You look so beautiful in this light
Your silhouette over me
The way it brings out the blue in your eyes
Is the Tenerife Sea.
After listening to that line (and the rest of Ed Sheeran’s album) obsessively for the past year and a half, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I would have to travel to the Canary Islands and check out the beauty of the Tenerife Sea for myself. The beginning of February marked the end of my intensive Spanish courses at Nebrija and the start of a five day break that presented the perfect opportunity to escape from chilly Madrid and lounge on island sand. I grabbed my swim suit, four friends, and a full-to-bursting backpack to explore the island of my daydreams. Here are my top 5 favorite things we did and saw:
5. Lagarto Backpackers House
A low tan building with a tunnel of flowers leading to the entrance, Lagarto Backpackers 
House was a wonderfully granola way to pop my hostel cherry. Because of the Carnival crowds, half of our group was outside in tents, but luckily I was able to score a lumpy
mattress in the basement (#blessed). Despite the grungy interior (and the grungy inhabitants too), the locals at the desk were quite friendly and able to answer all of our questions to guide us through the “real Tenerife.”
4. Las Teresitas
Even though Tenerife is a popular vacation destination, it doesn’t boast very many sandy beaches. Most of the “beaches” we encountered were clusters of black rock, far from what we’d had in mind for our island getaway. But Las Teresitas fulfilled all our wishes; this hidden gem was an artificial sand beach made with sand imported from the Sahara desert! We spent our last day lounging in the sun here, snacking on bocadillos and mojitos from the nearby snack shack.
3. El Drago
Ever heard of this 1,000 year old Dragon Tree? I hadn’t either, but apparently El Drago is
famous around the world! Located in the center of Icod de Los Vinos, this ancient tree is the oldest of its kind at roughly a millennium. Dragon trees were named after the mythi
cal creatures because botanists believed that their many intertwining branches resembled hundreds of dragon-like heads, and the tendrils hanging from the branches looked like smoke or a beard. It’s a little stretch of the imagination, but El Drago made for a nice stop along the way to Mt. Tiede National Park. The botanical garden which it was situated in was also the site of a Guanche (native Canary islander tribe) burial site. The Gaunche mummified their dead, making them the only other civilization besides the Egyptians to participate in this practice.
2. Mount Teide National Park
Driving into Mt. Teide National park was like entering another world; the greenery of the coasts gave way to fields of rock punctuated by jagged mountains. In the center of the cliffs stood Mt. Teide, the park’s volcanic namesake and the highest point in all of Spain. The climb to the summit takes seven hours, so we contented ourselves with rambling around at the base, where great
towers of rock stood that reminded me a lot of the Grand Canyon. A couple of rock climbers had ascended one of the tallest towers and we watched as they rappelled down the rocky face.
1. Piscinas Naturales
There’s an old saying that goes “You can take the girl out of the water, but you can’t take the water out of the girl.” …Okay that’s not true, but it’s exactly how I feel whenever I get close to the ocean! The natural pools on the northeast coast of Tenerife were our very first encounter with the beauty of the island. We drove down winding roads, past hills with clusters of colorful houses until we turned around a bend to see a cove of pools carved out of black stone. Waves crashed against nearby rocks and the surf burst into the air to fill the pools with natural water. Behind was a beautiful view of the ocean beating against the coast of a colorful town. I immediately threw off the clothes over my bathing suit and ran into the water! I couldn’t stop laughing as a swam in the salty cold with the coast to my right and the surf beating in right in front of me. It was exactly what this Florida girl needed after a long month in a chilly city.
Tales of the Curious 