spain: canary islands: tenerife: garachico

My visit to the small town of Garachico on Tenerife happened entirely by accident. I'd only booked a place to stay through the morning of 31 December 2017. I thought about staying in Santa Cruz another day or two, but when I looked for accomodation everything I could afford was already booked.

I ended up putting in the entire island of Tenerife into the search option for where to stay for the nights of 31 December and 1 January, only Garachico had something reasonable. I made my booking, with relief.

The trip to Garachico involved two bus rides, both of them easy and on time. Well, the second wasn't quite easy, in that the roads were along the winding, curvy, coast, which meant a lot of speeding up and slowing down. In other words, I was slightly car sick by the time I got off the bus.

The place I'd booked in Garachico said to call when I arrived, so I did. They came over and checked me in, earlier than the normal checkin time. I took the opportunity to relax for a couple hours, and try to sleep. I realized the wifi connection at this hostel wasn't great, argh. Each bed had two USB ports next to the bed, but finding it wasn't as easy to find 'regular' plugs.

Eventually I went out for a walk. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and was absolutely thrilled to do so. It was rather windy, but I was determined to wear clothing for warmer weather.

Garachico is a small town, it doesn't take long to walk around most of the town. There is a church on the platz in the middle, but the church wasn't open. I looked at the signage and figured out it would only open after I left town. Argh.

Listed on one of the travel apps as a sight was a series of 'natural' pools, right on the water. I was keen to see what they were all about, and walked in that direction.

Unfortunately, when I got there I found they had been blocked off by plastic tape. I wouldn't call them pools exactly, they were just interesting 'carvings' of rock from the actions of the waves through time. I loved watching the water rush in to each area, then rush back out. Its the kind of thing you can watch for a surprisingly long time, the water is mesmerizing.

Another 'sight' listed was a castle. This also turned out not to be open. Judging by the size of what I could see, it wouldn't have taken me long to see the whole thing even if it had been open. There was a tiny landscaped area in front of the castle, suitable for photos.

I kept walking along the coast, because that was pretty much the only way to see anything new. Not too much later I got to a small area with a 'photo frames' that were probably set up specifically for photos. I waited for others to take their photos, then took mine.

From there I walked back to my hostel, even though I'd only been outside for a few hours. Garachico was small, and for the most part I felt like I'd seen the entire town. Oddly enough, this was New Year's Eve, but I didn't feel as though the town was getting ready for a party.

The owner of the hostel said there were be something in the city center, but I didn't hear it, which was a pleasant surprise. As is typical for me on New Year's Eve, I went to sleep before midnight.

Despite going to sleep in plenty of time, it still took me foreva to get going the next morning. Sometimes having access to internet all the time isn't good for time management. Even when I'm on holiday, I don't need to be online all the time.

Eventually I did get going. I wandered toward what I thought of as the 'back' of town.

This was the side of town that backed up to the bottom of the mountain right behind town. I found a set of stairs, and followed it up.

This set of stairs led me to a path that basically went up the mountain with a series of switchbacks. It was interesting to see how the view changed of the town and water just by going up. The path itself had a lot of loose rocks, which loved making themselves at home in my shoes.

Eventually I got up high enough to find myself in another small town, this one even smaller than Garachico. I wandered through all the streets, which didn't take long.

I wanted to go even further up the mountain, but the clouds were hanging pretty low, so there weren't any more views. Argh.

Instead I went back down to Garachico. I hadn't been hiking for long, but the way up was pretty much straight up, and the opposite on the way down.

When I got back down to Garachico I walked through town. As I passed through the platz in the middle, I noticed a band doing some kind of rehearsal, and chairs being set up for an outdoor concert, I assumed taking place in a few hours.

I went back to the coast, walking in the opposite direction I'd walked the day before. I walked until I got to a very small marina. There was a gate at the entrance, so I wasn't able to get very close.

The best part was the series of wood penguins on a nearby fence, I have no idea why they were there.

I looked at my watch and realized this was a date on which a supermoon was supposed to happen. I could definitely see the moon, but in photos it didn't look very big at all. Since it was around sunset time I enjoyed watching the colours of the sky change, and the water crash into the rocks on the shore.

Eventually I turned around, and walked all the way back to the photo frames I'd seen the day before. Since it was now dark, I got to see how they were lit up, with colours changing every 10 seconds or so. I liked it. The nearby tree of lights was lit up, also quite pretty.

I went back to the platz in the middle of town, arriving in the middle of the concert. I'm pretty sure the entire town and all visitors had shown up. All the chairs were filled, every other area was full of people standing. I enjoyed the music, and the general atmosphere. I loved the idea of having a concert the evening of 1 January for the entire town. Awesome.

The next morning I boarded a bus to my next stop.

I would definitely come back to Garachico, even though the town is tiny. I should've been a bit more organized with my time, and done more hiking in the area.