If nothing works like you thought at first…

Saturday was our first and only day on Tenerife, during which we were allowed to do (almost) whatever we wanted. Me and some others had not known what to do and with whom for quite a while. In the morning of our day off, we finally came up with a plan: Felix, Johannes L, Lenya, Justus and I wanted to go hiking, yet we did not know where to go. So, we went to the library on board, looked for a travel guide, and searched for some hiking trails. The first trail we found was too far away, so we could not take it. Some minutes later, we found another one which was better than the first one: only one way by bus, and also just a quick bus ride. It was a trail from the Pico del Inglés back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

At 10:45 am, we started from our home, the Thor Heyerdahl, to the bus station. There, we started looking for the right bus. We asked the first bus driver if he would drive to La Laguna. It was a little bit complicated because she could, in contrast to us, only speak Spanish. In the end, it was clear: we had to search for another bus. The second bus driver said no, too, but the third driver finally affirmed. While we were sitting in the bus, we talked about what we wanted to do that day: at first, we wanted to go to a viewpoint and then walk all the way down back to Santa Cruz. During the ride, we also had the first beautiful view over Tenerife, Santa Cruz, and the sea.

At the terminal station, we exited the bus, and were a little bit surprised, because it was not as warm as in Santa Cruz. Being in a forest in the clouds, we walked to our starting point. There, we saw a small trail heading into the forest where we expected the viewpoint and started to follow it. After some minutes without any kind of nice views, we took a small break and discussed whether we should return or not. We turned around but stopped some meters later again because we did not want to miss the viewpoint. We debated whether we should continue for some more minutes, and the result was that we wanted to go further to not miss the viewpoint. However, when the trail went down the mountain, we turned around and went back through the forest, which looked nearly like a forest out of a fairy tale.

Back at the starting point, we checked out the travel guide that we brought and talked about the right way. After some minutes, we went down a small street that we expected to be the correct one, down the mountain. While we walked, we sang songs, talked, and laughed but when we looked into the book once more, we stopped again. That street was not the right way, so we turned around one more time. When we arrived at our starting point for the third time that day, we looked into the travel guide – again.

Finding the next and correct street was not that difficult because only one street was left. At the end of that street, we finally found the viewpoint. To celebrate, we ate our sandwiches and took a photo with the wonderful view we had not wanted to miss all day: clouds. Afterwards, we searched for the hiking trail back to Santa Cruz and thus the Thor, but we soon discovered that the trail had been closed. The only alternative route was the street we walked down just in the beginning of our trip when we first looked for the viewpoint. Turning around was nothing new for us yet when we looked at the clock, we were a little bit surprised. We had been here for two hours and had not found the right way yet. However, we wanted to carry on and not take the bus back to the Thor.

So, we started our real hike a little bit faster than before, back to the starting point, then down the street, this time further than the first time. Singing songs and telling jokes made us happy, and so we went down for nearly 20 minutes without anything special happening. But then, there was the next low point: the alternative route that we were on was closed, too. There was no chance to return to Santa Cruz on time without taking the bus! At first, we thought it would not be too difficult to find a bus. Yet, when we checked the timetable on our phones, we saw that the next bus would depart in 25 minutes, the one after that in more than two hours. If we did not get the first bus, we would miss dinner. So, for the last time that day, we walked really fast up the street back to the starting point and bus station – and caught the bus.

In the end, we were somewhat unhappy because our plan had not worked but apart from that, it was a nice day. Although we walked down every street at least twice, it was very exciting. We saw a wonderful forest after weeks on sea, the air was fresh and cold, and the entire day was adventurous and fun.