There and back again

Well, I’m writing this post from a ferry I just barely caught back to Tenerife (the larger island with major airports), where I will catch a bus, then the metro, and then a plane to go back to Madrid for Orientation. While I’m very excited to see Lillian and meet other people in the Fulbright program, I am in a bit of a funk about having to turn around and do all this traveling again so soon. But, on the plus side, I now know where I’m living for a bit, have opened a bank account, got the lay of the land in Valle Gran Rey (through walking ~15 miles in three days), and have made contact with multiple teachers. That makes it all worth it. 

My first look at my new home!

Anyway. Let me talk a bit about arriving!

Upon landing in Tenerife, my wonderful AirBnB host Mari sent her roommate to pick me up from the airport. With as much luggage as I had and how incapable I was of speaking Spanish at that point, I was so relieved to not have to figure out the late night buses or taxis.

packing light is not living my truth

I got to their apartment and collapsed before I could go into full-on breakdown mode, sleeping soundly until my alarm went off at what I thought was 7:45. I woke up disoriented, looking around and realizing it was pitch black outside. I immediately googled “sunrise in Canary Islands”, which told me it should have been happening right around then. Hmm. After thinking on it for a few minutes, I finally realized I had never changed my phone over from Madrid time, which is an hour ahead (the Canaries are 5 ahead of EST, Madrid is 6). Well, thank goodness I didn’t wake up an hour LATE. I may have lost some sleep, but at least I had given myself a huge pad to make my ferry. 

“Why does she need a huge pad?”, you may be wondering. Or, “why is she acting like it’s so hard to take a ferry and then a plane?” Well, let’s just say that planning this trip is NOT for the geographically challenged. When I was booking my flights a couple of months ago, I had a vague awareness that there were two airports on Tenerife—one in the north and one in the south. What I did not realize, however, was that they are SEPARATED BY OVER 50 MILES. And the only port with ferries going to La Gomera is on the southern tip of the island, conveniently located near the—you guessed it!--southern airport. Where am I flying in and out? The northern airport. Which means that I, resident backwoods ignoramus, have to navigate public transportation for that distance.

I tried and failed my first time, running into huelgas, which is the name for what happens every Thursday when public transportation operates on a bare-minimum schedule as workers demand higher pay. I had no idea about this until I got into a desperation taxi (after taking the wrong metro line and ending up in the wrong part of a midpoint city) and the driver patiently explained to me that it didn’t matter anyway—there were only two buses going the long haul south (red line on map) that morning. One had left at 8 am (long gone), and the other wouldn’t leave until 11:30 am (when my ferry was long gone). Did I end up taking a taxi ~45 miles? Yes. Am I proud of it? No. But if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have arrived in Valle Gran Rey until probably ~8 pm. And with just three days there, I wanted to maximize my time. Like I said! Worth it. 

views of Tenerife from my chariot

I arrived on La Gomera a little after noon, completely ragged. I had decided that after my Tenerife taxi incident I would NOT be taking another to save me the ~20 minute walk from the port to my AirBnB. That was the price I had to pay (#self#care). So I gritted my teeth and hauled roughly my weight in luggage off the ferry and down the street, incapable of seeing anything but the finish line in the distance. I’m not saying this entire journey was the hardest physical challenge of my life, but I’m not not saying that. Finally, I made it, hauled my cinderblocks up the stairs and around the corner, took a dumb mirror pic, and collapsed on the terrace. 

When I opened my eyes and saw this view, it hit me: I MADE IT!