Tenerife, April 3 2013
We are staying at the Hotel Reveron Plaza, right in the centre of Los Cristianos, overlooking the busy main square and the church with bells. Breakfast is taken looking at the ferries that cross to La Gomera and other islands. We have arranged to hire bikes and on the first morning, we go to adjacent Playa Los Americas, to collect them from Bikepoint Tenerife. Jim is upgraded to a carbon machine at no extra cost, and my bike is excellent. Straight away (well once I had changed the saddle) it felt like my own steed. Our first ride on them is back along the coast path, which is thronged with holidaymakers and as interesting a variety of tat shops as you could wish for. We store the bikes in the underground garage of the hotel, where the door opens silently for us on ringing a bell. After a few adjustments and the addition of bar bags, we ride up to Arona, feeling bothered by the very heavy traffic on the roads that we need to use to exit the town. A section of finished but unused road helps us out, and as it is uphill even better, so that we avoid crawling along up the slow lane of a narrow and fast dual carriageway. Arona is part of the way up the long hill to El Teide, and we have chosen a quieter road which although bumpy we enjoy as we start to see the natural landscape of the island instead of concrete wastes.
not at home 