Sunday 27 November 2016

MustCat - A catamaran trip in the Atlantic

Before we went to Tenerife we could see the list of different trips we could book. My dad has done a lot of sailing when he was young so naturally we should get ourself on a boat somehow.
We ended up booking a trip with a huge catamaran boat called MustCat. The special thing with the tourist catamaran boats is the net in the front where you can lay right over the water, while the boat is sailing.

The crew on board was really nice and jokingly. They were playing around with people and was really good at explaing the creatures around us (whales and dolphins). They spoke 3 different languages so that everyone could follow along. They served a lot of different dirnks on board and you could drink as much as you wanted. You had to stay hydrated when you are on the sea for 3 hours in that heat.
While we sailed out one of the crew members asked if we wanted to go diving when we sailed close to the cliffs. I would have said yes big time if i actually had my swimsuit with me but i  was too stupid to do that. It was only 15 euros!!! Next time i will bring my swimsuit and take advantage of the deal. Either way, the french family that had taking over the nets didn't want to lay there when we weren't sailing, so my family took it over afterward and tried to get a small sea tan.

There are few rules on board and the crew started out with repeating these rules in english, german and french. But i just have to mention this really rude french family that no one told off. The boat was for relaxing and whale watching and it was marked where on the boat you could sit, but as soon the whales showed up, the french family was everywhere... Everywhere!!! And they jump in from of people so only they could see the whales. Another rule was that children under 12 could not stay in the nets, because the holes are big and they could fall through them. These french people didn't care and send their small children out on them and you could only be 4 in the net at a time, but these french people... they didn't care and send theit children out even though there were already 4 people in the net. When we were sailing home the little girl started to kick me... all the way back... And apparently stop doesn't mean stop in french. The parents clearly didn't care. So it ruined the trip a bit and i wanted to show you some pictures but many of them is really bad and filled with french people. But i'll cut them out for you.
Almost impossible to cut the french family out of the pictures, but here is little atlantic spotted dolphin and short finned pilot whale

Teide is hiding in the clouds but there was snow on the top!
Chilling in the net 

Friday 4 November 2016

Tenerife - Los Christianos, from quiet fishing village to tourism paradise


Last weekend i got home from a week on Tenerife, the beautiful Spanish island close to the African west coat. I have been there before in 2012 when i went to secondary school ('gymnasium' in danish) on a studytrip because my A level was biology. It's a vulcanic island and it's far from any mainland so the nature has been partly untouched for hundreds of years at some places in the heights.

We lived in Los Christianos which is an old fishing village that has grown a lot since the tourists started to come to the island. Even i could see the different from 2012 to now. A few new hotels has been build since i was there last time. The village, or you can call it a city now, has grown together with the neighbor city Las Americas which was almost only build for the purpose of the tourists. That means it's not any traditional Spanish Canaria city and it's very affected by other cultures. That's why this is the place where you go to eat, drink and party. There is activity all day and all night near the beach and in the side streets, while Los Christianos is a bit more down to earth and relaxing.
That's why i recommended my family that we went there, instead of Las Americas. I think my family was kind of thankful for that, because loud music inside or outside the hotel though you had to go kind of far to get to the beach and all the resturents and souvenirer shops. The walk down there was not a problem for me and the weather is always warm so i think it was just ading to the experince that you had to pass all the locals to get down to the harbor where the big ferries are laying. You can also rent fishing rods and go big game fishing. There is small stalls lined up from different companies that get you on a boat so you can try to catch some fish you can't catch home in the cold north.

The harbor in Los Christianos around dinner time. 

The hill/mountain that kind of splits Los Christianos and Las Americas.
Picture taken from the terrace at Hotel Los Alisios.

We stayed at hotel Los Alisios (Again for my part) and i have to say that the hotel has become so much nicer than last time i was there. Not that there was anything wrong with it before but they have modernized all rooms and made new bathrooms (without tubs though) and it all just looked really nice and actually kind of Scandinavian? Maybe there was a reason for that, because there was a whole lot of Swedes and Norwegians at the hotel and some of the staff could speak Swedish.
To our big surprise and to my dad amusment we could actually watch DR1 on there TVs in the rooms and follow the danish news. There was a lot of different channels from a lot of other different countries so you could see the news from where ever you come from. That's a nice detail.
The rooms (or call it flats) were will full kitchen so we could eat breakfast in our rooms. A few of the days we went down and ate at the restaurant at the hotel and the buffet was really nice. There was a lot to choose from even though i'm allergic to a few things.
It's a hotel i can highly recommend if you are not somehow physically disabled. The hotel is laying on a "small" hill and is quiet a walk away from the main city/tourist area.

Kitchen and dining table.

I don't have a picture of the main bedroom where my parents stayed. Only this where i stayed.
Perhaps the most comfortable hotel bed i have ever slept in. No jokes!

The new bathrooms.