I have just spent a wonderful week on Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. Some would say that Tenerife is a destination for older people who needs to stay in a warmer climat during the winter time or young people who are only going there to party all night and sleep it of in the sun the day after. For you Americans this will be like going on Spring break to Cancun. I must admit that I was a little bit of a sceptic when I booked the trip and on arriving there. As the week went on we went on a couple of adventures, a full day guided bus tour to one of the smaller neigbourly islands, La Gomera and a half day trip to the vulcano Teide.
Both tours were wonderful, but the trip to La Gomera was interesting in several ways. We learned a lot about Islands's history, the culture, the agriculture (bananas, potatoes, mangoes, avocados, fish), we listen to the ancient whistling language and how they comunicated with only the sounds and how it phoneticly soundes like the Spanish languge. To get up to and back down from "The Parque Nacional De Garajonay" we had to travel on narrow and winding roads.
The road was so narrow and curving that on the most narrow parts the busdriver had to use his horn as a warning signal to cars/buses coming in the opposite direction. On several occation's the driver had to put the bus in reverse, as he was parking the bus to get around the curve. Another thing, after staying in Tenerife almost a week, having been a passenger in taxi's, local buses and privat coaches I noted that they use the horn in a whole different way than I am used too. The horn was used to make a cortecy signal to other drivers that we were coming, to greet or to say thanks to other drivers. As a driver this driving culture impressed me a lot. I know that most of the time we use our horns in Norway or in the US we use it when we are irritated on other drivers on their idiotic driving.
All the driving on narrow roads where really worth it, just look at these marvelous photos of the scenery and views on La Comera.
The view from our table at the restaurant in the hill sides where we had an autentic lunch with a delicious soup with a strong pepper sauce called "mojo" and chicken and potatos prepared in the Canarian style.
The Canarian potetaos boild in sea salt was my favorite from the Canarian kithcen.
