By Aaron
Lost in Translation: This week we experienced renting a car outside the US for the first time, during our trip to the Canary Island of Tenerife. Now for a lot of people of my generation in the US, it would be typical for car trouble in Europe to be centered around the foreign nature of a manual transmission. I, on the other hand, learned how to drive on a manual and had an inordinate amount of confidence that the European preference for stick shift would be a non-issue. But this week I learned that all stick shifts are not created equal. Apparently some makes of European vehicles have the reverse gear on a separate plane from all the others, effectively requiring you to press down as if to initiate a launch sequence. Sadly I didn’t figure this out until after a rather harrowing 20 minute drive from the airport to our hotel, where a kind hotel employee gently explained this function in about 30 seconds. “Es diferente en los estados unidos,” Joni explained in my defense. To which the man responded with a friendly smirk as if to say “Yes, people in the United States don’t know how to drive.” This was only the prelude to our car issues (what kind of car company loans out a vehicle with 130,000 kilometers of mileage, insufficient fluids and ambivalent brakes - in a landscape rich with steep inclines?!), but certainly the most humbling car-related bit of confusion the weekend had to offer.
These look very similar, but one car had functional brakes and one did not...
On the last day of of brief journey to Tenerife, we scheduled a special time for breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport. It seemed odd that NO ONE ELSE was in the dining room at 6:30. It was also slightly suspicious that the food seemed not exactly ready for patrons. We shrugged off these blatant warning signs and found a table (in the dark, I might add). After enjoying a dimly lit meal in the company of no one other than the two cooks preparing the buffet, I looked at my watch and realized it was 6:30. The Canary Islands are in a time zone an hour earlier than the rest of Spain, which we knew, but Joni’s phone never made the switch. We enjoyed a clandestine smorgasbord of pastries, fruit, eggs and toast at 5:30 in the morning, and it was awesome.
These look very similar, but one car had functional brakes and one did not...
On the last day of of brief journey to Tenerife, we scheduled a special time for breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport. It seemed odd that NO ONE ELSE was in the dining room at 6:30. It was also slightly suspicious that the food seemed not exactly ready for patrons. We shrugged off these blatant warning signs and found a table (in the dark, I might add). After enjoying a dimly lit meal in the company of no one other than the two cooks preparing the buffet, I looked at my watch and realized it was 6:30. The Canary Islands are in a time zone an hour earlier than the rest of Spain, which we knew, but Joni’s phone never made the switch. We enjoyed a clandestine smorgasbord of pastries, fruit, eggs and toast at 5:30 in the morning, and it was awesome.
Exploring the City: As you may have guessed, we visited the island paradise of Tenerife this past weekend. Located off the coast of Africa, far closer to Morocco than mainland Spain, this island features a diverse geography and climate - from the rain-drenched black sand beaches in the north, to the desert planes surrounding the dormant El Teide volcano, from the rocky cliff faces towering over the southwestern coast to the crystal clear tourist crowded beaches on the southern shore, this relatively small land mass contains multitudes. The desert-like center could have passed for any number of landscapes I’ve driven through in Arizona, Utah or New Mexico, but a 20 minute stretch of road delivered us to a breathtaking descent with the ocean sprawling out endlessly in the distance. We spent part of an afternoon on a beach, soaking up the sun and even dipping into the temperate water for a moment, but most of our time was spent navigating around the island.
Everything was gorgeous, but my favorite part of the island was a steep and winding detour from the main road to the secluded town of Masca. The name had surfaced somewhere in my brief time reading about this island, and after seeing a sign that proclaimed it to be a mere 5 kilometers away we decided it was worth exploring. It turns out the distance is misleading, as steep ascents and descents necessitated slow speeds on the side trip that ended up taking about an hour. In addition to leaving Joni white knuckled in the passenger seat for over an hour, and accounting for perhaps the most difficult bit of landscape I’ve ever conquered in a car, this tiny community brought together a beautiful juxtaposition of verdant valley inclines with a majestically expansive view of the sea and clouds in the distance. It is a bit reminiscent of the town where Pacha lives in The Emperor’s New Groove and served as a reminder that treacherous pathways can lead to unexpected beauty.
Memorable Meal: After failing to persuade the front desk at our hotel to let us check in early, Joni and I took a walk in search of food. El Limón tugged at our appetites with it’s promise of vegetarian food and a wide selection of juices, and so we took up a brief residence inside the comfy interior of this spot in Puerto de la Cruz. We sampled the local dish papas arrugadas (literally: wrinkly potatoes) with sides of orange and green oily “mojo” sauce. Joni ordered the veggie burger which, despite definitely being made of vegetables, had a pink filling that uncannily mirrored the traditional Spanish preference to have a burger cooked very rare. I bravely ordered the menú del dia after basically understanding that it was full of vegetables, and was handsomely rewarded. The first course was a squash soup, followed by a veggie wrap and then a piece of something resembling sponge cake for dessert. Oh, and we each had a juice cocktail to accompany our meals - Joni’s was comprised of pineapple, orange, and banana and I think mine was a mixture of apple, orange, banana and strawberry. We were sufficiently stuffed as we made the languorous walk back to the hotel to check in and consequently nap off our gluttony.
Black sand beach - a result of volcanic ash working it's way into the shore!
En la clase: This past week was the last time Joni had Spanish class with Cat, as Cat traveled back to the US (see Final Note for more on this). The two intrepid language learners will certainly miss their time spent with Paloma and each other. Learning anything can be challenging, particularly when it comes to language, but it makes a lot of difference if you can find someone on your level with whom you are comfortable enough to lay it all out there and potentially make a fool of yourself. Joni and I will have two more weeks of one-on-one classes with Paloma, and will try desperately to cram in as much language acquisition as we can before indefinitely departing the peninsula.
On an English class-related note, Joni was excited this week to spot one of her former students in a movie! The woman had a small role as the boss of the main character's sister, and it was a nice surprise to see a familiar face in a totally foreign context. This made Joni reiterate her intention to keep tabs on her acting students in hopes of some day witnessing their rise to stardom.
On an English class-related note, Joni was excited this week to spot one of her former students in a movie! The woman had a small role as the boss of the main character's sister, and it was a nice surprise to see a familiar face in a totally foreign context. This made Joni reiterate her intention to keep tabs on her acting students in hopes of some day witnessing their rise to stardom.
Final Notes: This past Tuesday we started a long trip back to Phoenix for my grandma’s memorial service. Our first flight routed us to Atlanta, and we were happy to be joined by Cat and Violet who happened to also be traveling to spend time with loved ones after the death of a close family friend. This marked the first ever flight for four-month-old Violet, and Cat was pretty anxious about all the potential snags that might have stood between us and a peaceful 9 hour plane ride. Perhaps Joni and I were naive, but I don’t think either of us anticipated Violet being at the root of any major issues. After persuading a kind gate agent to group the four of us together, the red carpet was rolled out before us: a priority line for security, early boarding for the flight, and extra leg room in our newly assigned seats in the bulkhead of the plane. All the while, Violet couldn’t have been any better behaved. The lack of basically any fuss whatsoever on such a long journey evoked amazed stares and comments from passengers and flight crew alike. One flight attendant, who later stated she had been flying for 40 years, said she had never seen a better behaved baby this age. In the end our support was mostly moral and emotional for Cat, and more than anything the addition of a small child made our trip flow smoothly.
We’re looking forward to spending the rest of the week enjoying the company of family and celebrating the amazing life of Carolyn Yost.
We’re looking forward to spending the rest of the week enjoying the company of family and celebrating the amazing life of Carolyn Yost.
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