Tenerife day 3

The weather on the third day, Wednesday, was supposed to be the sunniest, so we headed to the northern part of the island for some running and hiking. The first run started from Cruz del Carmen, which is about 920m above sea level and in Anaga Mountains. The morning route went out to the village of Chinamada, and back through Las Carboneras. Chinamada is about 620m above sea level and up until the 1990s had neither electricity or a road. The houses are cave houses, built into the side of the hillside. We ran to just beyond the village to Mirador de Aguaide and looked at the views. There was a trail that ran all the way downhill to the town at sea level below, Punta del Hidalgo, but I still could not run downhill. Walking downhill was manageable today, but only barely, and running was still out of the question. Luckily, this route was mostly up after the initial downhill. We managed to run most of this, as it was never too steep or too narrow. We stopped about 3/4 of the way through for a bread and cheese break.

View into the valley from the trail

We saw goats!

Trail out to Mirador de Aguaide

The cable car that transports things down into the valley for the farming (I hope it doesn't transport people!)

As soon as we arrived back at the car at Cruz del Carmen we drove further into the remote northeastern part of the island and down more switchbacks to the town of Afur. Again, the roads were superbly maintained and there were signs to the town, since it's a the start of a few different hikes. We ate lunch in the car, too tired and unmotivated to get out, and then refilled the waterbottles for the second run of the day. This run began with just under 2k downhill in the valley to the beach. Needless to say, we did not run this, as evidenced below.

Gracefully leaning on the railing and trying to step down. 

Hiking down the canyon.

We made it to the beach, and enjoyed the views. There were a few other families picnicking, and I think they probably just headed back uphill when they were done.

We had other plans, so we headed a bit back inland and then ran uphill so that we could run along the side of the hill, with it sloping steadily downhill to the water. This was an awesome goat trail, with fantastic views of the coastline the entire way. A bit dizzying if you tried running and looking off to the side at the same time. My rule became that if I wanted to look at the scenery, I had to stop running. I did not want to take a wrong step and be tumbling off the cliffs myself.

Cacti growing straight up on the steep hill.

Sunshine and the trail along the coast

We were both a bit tired from the morning, Ross somewhat more than me since he had to carry the backpack (that's what we're blaming it on). Therefore, the running along the coastal trail slowly turned into just walking. We continued to hike through small villages and then above the larger city of Taganana. At this point we were both pretty tired and we could see the 300m ascent ahead of us. We hiked up and were happy to reach the top, with the sign pointing the way back to Afur.

Stopping at the bottom to refuel

We made it to the top!

Now to get back to the car

Unfortunately, we overshot the car in terms of climb, so we had a downhill trail and then downhill on the paced road to get back. Needless to say, there was very little running here as well. We drove home the same way as we came, because we were tired and it was getting late. Stopped at the grocery store to pick up local wine (yummy) local cider (disgusting) and dessert (orange ice cream scooped inside oranges).

Morning:

Afternoon: