CHRISTMAS EVENING AT SAN JUAN DEL TELDE, GRAN CANARIA, SPAIN

An un-Ordinary 24^th December at Spanish San Juan del TELDE, Las PALMAS de GRAN CANARIA.

Is the 24^th December and I’m visiting friends of my family at San Juan del Telde, magnificent white buildings, intact colonial architecture and a old village just about 6 km east form Las Palmas International Airport. I found and got to know Lina Gaviria, her husband Carlos Rey Martinez, and their smart kid Alejandro.

Lina has been working in Spain as a cleaning lady for about 5 years, which of the last 3 she has lived in Telde and working in several underpaid jobs; Her husband Carlos ‘Rey’ as she addressed him, is a construction worker, as well an underpaid position.

Both of them struggle every month to have a living, pay school, rent and so on.

This is not an uncommon story, actually is a common place for immigrants at the Canary Islands, at least for those who have emigrate from their home countries for economical/security reasons thinking that a new sky and land will solve their lacks (needs).

In reality they have taken underpaid jobs, bad work conditions, and sometimes discrimination, but why is this happening? Are the Islands changing? Or the outgrowing immigration is mining the job environment at the Islands?

In general terms, all of the above; Extent tourism industry is gaining jobs and good pay opportunities, Restaurants, Hotels and cruises buzzing with central and north Europeans tourist that come here to visit, or happened to choose this latitudes to spend their winter retirement.

Tourist industries offer jobs for multicultural and multilingual workers, and this is not the case for average Latin-American speaking immigrant who in most cases had chosen Spain for a single reason: the possibility to speak their own mother tongue.

Different issues surfaced talking with Lina, first of them is the overwhelming feeling of home sick; even if she has been here for such a long time, and her son is Canarian born, she felt not belonging to the place, but neither thinks Colombia has something back to offer. So she’s in a cross road of encountered emotions linked to her actual position within Spain social and job environment and her former home Colombia.

So does ‘Rey’ whom has been saving money and bought a property in Colombia where he still have family and friends; “this is possible to do so in Colombia, but here for us it is almost impossible to buy a piece of land” he clarifies.

Alejandro name himself as a true “Canario” loving his school, and enjoying the playground at the Kinder Garden, he is a fascinating creature with bright eyes, and a playful mind as any other kid of this age, ‘4 soon to be 5’ as he clarifies. Able to count until 10 in English, his mother keep high hopes on him.

As a visitor I pay special attention not to disturb the delicate balance that they have; but sometime are difficult subjects and I touch strings that make them talk.

Under the peaceful atmosphere of the Christmas Eve, they served octopus salad meanwhile the veal is being grilled and Lina prepares some canapés.

Shortly the guests will arrive, another family, the woman is from Colombia and her husband is from ‘Las Palmas’ they have two kids one of 7 year-old boy and the little baby daughter with just 10 weeks, they are a lovely couple, another universe to think about.

I take pictures, as they prepared the grill and the rabbit, duck and beef, as well they have prepared stuffed Veal, and chicken sticks.

The night goes fast, and they leave early as the baby needs to go to sleep. As soon as the midnight arrives we prepared ourselves to go to bed.

As the Guests said bye and I go off to bed, I feel that this familiar calm is imposed and might be more lying on the quiet looks of Lina and Rey.

I’m happy to have spend together with them this Christmas eve; I’m happy to be with them and share their stories and I guess that Listen is the best gift I could offer since my chances to help their situation are slender, I just hope for their well being, and to their wealth to grow in the future.

As these are my Christmas wish for them; I said Good night and I go off to sleep.

TEIDE VOLCANO'S IN TENERIFE, SPAIN

Monday 17^th December, 2007

Two days trip to the Summit of the Volcano Teide, Tenerife, Spain

Altitude: 3.718 mts.

First day Starting Point: Fork of Montaña Blanca, km 40,3 (road from Puerto de la Cruz, stop at la Orotava municipality at 9:30 am, arriving at starting point at 10:45 am aprox.)

First day Ending point to sleep over at the Shelter AltaVista (www.refugioaltavista.com) at 3.260 mts. Be prepared to reserved your spot in advance and pay 20 € (half a price for Montañeros Card holders and Euro Youth).

