teide – the highest peak in all of Spain (the Canary Islands are part of Spain in case you didn’t know…but they sit across from Morrocco in the Atlantic…go figure). Mount Teide is a volcano 3,718-metre (12,198 ft) tall and is the highest point in Spain and the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic. It is the third highest volcano in the world, after Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It is considered an active volcano – its most recent eruption occurred in 1909. In fact, the United Nations Committee for Disaster Mitigation designates Teide a Decade Volcano because of its history of destructive eruptions and its proximity to several large towns, of which the closest are Garachico, Icod de los Vinos and Puerto de la Cruz (um – that’s where we are). All that said, we drove up as far as we could – short of taking the very overpriced cable car up to the very top. The vistas were incredible. The entire landscape is lava field and strange shaped rock formations – a little like what I think wandering on the moon might be (with gravity).
It also put into perspective what we’d learned earlier in the week on a tour of some of the longest lava tubes in the world. That was also very memorable – and a little spooky. Wearing hardhats and headlamps, we walked through a couple of levels of these tubes and experienced what it might be like to be underground with no natural light – and found out that there are many animal species who actually live in that environment. Amazing!
Lava tubes are cool
Now for the Schorr funny stuff 🙂
In search of local chow: Always in search of a new and different adventure, we got advice from Frank – our lava tube guide – on where to try authentic Canarian food. He drew us a detailed map showing how to get to “Guanchinche” (the restaurant he was recommending – so we thought) from the tour office. So off we went…over the mountains, winding through small villages perched on hilltops, stomachs now rumbling something awful…for about 45 minutes of “Turn left! No no, make that right then turn around and head downhill…shoot, that was the turn off – back up and head uphill… where the heck is this place? Dad – you are driving on the right shoulder! (Andrew proceeds to swerve into what looks like the rightmost LANE)..ARGH!!! Move over, here comes a car!!! …. Sorry I thought that was the shoulder…” You get the picture. Hilarity ensued – and we finally stopped to ask some locals where “Guanchinche” restaurant was. As near as we could translate, ALL the local restaurants that serve native cuisine are called GUANCHINCHE (like, American diner). Bah, humbug. Soooooo Schorr. We headed back to our neighborhood and ended up at an Italian/Polish restaurant (really good actually), drank lots, ate lots, and look back fondly on our wild goose chase.
Fish Nibbles: Ruth and I spotted a local spa-type business down the road from our apartment the very first day and decided that manicures and pedicures, and feet pampering by dead-skin nibbling fish, was on our agenda. The final full day of our trip we made it happen. Anyone who has looked at Ruth’s Instagram page knows what my reaction to those nasty little swimmers sucking on my toes and bottom of feet was…ewwwwww. I can only describe this rite of Turkish origin (apparently the Turks discovered this was a great way to relieve psoriasis) as ticklish to the greatest annoying degree possible – to the point of maddening. The thought of fish gobbling up calluses is bad enough, but those little guys are tenacious. OK, been there done that and now I have very smooth feet for at least a couple of weeks. Here’s a snippet of my reaction…
http://instagram.com/p/ia4rZ4gXGH/
In all, the time the five of us get together is more precious than nearly anything to Andrew and I. We have the ups and downs that we believe every family has as we grow to be five adults and not parents and kids…it has it’s trying moments, and some incredible highs – and it is the latter that we cherish so very much.
Cheers for now…
Living La Vida Loca 
