Every so often I read comments from people who have ‘seen all there is to see on Tenerife’ (i.e. they’ve taken a coach excursion to Mount Teide, Masca, Garachico and La Orotava) or are bored because all there is the sun and the sea.
When I read these I invariably end up with a bruised chin as a result of it coming into contact with the floor.
We’ve been exploring towns, villages, hamlets, beaches, forests, ravines, caves and any old nook and cranny for nearly seven years. We’ve notched up fiestas, concerts, shows and open air raves. We’ve eaten in god knows how many restaurants across Tenerife from super cool establishments to guachinches in the middle of allotments and drank whatever the barman put in front of us in so many bars they’ve become a blur. We’ve tasted wine from the best vineyards as well as from tiny plots. I’m not trying to prove any credentials here just merely trying to state that, partly because of the work we do and partly because we’ve always sought out new experiences, we spend a lot of time trying to discover as much as we can about this island…and I don’t feel that I’ve seen or done all there is to enjoy on Tenerife.
This month alone I haven’t seen or done anything like the things I would have wanted to. There’s still a third of the month to go and whilst I’ve watched some of the Ladies Open Golf tournament; eaten sardines to the strains of a maquinaria band; been blasted by water pistols at a fiesta and scorched by a heatwave at the Erjos pools; shed a tear as Ave Maria was sung to the Virgen del Carmen; felt too old at an open air rave; been wowed by African singer Angélique Kidjo and battled dimunitive Canarian abuelas at the start of the summer sales; cheered on Tenerife’s Pedro and Spain during the World Cup and made peach chutney with the meagre crop from our peach tree, there are far too many other things that I haven’t done.I didn’t get to the Indian festival in Las Américas, folklore concerts and windsurfing championship in El Médano, traditions fair in Chirche, salsa concert or the Smiths night in Santa Cruz, the car rally in Adeje, the motocross championship in San Miguel, the beach fashion show in Los Cristianos, Simply Red in Costa Adeje or any of the concerts, fiestas and shenanigans that take place in the northern municipalities that you have to know about them to know about them if that makes sense.
However, before July ends I’ve still got time to enjoy the agricultural fiesta In San José, watch fireballs rolling down the hills in Garachico, see if Nelson can win the battle of Santa Cruz this time, take in the Moscow Ballet, go to the Lan party, try some sea urchins and maybe watch a couple of movies at the open air cinemas that are erected for summer.
What is there to do in Tenerife? If you go native and do what the locals do there are more things than you could ever possibly imagine.
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