We are now going to write about what we did in the second half of our vacation in Tenerife. When looking through the pictures it seems like we these days just saw a lot of old stuff. But please keep in mind that old can still be interesting and exciting.
The town Icod is on the north coast of Tenerife. It is a town that probably would see very few visitors had it not been for it being the home of the oldest dragon tree in the world. That tree has an iconic symbol of Icod.
In the northwest of Tenerife there is an area with dramatic mountains and deep and steep valleys. Driving there was a bit of a challenge because the roads are narrow and with many hairpin turns. But the slow and difficult drive was also rewarded with some of the most spectacular views you can find anywhere in Tenerife.
an archaeological site called Pirmides de Gmar. It is a set of low truncated stone pyramids. There used to exist several other similar sites in the Canary Islands. However, nobody understood that the pyramids actually were historical monuments. People felt that they were in the way and over the years all of them, except the ones in Gmar, were destroyed.
It was not until the Norwegian ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl came to Tenerife and studied the pyramids that anyone took them for what they were, archaeological sites. Before Heyerdahl studied them people actually thought they were remains of agricultural terraces or maybe just piles of rocks. Heyerdahl realised that the Pirmides de Gmar is an ancient historical monument and as such should be protected.
La Orotava is a town just south of Puerto de la Cruz. We actually walked from our hotel to La Orotava, thats how close these two towns are. In the previous blog entry we mentioned that we found Puerto de la Cruz a bit boring, uninteresting and artificial. What Puerto de la Cruz lacks in these regards La Orotava has in abundance. It has beautiful old houses, nice little parks and so on.
=> Casa de los Balcones and Casa Jimnez de Franchy - two adjacent buildings with unusually long balconies
San Cristbal de La Laguna is another beautiful town with plenty of historical buildings. The importance of the historical city centre in San Cristbal de La Laguna has been recognized by UNESCO which has declared it a world heritage site.
On the island of Tenerife there are two airports, Tenerife North and Tenerife South. Tenerife Norths claim to fame is a tragic one - the Tenerife airport disaster. This disaster happened in 1977 when a KLM flight took off from the airport before getting clearance from the control tower. While taking off the KLM flight smashed into a Pan Am flight which was taxiing on the runway. In the collision a total of 583 people were killed making it the most deadly flight accident in the history of aviation.
Driving there was a bit of a challenge. But the slow and difficult drive was rewarded with spectacular views
a height overlooking the airport they have erected a memorial over the people who died in the accident. Sadly the place where the memorial is located feels a bit neglected. There used to be some kind of restaurant or nightclub or something similar there. But its been closed down and boarded up for a long time and is today covered with graffiti.
It feels wrong to end the blog entry with something sad. Since we dont have anything more to say the best we can do is ask you to look at the last picture we posted. Enjoy!
