Alex Rybakoff's blog

If someone would ask me what is my favorite place in Tenerife, I’d answer without much hesitation – Anaga mountains. They are surrounded by ocean, they are green and wild in many places, they have so fascinating shapes.

On my first Saturday on the island I went to the walk #40 from the Rother’s guide (4:40 h, 800 m ascent, 400 m descent). The route starts exactly at the entrance to my apartment in Bajamar :)

It was 16th January and the temperature was well over 20 degrees. All those preparations & long flying were not in vain.

I used this picture to entice my friend Maxim to Tenerife (he is a big friend of enduro).

A palm and a bench, situated just in a proper place :) I can’t say that I met many people during the hike, but there were occasionally some, mostly local trail runners. At some point I met even a group of scholars on their walk!

Looking at the dry land and scarce vegetation, I was happy to have 2+ liters of water with me.

Not much time passes on Tenerife before you see Teide again.

Why all the fun is always forbidden? ;)

Gorgeous, isn’t it?

Not your average forest!

And suddenly something familiar. This place reminded me Switzeland!

At some point I reached the top, where a tiny natural reserve is located. They try to restore endemic Canarian tree species, which were massively replaced by the more economically profitable ones.

My new zoom lens at their best ;)

Time to go down, towards Tegueste.

Sincerely yours :)

Tegueste is a small but lovely town on the way from the coast to La Laguna.

Notice Christmas decorations :)

* * *

On some other day I went to the walk #42 from the Rother’s guide (3:20 h, 150 m ascent, 700 m descent). A lovely trail starts in Las Escaleras.

The weather was a bit cloudy and chilly on that day, but there were much more hikers on the way. It looks like the most popular trails are in the middle of Anaga mountains, not at their edges.

A lunch in Chinamada and Spanish lesson while waiting the food. (Tu) estas una chica bonita – is one of the phrases, added by me to the phrase book. This depicts my main concern at that time :D

The famous houses in a cave of Chinamada.

From the houses there is a short detour to a viewpoint.

And then the trail goes down to Punta del Hidalgo.

The mobile network coverage is quite poor in Anaga and on this particular route too, even if Punta del Hidalgo is all the time either visible or just around the corner. Please take this in consideration, if you are in Tenerife not for the vacation and need occasionally to write an e-mail or two.

The impressive end of an impressive day. These awesome waves made waiting for the bus a real pleasure. I even wanted to skip one, but then met some German girls, also returning from hiking, and had a pleasant bus ride with them. (And failed to ask the phone number of the one I liked the most, what a shame!).

These were just the first two hikes in Anaga mountains. I visited them few more times and it was always a pure delight to walk or cycle there. One more blog entry about Anaga is coming! ;)