Tenerife Island travels, January 11-18, 2020

Part 2- A visit to La Laguna, Santa Cruz and two hikes

in the Anaga Mountains
This is the second part of the trip. We are driven north after our climb of Teide to the town of La Laguna which was the original capital of the islands. We have a rest and free day in La Laguna so a walking tour of the town is taken by most of the group. The next day we do a hike in the mountains descending to the sea. The following day we transfer to Santa Cruz for our final two nights. From there we do one last hike to a secluded beach.
In La Laguna we stay at Hotel Aguere which is in the older, pedestrian only part of town. The building dates to 1763.
One of the streets in the pedestrian zone of La Laguna.
The hotel has an interior courtyard which is a restaurant.
The Catholic cathedral was rebuilt in 1913. Probably dates from the 16th century.
The interior garden of one of the older homes preserved in La Laguna.
A view looking north at scattered settlements in the Anaga Mountains.
One of several stained glass windows in the cathedral.
On the trail heading to a lunch stop at Chinamada.
A great lunch with squid, rabbit, salt potatoes and washed down with the local Dorada beer.
Lunch is at La Cueva Restaurant.
The trail makes its was along steep ridges. We are headed to the town on the ocean which barely shows up in this view.
Getting near the bottom we have a viewpoint with a view of the spectacular cliffs on the northern coast.
Finally at the beach! Our reward is a swim in the pool which has a protective sea wall from the pounding surf. A sign with water info says the water temperature is from 20 to 22 deg C (about 70 deg F), very nice!
Lower down on the ridge the town of Punta del Hidalgo comes into view. This hike started at 3050 ft. (930 m) and went down to sea level in 6.1 mi. (9.8 km). The route took us 6.5 hours with probably a one hour stop for lunch. GPS track file
One last place to visit in La Laguna is this old church tower dating from 1502. For a small fee you can climb up to the top for expansive views of the city.
We go along a ridge looking down on a settlement probably called Lomo Bermejo. We don't go down there, but continue to descend a parallel canyon to the north.
Our second and last hike in the Anaga Mountains starts at a lower elevation of 1505 ft. (459 m) at a store and tiny village on route TF-123 called Chamorga. The route is 5.7 mi. (9.2 km) and takes us 4 hours 10 min. GPS track
This is our reward, a fine black-sand beach accessable only by foot trail or by boat. Nice clear water and no debris. This is Playa de Antequera where we have lunch and take a swim.
We're getting close to the beach now. The massive rock forms Punta de Antequera.
The boat drops us off next to this beach called Playa de las Teresitas which is on a road from Santa Cruz. This beach was made by bringing sand over from the sahara which covers the normal black sand and rock.
Fortunately we don't have to walk back up to the start since our guide has arranged for a water taxi.
This is the end of our week-long KE Adventure trip. An amazing journey and we are lucky to have fine weather with no rain for eight days. Our guides Cao and Laura from Anaga Experience did a great job keeping us on schedule and arranging transportation. They are very knowledgable on local geology, plants and history.

Shelley and I fly over to La Palma the next day while most of the others head for home from the Tenreife south airport.

www.keadventure.com

www.anagaexperience.com
Santa Cruz is a modern port city of about 207,000 people.