From the giants to the Platanos
A discovery tour from the “Gigantes” to the “Platanos” with a criminal descent
On our second night, Tom and I took an exploratory walk around the area at the south-west coast of Tenerife. We strolled through “Playa la Arena”, “Puerto de Santiago” and “Los Gigantes”, which are geographically already united. We found that the coasts are fairly plastered with concrete and that only a few, small bays with black sand beach and beautiful, clear water remain. On the cliffs we discovered huge black and red crabs – very impressive and nimble critters.
Our route led us to “Los Gigantes” from where we could see the huge cliffs bearing that name, towering steeply from the water of the Atlantic Ocean at hights of 300 to 600 meters. The village “los Gigantes” (English: The giants) is named for their enourmous slopes. The panorama is incredibly impressive and we lingered for a moment to marvel at this wonder of nature.
We followed the road going up country and passed numerous banana plantations. The Canarian banana “Platano” is considered as the main crop on Teneriffa. It is smaller and sweeter than the South American banana “Banana” and has a very high proportion of potassium, iron and magnesium. Banana plantations can be found on all the Canary Islands – on Tenerife they are located especially in the southwest and north.
After we had explored a banana plantation in depth, we continued our walk and followed the road until we were back ar “Playa la Arena”. In order to shortcut the way to the hotel, we followed a narrow sandy path – according to the map on the phone, this path ought to lead directly to the hotel – and ended up at an overgrown path with a variety of plants and flowers.
Among them we found a bush, bearing green fruits. Out of curiosity we picked one realized from its scent, that it was a mango tree – cool, the things you discover. We followed the overgrown path, which ended on a hill in front of a football stadium. We could already see our hotel, but could get no closer from here – as the saying goes: so near and yet so far. I discovered a loophole through which we were able to jump from the hill into the football stadium. On the football field there was a boy playing with a ball, which is why we had assumed that the door to the stadium would be open. Instead, however, he told us that the door was locked and walked us to the platform, where he, too, had a loophole to get into the stadium to play ball. We sure were smirking, when we climbed into the car park outside the hotel and encountered three more boys heading our way with footballs pinned under their arms …
