The fairytale forest

After the shopping day in Santa Cruz all the others didn't want to make excursions by car anymore. But as we had already paid for the three days my Dad and I decided to go to Anaga just the two of us - something I was really looking forward to, because it was always fun to do things with my Dad only. 

So we started at about 10am while the others started to explore the spa area of the hotel. The weather was still cloudy, but it was warm, so it was perfect for a trip to the forest. In the travel guide I had bought before I came to Tenerife I looked for the most beautiful views in the Anaga area, but for the first time we just followed the road signs. It was a similar road than the one to the Teide National Park - leading through forest and small villages and every 2 or 3 kilometres there were parkings for enjoying the view. 

We didn't stop at every parking, but at some of them and it was very fascinating. The higher we were, the wider one could see and even if there were some clouds it was just amazing! One could see La Laguna, Santa Cruz and a lot of nature and I couldn't stop taking pictures. 

We went on (there was only one street to go in fact) and arrived at the main part of the Anaga Mountains. The special thing about that forest is that it is a Biosphere Reserve since 2015 and it's formed by trees of laurisilva. If you enter it you feel like in a fairytale forest, everything is green, wild and quiet (except some annoying tourists). We didn't want to hike what is the usual activity in that forest, but anyway we stopped at a parking, enjoyed again the view, and started to go on a path into the forest. It had rained during the night which caused a very special atmosphere and smell. It was dark because of the trees that were close to each other, but the leafs were shining in a wonderful green. I loved that place! It was so peaceful and it was only nature. The only artificial thing was the path that had been built for the tourists, but it fit perfectly into the scenery. 

My Dad was quite impressed, too, and so we spent almost one hour just walking around and enjoying the atmosphere. Afterwards, we decided to go on and look for other interesting spots. We were driving and driving, along curly roads through the mountains and didn't know where it would take it. From a view point we had seen some interesting rocks in the sea and so I looked in the map where they might be. I found a little village next to the sea called Taganana and in the guide it said that this would be a nice place to visit, so we followed the signs to that village. 

It was a long, long way through the mountains and it didn't seem to end. Even if I wasn't driving I felt a bit dizzy after a while because it was really exhausting. But finally we started to get down to the beach and we could already see the small village Taganana. When we arrived I was hungry and sick at the same time but the place was beautiful and totally worth that struggle to get there. It was directly at the sea, there were some rocks about 50 metres away from the beach and some small restaurants. We decided to eat something (very delicious squid!) and make a small break from the drive. When we had recovered our strenght a bit, we explored the beach. There was a rock with a path to walk on it and as it was flood at that moment it was amazing. But actually, besides the sea and the rocks there was nothing else to discover, so we decided to get back up into the mountains and find a way back to Puerto de la Cruz. 

Because there was no direct way along the coast we had to drive half of the way we went down back up into the mountains and then the street to Santa Cruz. It was surprisingly near, after only 30 minutes we arrived in the capital. From there it took us some time to figure out the right route to Puerto because the road signs were confusing and we were both tired. But finally, at about 5 pm we were back at the hotel and met the others. As I was still a bit sick I went to my apartment to sleep a bit before dinner because I was so tired suddenly. After my nap I went back to the hotel, searching for my Dad and his girlfriend and found them at the pool. We relaxed a bit before they got ready for dinner. After eating we just had a walk through the city centre, went into some shops and had some drinks at the hotel bar. 

The next day was my last day off and as we had no car anymore we decided to relax at the seawater pools of Lago Martíanez. I didn't come to have breakfast with them because I wanted to sleep in as I was still sick. So we met at 11 in front of the pools (with my pretzel of course) and spent a relaxing day there. The other couple didn't come what didn't affect me in any way, I was just happy to spend even more time with my Dad and have some fun, even if I was still sick. The next day I would have to work again, so I had to prepare some food and cope with the thought that I would have to say goodbye to my Dad in two days.  

Photo gallery