A quest for sunshine

After a hiatus from writing, it only seems fit that I would pick up again where it all began – in an African savannah. As a chorus of birds and insects announced the setting sun, and a cool refreshing breeze rustled through the acacia trees, it felt like the time. Of course, it helps that I’m beginning to travel again too. Last year I left my van in Chile and moved to Germany for a job working for the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (more details here). I was excited about the work opportunity, but was handed some difficult personal challenges. My relationship ended and I realized I was entirely alone in a country where I couldn’t speak the language. This felt different from traveling in Latin America because 1) I could speak Spanish and 2) I was nomadic, so I couldn’t create a sense of community anyway since I was always on the move. Here, I’m based in a town, but I haven’t really found my people yet. And, I haven’t learned German yet because it’s intimidating to me and most of my time will be spent traveling for work to countries in Africa and Central America. It was a long, dark winter but just as the magnolia trees are beginning to triumphantly bloom in the local parks nearby, I’m getting my footing in this new chapter of life.

In December I decided my soul needed some sunshine. I took the week of Christmas off from work, then opened up SkyScanner to see where I could find a cheap flight South. It didn’t take long before I spotted a 200-euro roundtrip ticket to Tenerife, Spain. I had never heard of Tenerife, but I did know about the Canary Islands, just off the coast of Morocco. Without a second thought I booked it, as well as a moped (which I had never driven before), and made a plan to see as much of the island as possible. I booked hostel bunks near my destinations and mapped the route I would be taking, around 300 km across and back around the island. It was a classic Kelly adventure plan, and I could already feel my mood lifting.

The adventure started right out of the gate running to catch a train at 6 AM on Christmas Eve. Though I had been living in Connewitz (neighborhood in Leipzig) for a bit, I hadn’t really explored much and was hoping google maps was leading me to the right place. I waited at a dark train stop thinking it was not the correct one, then saw the single beam of light from the train making its way down the track. I took that train to the main station in Leipzig, then another train to the Leipzig Halle airport. I didn’t have luggage, just a small backpack, and made it through TSA and to my gate about 2 hours before my flight, also quite classic.

It was about a 5 hour flight to the Canary Islands and I arrived in Tenerife mid afternoon. I took a cab to my first hostel and instantly made some travel friends. I was the oldest out of our group of four (they were shocked to learn my age) but we were all in sort of the same phase in life and got along well. On Christmas day we took some beers to the beach, laid in the sun, and swam in warm ocean water. I would never have guessed I would be celebrating the holiday with new friends and feeling a sense of belonging, it was good for my soul. Our overlap was brief however since my plan for the trip was to move around and see as much of the island as I could. The morning after Christmas I bid farewell and took a bus to the scooter rental company to begin my journey. I explained to the lady at the rental place that I had no idea how to drive one of these things. She gave me a quick crash course and, after a couple laps around the parking lot, I hit the road… ready or not!

I drove to my next hostel and napped in the hammock after a night of partying with the new pals. My original idea was to hike Mt Teide, Spain’s highest mountain which is actually a volcano. Since all of the day permits were taken for this week, I chose a night summit attempt. I set my alarm for 2 AM to drive the scooter up to the trailhead, though just before falling asleep I realized my route to get there was quite a bit longer than I had originally thought. I’d try though… I set off with some false confidence and really hoping I could fake it til I made it after noticing the steep switchbacks in the road to get up to the trailhead. I was still a bit wobbly on the thing, honestly it probably would have been better if it was a motorcycle!

Long story short, it took me so long to get up the 50 km of switchback roads that I didn’t even make it to the trailhead until after sunrise. The roads were icy the higher up I drove, my hands and face were frozen, and I literally saw no other scooters on this highway. I’m not sure I was even allowed to be driving up there! I did do a shorter hike around the base of the volcano and the landscape was absolutely wild. Surreal rock formations and a rainbow of colors in the rocks left me breathless, as well as the altitude (~2400 meters from sea level). After the hike it was time to move on to get to the next hostel on the North side of the island. I descended all the vert I gained off the other side and a few times the scooter overheated or something was up because it would just die. I’d have some water/snacks on the side of the road and keep trying to start it up again. At this point I was in it til the end since I needed to return it back where I rented it from, and I was on the opposite side of the island at this point.

