21-12-14

So today it’s finally Anaga! And getting my ass on, I’m ‘behind schedule’.

So I leave the luxury of the hotel behind and go for a bus.

And after quite some serpentine turns in a tiny bus, I’m rewarded with an effortless view.

Just by the busy parking lot (a german team is just shooting some movie somewhere nearby, so there is a million trucks and other crew cars in addition to the tourists) there is also a tiny chaple, unfortunately it’s closed.

But some of the holinesses can also be found just outside of it…

…and the forest around looks lovely, can’t wait to get started on my hike.

It’s such a difference in vegitation here to all the other islands so far!

There is proper high trees, fern and lots of moss – very visibly so, where the gravel road or path is cut into the terrain.

The Anaga forest was apparently protected quite early, because someone realised that it’s creating a water buffer and storage, and without it the fields lower down in the valley dry out.

It’s now especially famous for it’s Laurisilva – the laurel forest.

I do a lovely little circular track to Mirador de Zapata, and back via de Le Bosque de los Enigmas trail – well marketed the whole thing, and plenty of other visitors/hikers. But also really quite beautiful!

After coming back to Cruz del Carmen, I take the old camino back down towards La Laguna.

There is some lovely view points back towards Santa Cruz, and the steep, green mountains around.

It’s such a lush, humid place here, there is even mushrooms!

Then the path flattens out amoung agricultural areas, and into the surroundong villages of La Laguna. There is lots of small lizards, but they are too shy and quick, to get captured on a photo.

I pass by an interesting modern-ish church, before I catch a bus back to the centre.

I change busses at the Intercambiador…

…and some minutes later, I’m on the other side of ‘civilisation’ and the airport Tenerife Norte, at La Esperanza – where the GR131 on Tenerife starts.

I ‘fly’ along the forest road, aware that time until sunset, when I should have reached my goal, is running out. Take just a short photo-stop at Cruz de Fune – a tiny wayside chapel that contains ‘only’ about 10 or so variously sized crosses.

And make it just in time, to set up my tent at the Zona Acampada de las Calderetas.

Today’s hiked kilometers amount to roughly 18,4km, about 5,5km of it along the GR131.

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