Duration: 5 hours (slow walk and scenery track)

Randomly I meet my travel partners and this is one example my faith in fate, Sali and I have met at Manfred’s place an stick to each other during our stay at Tenerife’s historical jewel called ‘La Orotava’ a historic district full of ‘Molinos de Agua’ and world heritage architecture; We started our day at 6 am in the morning having breakfast at the Orotava Old Town about 1.600 meters above sea level at Manfred’s home, an Austrian man that allows staying at his place and shows us around the old town of Orotava, which is located in one of the volcanic valleys at Tenerife’s northern side; as we were leaving the house we got time to meet another backpacker, Christ, a Canadian from the Yukon Territory, whom was in his way to ‘Gran Canarias’.

We took the ‘Guagua” autobus # 348 which leaves ‘Puerto de la Cruz’ at 9:15 and stop at ‘La Orotava’ at 9:30, the autobus is quite punctual so we were on time since there’s just once a day bus going up the mountain and coming back at 4 pm.

In the way up the mountain and out of the town be prepared to experience some dizziness since the way up is a zigzagging road, with a very nice view of the ‘Orotava’ valley as we went up on the road the landscape changes from farms and small gardens into country houses and magnificent forest of Canarian pine trees, Pinus Kanariensis a millenarian tree that grows up to 60 meters of height and which needles leafs condensate the water out of the mist, so in this way the tree can survive without need of rain.

So we set ourselves for this adventure, two occasional hikers ready to explore a sleepy volcano of 3.718 meters height

Our destination is the ‘Montaña Blanca’ we tell the driver to drop us there. After about an hour we are in our destination; the White Mountain is the third highest pick of the Island with 2.743 meters; this first walk is an easy warm up for us, since good physical condition is demanded, but a moderate walking rhythm needed. The landscape is dominated by the Black lava balls that are found around the mountain they are called the Eggs of Teide, they are lava balls formed when the lava rolled down the hill adding layers to itself in the same way a snow ball will grow in size and end in the small valley around the base of the Teide at the ‘Montaña Blanca’. Almost no vegetation is around the area, where the Poméz covers the entire place, this volcanic rock is one of the lightest rocks of all, it gives to the mountain its coloration grading from white to light yellow and some times orange. The Poméz rock is created by the circulation of gasses during the formation of lava.

We arrived to our first stop at the base of the Teide at 2.724 meters, the Shelter is about 500 meters in the vertical but in the very sneaky road that zigzags from the base of the volcano to ‘AltaVista’(3.260m) we’ll have about 1.500 meters walk in steep rocky hills cover by snow and ice. We arrive to the Shelter about one hour and a half later, to find a wonderful little house painted in terracotta with red ceramic roof, and natural wooden ceilings; Alta Vista will host us for a night.

Lorenzo, our host is a young engineer who has switched his profession for his passion in life, adventure and outdoors, not just for the wonderful view but also to acquire a better life quality, having time to spend with his family, and educate his children, he is a very proud father that celebrates life in every achievement of his sons.

At the same place we meet Rafael who agrees to guide us in the morning; having been in the Teide’s hiking trails several times before. So after a nice talk under the stellar sky in good company we said good night and go to have a rest.

Second day we wake up at 5:30 am take a quick cup of coffee, leave the shelter at 6:00 a.m. and walked about 2 hours in a slow but constant pace, we arrived at the very summit of Teide and a breath away taking view gives us that sense of awe and worthiness that just physical activity and outdoors could gave, all this with the impressive sunrise and the gigantic shadow of the Volcano projected on the Atlantic ocean.

I took the mandatory pictures of Sali, Rafa, and some random hikers; then we observed in silence the huge shadow of the volcano projected onto sea and clouds, this was another worldly view, sulfur steaming out of the rocks covered by snow and sulfur crystals, the sunshine on our faces and that particular feeling of an accomplished achievement make all the walking worth the try, at lease it was my thought meanwhile I was lingering sizing the moment.