I found my next hostel as I nearly wiped out on the stone road to get there. It was a bit quieter but I made some friends to share dinner with. I took a nice solo walk to the beach with a stray cat to enjoy sunset, then made my plan for the next day. I really wanted to see some of the black sand beaches that Tenerife was famous for, but there was also this really cool high forest in the opposite direction of the beach that I wanted to check out. The theme for this trip was fake it til we make it, so I convinced myself I could do both. The next morning I merged onto a fast highway that took me farther North and tested my and the scooter’s abilities to be highway respectable. I was glad when I turned off onto a smaller road to the forest, then stressed with how hair pin narrow the turns were in the roads. I made it to my trailhead and explored the steep hillside of an incredible forest. The trees would form these sort of tunnels and, despite being a pretty popular park, the silence was incredible. At times I could also get a glimpse of the sea nearby. I hiked my heart out, swung back on the scooter and headed south to get to the black sands.

Since I wasn’t allowed on the true highway (I looked this up ahead of time) I had to stay high and sort of skirt the landscape that ran along the ridge parallel to the highway. This was really cool because the route would take me through some small mountain towns and then shoot straight along the side of the mountain where I could see the highway below and the sea just a bit farther West. Google maps was having a hell of a time trying to find the entrance to my beach destination, Beach Bollullo. Once I got off the highway and rerouted, I found myself going from driving on a real road to bumping along what seemed like a pedestrian walkway with some sheer dropoffs to the sea below. I literally could not even turn around with how narrow the alley was so I just kept going until I was spat out at a parking lot for a restaurant above the beach I wanted to visit, it was actually it! However, the parking lot for vehicles was up a steep ramp with a lot of people sitting at tables near the perimeter, so I opted to hop off the scooter and push it up rather than cause a scene with my rooky driving. As I was pushing it up, a cute local guy offered to drive it up for me. He ended up working at the restaurant to charge vehicles to park. The sign said 4 euros, but he only charged me 2 🙂 It took about 5 minutes to take the stairs down to the beach. The black sand was amazing and I took a handful of it and shoved it into my wallet to take home, since I was lacking any containers, pockets, or bags. I stayed far from most people on the beach as they tried to get real estate that wasn’t shaded yet by the setting sun. I enjoyed the cooling off and the dark sand stayed warm long after the sun stopped touching it. Needing to get to my next hostel, it felt like a premature departure but it was time to go. The cute guy brought my scooter back down, gave me some tips in Spanish, and whooped and waved once I set off back down the narrow alley that brought me there.

My next stop was Los Gigantes to see huge seaside cliffs! It would be about 100 km and I was feeling more confident driving so I even dawned a little scarf tied around my neck. My confidence was unjustified. For this next stretch, along the south western coast of the island, I was forced onto a highway. It was raining and the speed limit was way over what I was capable of driving with this thing. I alone caused a maybe 30 car traffic jam in the 10 harrowing minutes I tried to drive faster without wiping out. People were honking, trying to pass but couldn’t with oncoming traffic, and I was soaked in nervous sweat. When I finally found a place to pull over I pretended to be very invested in my phone as the cars passed honking and people shouting “Abuela!” at me. I tried not to really care, I’d never see these people again. I can laugh about it now but it was pretty embarrassing in the moment!

After leaving the highway, I had to go up the tightest curves to get up and over the ridge running down the island. This was challenging and I was happy I had a few days of riding already because I now knew accelerating helped make the tight turns more manageable. I went up, over, and down the ridge to Los Gigantes, checked into my hostel, and started checking out the town. I happened to walk by a tour agency selling last minute tickets to go see dolphins and the cliffs from the sea and I squeezed onto the boat tour. It was amazing! We saw tons of dolphins and got up close to the crazy high cliffs that plummet into the sea. It had been awhile since I’d been on a boat in the ocean and I was grateful for the last minute opportunity.

The next morning I set off for a hike to “the eye” of Los Gigantes, a huge arch perched high on the cliffs overlooking the sea. A few hikers were coming down as I was heading up and warned me about the danger of the last 100 or so meters that was more scrambling than hiking. I don’t think they realized that this aspect of the hike was actually what I was most interested in, scrambling to the arch. Once I arrived, I was struck with the beauty of the view and the unexpected solitude I was gifted up there. The formation was massive and gorgeous, and the view over the sea made me want to camp out up there and never leave. It felt like a bird’s nest home high above the world below.

My final day was a long drive to return the scooter. I felt like a master at this point and enjoyed the last 100 or so km back to the rental place. After returning the scooter, I had one last day on the beach soaking up the sun. I am so glad I trusted my gut reaction to travel and have an adventure. I brought some sunshine in my soul back to Germany and started off the year beaming. I added a new pin to my world map too 🙂

Unknown Legend was in my head driving the scooter, though I’m sure I did not appear as graceful as the woman in the song 😉

My next story I’ll actually write about my first work trip to Kenya!