30 Days in Tenerife, Spain: Week Two

It’s hard to believe it is already week two in Tenerife! Our family adjusted quickly to life in Spain and the beautiful weather of the Canary Islands. We experienced nothing but sunshine and pool hair, spending every day accessing some sort of beach or pool. We are becoming more familiar with our surroundings and my driving has become a little less erratic – phew! We also fell into a good routine of grocery shopping as a family on Monday mornings and learning the Spanish supermercados: thank God we brought a large duffel bag to carry our groceries in! We are ready to do more exploring around Tenerife. We also snuck in a little go karting this week which is a common pasttime in Tenerife.

Getting to Know our Beloved Palm Mar

We continued into week two of loving our beloved Tenerife town of Palm Mar. We began to identify favorite restaurants like Trigo for para llevar pizza nights and Frutopia where the bros would frequent the owners to chat and grab some smoothies and fruit popsicles. We fell into a great routine of home church on Sundays led by Logan, Logan’s work schedule working well despite some challenges in the evenings and the bros even arranging daytime playdates at the pool with friends from various countries they met.

Las Galletas & La Caleta

Two of our favorite towns in Tenerife Sur where we are living are Las Galletas and La Caleta. Las Galletas is a village with a marina, a great option for local shopping and dining. One of the afternoons, the bros and I headed to the marina for Cokes and a Tinto de Verano – Spain’s drink of the summer. This lemon soda and red wine drink was the perfect way to cool down. We also found a playa in Las Galletas that was a great option for swimming in while Logan was working in the afternoons because it was easily navigable from Palm Mar.

La Caleta is an adorable, sleepy fishing village about fifteen minutes from Palm Mar. The pink and yellow hues of homes there were so cozy and inviting and we all joked that we were definitely moving to one of those homes (but were we joking ;)? We found a little swimming area at a local playa there, too, and Landon especially looked so forward to visiting this playa. One of the days, he got to swim with locals and their tiny dog. It was the highlight of his week swimming with that little dog!

A Day on the Yacht

We didn’t plan to take many or any excursions while in Tenerife as we were mainly practicing living abroad, but I discovered a new yacht company called Gulliver’s Fun Yacht. One thing we had not done was see Tenerife by sea, so we signed up for a morning out on the yacht. A British family and their son whom we had met on our first night joined us so it was a really fun thing to experience together. The yacht was super family-friendly which seemed to be unlike a lot of the other yachts we saw in Tenerife. From inflatables for the kids to use in the ocean to kayaks and snorkeling gear, the bros loved their day at sea! What really pushed them overboard was when Gulliver’s Fun Yacht attached an inflatable bounce house slide to the yacht, allowing them to slide down into the ocean. So much fun for kids of all ages!

San Miguel de Tajao

We eventually found our very favorite town in Tenerife Sur, San Miguel de Tajao. Another fishing village, but this one was full of restaurants offering fresh fish that was caught earlier that day. It truly was dreamy, with sailboats and boats lining the water. We found one of our favorite restaurants there in all of Tenerife, Aqua y Sal. The staff there were incredible but the environment for dining was exquisite. From choosing a handful of fresh mussels to be steamed over white wine sauce to shrimp and swordfish kabobs, we loved everything we ate and drank there. Griffin also shocked us all by ordering, and then continuing to eat, a whole fish! He ordered it fried and was gasped as he ate everything off that fish except the eyeballs – super impressive.

Weekends in Tenerife Norte

We looked forward to weekend adventures with dad where we could all hop in the car and spread our wings a little outside of Tenerife Sur. The north area, just a one hour drive from Palm Mar, was so different in topography than it was in the south. On this specific weekend, we drove to Masca, a tiny mountain village with around 99 inhabitants! We went up and down the swerving mountain roads and I thanked God for our safety but also mainly that I wasn’t the one driving! Masca was super packed and we couldn’t find parking but we still enjoyed viewing it from our car.

We also stopped into Los Gigantes that weekend, a beautiful beach town on the way back from north to south Tenerife. The beaches and gigantic cliffs against the sea were stunning. We also got to swim in the piscina natural there, a natural pool formed from overspill of the ocean.

Piscinas Naturales

Speaking of piscinas naturales, without doubt these were some of our absolute favorite sites in Tenerife. It began to become a game to see more and more piscinas, comparing one to the next to decide our favorite. Climbing down a ladder, we would jump into the cold water pools into some of the brightest blue waters we’ve seen and snorkel for bright fish. We then would look around and we’d be surrounded by gorgeous ocean views. It really was one of our favorite parts of one month in Tenerife!