Tenerife

Was editting my pictures from my holiday in Tenerife last December and realised that I haven't blogged about my trip! It is worth much blogging and raving since the island is gorgeous and the fact that it was warmer than UK in December made it hugely enjoyable too.

The trip commenced from Luton Airport, London, on 16 December and lasted till 26 December. Woon and I started off first while Shin joined us on our 5th day in Tenerife. Plans included hiking, lotsa food (as you shall see soon enough) and as much rest as we could get!

Oh, and driving too. Yes, I drove in UK.... Left-hand manual drive too... Yes, me, Calista Goh, did that. *chuckles*

Our first baby car - Toyota Yaris - Melody!!

Melody!

Sadly, she gave way on us on our 3rd-last day in Tenerife and so we traded her in for a similar Yaris in grey and called her Sarah.

I had much fun with the cars! It reminds me of how much I've missed driving too.

So anyway, we stayed at the hotel/resort Santa Barbara and our 'room' was an apartment in itself - with a fully-equipped kitchen too! (Tupperwares included)

Living room

Kitchen/Dining room

Bedroom (yes, 2 separate beds. I slept on the couch when Shin joined us)

Wardrobe - Woon + my clothes (lol. More his than mine though. *chuckles*)

The view from our balcony

Our resort was located at the southern tip of Tenerife - Golf del Sur.

Images from around our resort....



Playa de las Americas (the tourist hot spot)





During our 10-day stay on the lovely island, we went out to the open sea for a session of really cool assisted diving....

Me & Woon in our wetsuits!

Getting strapped up.

The lagoon we dived in.

We hiked along the treacherous paths of Barranco del Inferno ("The Valley of Hell")...


Did a courageous climb through the rocky and breath-takingly gorgeous ravine in a little mountain village of Masca...

The village of Masca.


Yep... We had to walk down this in the ravine.... I felt like Indiana Jones!

The ravine....

Gorgeous ain't it???

And did the famous must-do hike/sight-seeing up Tenerife's famous caldera - El Tiede

We were so high up that we were driving ABOVE the clouds. No kidding!

See? Told ya!

I think it was after driving through the crazily narrow roads of Masca and El Tiede that did poor Melody in... We miss you Mel.

By recommendation from Russ, my flatmate in Bristol who's been to Tenerife before, we signed up for this Medieval Night show.

Me and the green knight.

The Medieval Night show was pretty cool! We watched a rather amusing joust and staged-battling between knights of different colours!


Woon and I were in the blue encampment (as you can see from the blue tunic that sufficed as a bib from picture above) and our blue knight was the winner for that night! And as medieval custom would have it, he had to pick his maiden of honour!

And he picked me!!!

Yeah.... =D

I was so flattered and happy! Coz we won a BIG bottle of yummy sparkling wine!

That was real good fun! Thanks Russ for the recommendation!

Oooo Ooo! It came complete with a medieval style dinner too! (i.e. we had to eat with hands and sat along benches and dinner was served on metal trays with old men walking by and plonking them unceremoniously on our table.)

Check this out!

Our starters. A rubbish butter bun with stale popcorn.

Main course: Horrendously done chicken and an over-baked potato

And finally, we went on a Catamaran to go whale-watching.... =)


So anyway, apart from the lovely apartment and the memorable experiences, we also had a truck-load of delicious food.....

Where I can, I will group them by restuarants... We had meals at...

1. Picasso (Playa de las Americas)

Parma ham + Melon (so good). This was Woon's signature appetizer. It got to the point where the waiter knew who had which appetizer whenever we returned to Picasso's.

Day 1 in Tenerife's spread.

My catch of the day with Canarian potatoes. Yummy.

On our second visit, I got these breaded mushrooms which were sooooooooo yummy!

Breaded mushrooms

And tried their strawberry sponge for dessert.

2. The restaurant in our hotel

Note: The dinner was a major let down.... But here're the pictures anyway!

My tuna salad appetizer

My baked fish main course.

Strawberry sponge cake for dessert!

3. Some bar/restaurant in Ifonche

Hot crusty bread with Canarian mojo sauce! Yummy. My fav is the red mojo... Spicy.

The most delicious/value-for-money meal ever! Roast whole rabbit (7 euros) and yummy home-made papa fritas (aka french fries).

SOOOOOO GOOD.

Woon finished all the roasted onions and garlic when we had this. Not being a fan of either bulb, I took his word for it and happily dumped more on his plate!

What was disturbing was how the rabbit's heart was lurking amidst the yummy goodness. :S

Rabbit's heart. Poor darling.

4. Trassamalo (I think I spelt it wrong, but it was a restaurant located along the shoreline behind our hotel.... By recommendation of the friendly hotel staff, Pablo!)

Woon and I were ravenous from our open sea dive that morning! So beware, we ordered a LOT of food.....

Cheese toast for appetiser

Garlic butter prawns for appetiser

Woon wanted some spanish omelette but apparently this was just a normal omelette... So it was a let down.

Far left: Rabbit ; Right: Calamari (i.e. squid) for main course.

Paella for 2nd main course. (I was crazy full by the time this arrived)

Yeah, we were happily tucking into our food. See Woon's look of bliss as he eats:-



5. Otelo @ Barranco del Inferno

Spanish omelette

Chicken, Rabbit and more fries.

Yummy dark chocolate Tartufo...

6. Danish bakery @ Golf del Sur

Cinnamon bread.... Yum.

Cinnamon swirl... Yum.

French roulade... Yum.

Their X'mas swiss roll thingy.... So-so.

7. Tito's @ Los Abrigos

Canarian potatoes. Just boiled potatoes in salt.

Oooookay. Sorry for the image-intensive post! But I hope you enjoyed the pictures and sights as much as we did on our trip!

Check out Tenerife some time when you're free! It's really worth a visit!

For the full range of pictures from my trip, go here:-

http://travel.webshots.com/album/570003591JlNrCh