The way back was faster, descending to the car cable at 9 am, then going back to the shelter; Rafa took the cable car back to the main road promising to meet us again on el Portillo crossroad, Sali and I walk our way down to ‘AltaVista’ Lorenzo greets us exchanging short views of his life with Sali; on his kids, his passion for scuba diving and how he had made a choice between the depths of the sea or the heights of the mountain. Then we start our trip back to the base of the mountain. Taking this time a relaxing panoramic road, the way to ‘El Portillo’ drives us toward the Visitor center, we found Rafa on the way, entering the gardens of el Portillo and the volcanic lava tunnels in the information center we learn about the formation of the island, and we were just in time to catch the only bus back to town at 4 pm. We say goodbye to Rafa promising to see him sometime soon, maybe in Finland if he agrees to visit me in late spring.

Friends, Wonderful views, and amazing times are left as valuable memoirs of this amazing trip.

Thanks to Sali for her help and patience, to Manfred who host us at ‘la Orotava’, to Rafa for his guidance before the sunrise on the snowy dark path, and Lorenzo for being a host of altitude.

HIKING IN TENERIFE, SPAIN

DAY TRIP TO THE ANAGA RANGER, TAGANANA AND TERESITA BEACH, TENERIFE, SPAIN.
Saturday 15TH December, 07

Day trip to the Mountains of Anaga, through ‘Las Vueltas’ Road; from ‘la Casa Forestal’ down to the town of Taganana; This road was an ancient royal trade road, so we were steping in the colonial past as we descent the mountain, this trip was Sali’s idea! Which I gladly seconded, we decided to take a basic hiking trail before going to hike up the ‘Teide’ Volcano.
So We took ‘la Guagua’ #247, that goes from 'La Orotava' to the 'Anaga' ranger; we were awe by the landscape, the views from the cliffs and the narrow highway thought the mountains, where we thought our lives will meet an end.
‘La casa forestal’ is a small house at the side of the highway and is the starting point for ‘las vueltas’ hiking trail, from the begging to the end we saw the Aurisilva which is the endemic vegetation that grows under the shadow of the tall trees that cover this ranger mountains.
As we walked we found steep blacken dirt roads, some times with stepping rocks, another just the black dirt soil from volcanic origin, whichever way the road was cover by impressive and turn trees that seemed to tell you a warning secret. The natural environments changed as we descended toward town, from rich soils to those rocky eroded down by rain and wind.
This hike, from a 1 to 5 scales, is a 2 which does not demands a lot of experience and it takes about 2 hours to be done. It’s all the way down so being prepared to work out your legs, have comfortable and breathable hiking shoes/boots and at lease a bottle of water (1.500 ml) and of course bring your camera.
As we arrived to ‘Taganana’ at the base of the rocky mountain we discover a white town enclave on the exotic green of the banana trees, and the black terraces of the farms, orange trees and others fill the town with aromas and make this pleasant town the perfect stop for lunch.
Sali, as usual is rushing her way out to have lunch before is time to go back to the bus stop; we decide to visit the neighboring town of ‘Almáciga’. We walk on the highway for another 20 minutes and ask an elder who knows very well the area, then he pointed a restaurant that serves the freshest sea food in the place, with an excellent side plate of ‘papas arrugadas’ and salad for 12 Euros. So we pondered our options and decided to take our chances and go for a locally flavored lunch with fresh cheese, green and red tomatoes salad, with white fish, and snapper. Be advice to bring your swimming trunk as there’s a black sand beach with wonderful waves, and a lot of surfers.

At the restaurant we found an old couple that had given us directions in the morning and we spend a couple of minutes with them meanwhile we wait for the ‘guagua’ # 246 that is taking us to San Andrés where we will have the opportunity to visit the Beach ‘Las Teresitas’.

Las Teresitas is a white sand beach marked by black volcanic cliffs, the deal is that the ‘ayuntamiento’, city hall, in order to activate the commerce of the area decided to import Sahara Sand to fill this beach which offers all the services for the locals and foreigners, holding hotels, restaurants, public showers, wc and an excellent ‘guagua’service from Santa Cruz. A service of autobuses almost every 15 minutes arriving to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and other towns make this accessible spot, one of the most visited of the area. So we ended our day travelling back to Santa cruz, then taking guagua #1 to La Orotava.