The title of this post is created under the assumption that we will probably endure another hangover at some point in the near future. The two beds in our apartment are less than desirable, one is an extra firm leather futon and the other is a twin mattress with broken support coils... Needless to say, we have both had a lot of trouble sleeping! Due to this fact, we have developed a bad habit of going to bed around 3am, and waking up shortly before noon. After many failed attempts of getting on a better sleep cycle, we came up with an idea - lets have a few extra drinks with dinner and pass out early, so that hopefully we’ll wake up early!
Of course, as many of our last minute ideas go - we decided to enact this brilliant plan the evening before a strenuous 10-mile hike around the Garachico Volcano. We paced the aisles of the Supermercado looking for cheap alcohol (regretful decision), and decided on a €0,99 bottle of red wine and a €3,99 700mL bottle of vodka, that we would be mixing with Orange Fanta. At home we alternated glasses of wine with glasses of Vodka&Fanta until the wine was gone, and the vodka was nearing its end. We put our tipsy selves to bed shortly before midnight, put on a movie; jokingly we chose to watch The Hangover II - ohh the irony.
At 7am the alarm went off, we hopped out of bed feeling great, got dressed and had breakfast. It wasn’t long before our headaches simultaneously set in; Megan dug around for the ibuprofen and discovered it was empty. On the way to the bus stop we passed the Farmacia, it was closed as usual - we would have to tough out this hangover with no painkillers! Sitting at the bus stop inhaling fumes from the busses as they warmed up only made matters worse, now we both had headaches and nausea. As we've mentioned before, riding the Titsa busses around the island is already rough, add a hangover to the equation and you have a recipe for... you get the idea.
We dashed off the buses as soon as we hit Icod de los Vinos (halfway point to our destination), and straight into the bathrooms. Emerging, feeling a little better, we nibbled stale croissants at the bus station café and waited 45 long minutes for the connecting bus that would eventually take us to the remote mountain village of San Jose de los LLanos. We sat on the dirty bus bench contemplating giving up, going home, and pouring ourselves back into bed; but as punishment for drinking our way into hangovers, Megan insisted we tough it out and press on. We were the only ones riding to Los LLanos, and the bus driver seemed to take humor in our condition as we sat with our faces buried in our hands.
The drop off point was on a windy hill that overlooked a dense field of clouds, unfortunately we have no pictures of this amazing view because neither one of us was feeling well enough to hold the camera. In an attempt to gain composure, we staggered into the local café - Bar Los Llaneros to have a few cafe con leches, we made friends with Rafael the bartender (so if you're ever in the area, be sure to stop in and say "hola"). Feeling a little better we headed out of town and up Calle La Hoya to the trail that would lead us to the Trevejo Volcano.
It was painful walking uphill in the direct sunlight even after coffee and croissants, but somehow we managed to make it onto the dirt path leading into the forest. Coming to a sign that showed Punto de Teno was only a short 23,8km walk made us laugh and reflect on our last epic hike. We trekked through the pine forest, trailing on an off a poorly marked spider web of paths, as we walked in the general direction of the volcano. It took roughly and hour of huffing and puffing to reach our destination, but the view was otherworldly. The dense pine needles under our feet became jet-black volcanic gravel, and the forest disappeared. Only a few young trees managed to penetrate the volcanic topsoil. We marveled at the sight of the gravel as it faded into a bright green forest, and then abruptly became a sea of puffy white clouds. Admiring the view from the top of a volcano instantly made us feel better, and set new tone for the day!
Our journey around the volcano continued down a few wide and winding paths that led to an amazing view of Teide, which from 4,600ft didn’t look nearly as big. As we carried along the paths we both began to sweat, the heat from the black desert scenery permeated through our shoes and clothes leaving us drenched. The pine forest on the other side of the crater couldn’t come soon enough and we happily left the sizzling extraterrestrial landscape behind. Approaching the next directional sign we were confused to discover our trail had somehow ended, our original plan was to hike a trail that looped around the volcano and head back to Los Llanos. Via this sign, we were now granted with the opportunity to follow the lava flow from the volcano and hike 10,7km down the mountain to Garachico, the town that had been destroyed in 1706 when the Trevejo volcano last erupted. So we headed off, excited that we could take our time to meander around, we had previously been on a time crunch to hurry back to Los Llanos, as only a few busses visit the sleepy town every day.
Half an hour of walking led us to a neat camping and picnic area called Arenas Negras where we stopped and had snacks, refueling before the long road ahead. The trail led us through a few kilometers of pine forest, to a dryer and warmer climate densely covered by shrubs and thorny bushes that grabbed at our pant legs. Eventually there was a break in the trail as we came upon the church San Francisco de Asis, here we crossed a main road and descended through a neighborhood. It wasn’t long before the landscape changed on us once again and we were noticeably following the lava flow down the mountain. The trail took us over huge veins of volcanic rock and down into the cloud layer, where the temperature dropped so abruptly we were forced to put on our jackets. It was eerie looking ahead to a trail that disappeared into the clouds.
It would be a lie to say that hiking down a steep mountain in Nike running shoes was easy; we were overjoyed to walk through a paved tunnel that escorted us under a road and onto the town of San Juan del Reparo. At the base of the town we could see the ocean and our final destination, Garachico. We snaked through the path from Reparo to the ocean, flinching with every step – at this point our feet were done hiking, but unfortunately we couldn’t stop just yet. The final descent was done rapidly, with little talking, full focus on getting to the end. After a five and a half hour trek, we finally saw the last yellow and white trail marker as we entered Garachico’s town square! Dragging ourselves to the bus station we discovered the last bus for Pto. Cruz had just left, meaning we had to wait another sixty-minutes before we could begin our hour-long bus ride back home. We sat at the bus stop snacking on chips and cookies reflecting on our long day, and made a promise to each other: never again will we begin a hike with a hangover!
Xo, K&M
