Honeymoon Recap

The honeymoon was wonderful; we were on the north side of Tenerife, which is cooler, wetter, and less touristy than the south. We spent a couple of days wandering around Puerto de la Cruz, where our hotel was. It was nice, but small, and still catered mainly to tourists. We did find a few good restaurants and cafeterias (coffee shops where you can get food like sandwiches). We also went to the zoo, and to a nearby beach with black sand.

There was a wine information center about 10 kilometres down the road where we tasted about 7 different wines, at which point we had to tour the museum and eat dinner at the restaurant before Sean could safely drive us back to the hotel. We picked up a couple of bottles each of a white and a red, at pretty good prices.

We took one day and went hiking around Mt. Teide, the dormant volcano that made and destroyed quite a lot of the island in its day. We took the cable cars up, but weren't able to hike to the peak due to ice. Instead we hiked a three mile trail that wound through some really cool rock formations, and featured quite a lot of lizards and a hawk, which we unsuccessfully tried to photograph. Then we went and did a little more hiking on one of the smaller volcanoes, which had been dormant for longer, and on which the Canary pine had started reforestation.

The tree is named for the Canary Islands, and is one of the few trees that can grow in volcanic soil. It was really neat to see patches that looked almost like normal forest, with bushes and some smaller plants mixed in among the trees, meters away from sparser places where there were a few trees, scattered and tiny. The lava fields were literally awesome: imagining so much rock suddenly being there from a volcanic eruption is a little mind-boggling. The colors and textures seemed to freeze the various eruptions in time.

We finished the day in a little town called Orotava, which was nice, and as the clouds back up against the mountain daily, was covered in mist. Sadly, we couldn't find an open restaurant(though we found plenty of good-looking closed ones)so we headed back. I did however, get a bag of gofio, the staple starch on the island, made of toasted wheat and corn--and sometimes barley, rye and chickpeas--and ground fine like flour. It's sitting on the counter smelling funky till I get some time to play with it.

The largest city on the island is Santa Cruz, where the port is. It's decidedly not a tourist place, and we spent two days there. The first day we walked, and ate. A lot: empanadas and arepas with things that didn't make sense in any Spanish I knew (What is "bushed meat?"). Chorizo balls from the market. We walked past a Michelin-recommended restaurant that seemed casual, but in hiking boots and sandals, we still felt underdressed. And yes, I regret not going in. Regardless, Santa Cruz was lovely, and we went back on Sunday for the museum, lunch at the market, and more walking.

We also took a day and drove west to Garachico, a small town that's been hit by plagues, locusts, floods and a volcanic eruption. I'm totally serious. It's right on the ocean, and the town has been working very hard for a few decades to make itself from a failing port--the volcano decreased the size of the port entrance by about a third when it erupted--into a tourist destination for a day visit. There are several nice, small museums that only charge €1 for entrance, and are in the old castle or mansions. We walked the length of the town, and passed several good-looking restaurants before settling on Los Pinos, where I didn't get the horse mackerel I wanted--the fish, the owner explained, wasn't fresh enough that day--but did have some lovely veal.

Since we've gotten back, work's been busy. We've got a new chef, and of course Saturday is Valentine's Day. We're doing service till 10:30, so I fully expect to get out of there after midnight. Ain't love grand?

If you want to see pictures, check out Sean's picasa. And I should have more detailed narratives up on the food blog soon.

New Photoblog

After a bit of a distraction, I have spent some time with one of my new year's resolutions this weekend. I have a new photoblog, Lucky Shutter, on Aminus3. I am trying to learn a bit more about making a good image better using a bit of photoshop-fu. I hope to have a new image each day, and there will be much more care taken with them than what is available on the Picasa site.

http://luckyshutter.aminus3.com/

Back after a wonderful honeymoon

Just a quick note that we've been back from the honeymoon for a week or so. It was a great time, and we're enjoying "married life". Not much different than before except now we have very wonderful memories of a special day. Everyone was so wonderful and we are very grateful for everyone that was able to come and share the day with us!

Here is a quick gallery of pictures from our Honeymoon in Tenerife:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sbrowning42/HoneymoonInTenerife

From Honeymoon in Tenerife