Nice weekend in Anaga

Some weeks had passed by since I was looking through that window.

We were a group of twenty people in the "Albergue Montes de Anaga". This hostel in the Canary Island, in Tenerife, on the old mountain mass of Anaga, on the northeast. It is very cheap, only 14€ a night, but you should book it previously. On weekends tends to be full.

Speaking about the building, I have to say that it seems to have been recently built. It is made of concrete and some parts are covered with wooden boards. It has a new atmosphere.

There are two main parts: The lower floor, where we can eat, play chess, watch tv or give a speech in the "conference room". Here is also an enormous kitchen, which is possible to use to cook ourselves, as we did. The best of this part is that it is "open to the landscape". Large windows allow the light to enter inside, and next to them, a great terrace invites us to go out and to take some photos from there.

On the upper floor are the bedrooms and bathrooms. I was in a four-bed bedroom. Well, it has two bunk beds, as usual in this kind of place to make the most of the space available.

This hostel also offers us the posibility of renting bikes, but I recommend you walking. There are lots of marvellous paths in the area, where you can see the "laurisilva" forest.

It is likely to find fog and clouds in Anaga, althought on the the rest of the island the sun is shinning. So don´t forget to carry your warm clothes. Only a T-shirt and shorts could cost you a cold or even worst!

The saturday afternoom, we did some trekking in the "Pijaral" area, where a special permission is needed to go. There, the green becomes the main color. Trees surround you, and the floor is covered with ferns.

That night, we recovered forces at dinner by eating delicious spaghettis, prepared by some of us.
After that, the eurovision contest and "models show" made us laugh a lot.

On sunday, we did a memorable barbecue to leave a good taste before coming back to the civilization. I´m looking forward to come back! Thank you to everybody, specially to the people who organized it.

Icities

This weekend, I´ve been busier than usually.

I have attended to the "Icities". It has been the first congress about blogs, e-government and digital participation in Candelaria, a town located on Tenerife island, Spain

Three days meeting people, hearing the "tops", learning the how-to about videoblogs and doing tv-interviews.

But I think that it has been worthy. I want to thank everybody who has been working on it, because they made a great effort.

See you next year!

Realejos´ Fireworks

Last Saturday, I went to watch the fireworks at "Los Realejos", a Tenerife village. A friend had previously told me that they were great, that they were on the top of the european chart.

These fireworks use to have two parts: And each of them belongs to a neighbourhood of the city. The origin comes from the rivalry between the rich and the poor people of the streets of "El Medio" and "El Sol", while the virgin cross was in the procession. They wanted to hit the others, as some kind of fire and light war. As the years passed by, the fireworks have grown more and more, and what was only a local event, nowadays atracts people of the whole island.

Many have claimed that to spend such an amount of money in that is totally useless, simmilar to burning notes. And, at first, it seemed to me too.
But when I knew that the cost is totally supported by anonymous people and not by the city hall, I changed my mind. In that case, I only have to be grateful for their effort.

They were simply amazing. They had a wide range of endless fireworks, of every color and size. After 45 minutes, my neck hurted: It was difficult to stand looking at the sky! :)

My only regret is related with the second part. It lasted too much time to start, more that half an hour. Maybe they had some kind of problem. In fact, what you can appreciate on the photo was taken when we were planning to leave the village, and, out of the blue, the last part began.

[Song] If I ever feel better

They say an end can be a start
Feels like I've been buried yet I'm still alive
It's like a bad day that never ends
I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don't try to deny
I'd better learn to accept that
There are things in my life that I can't control
They say love ain't nothing but a sore
I don't even know what love is
Too many tears have had to fall
Don't you know I'm so tired of it all
I have known terror dizzy spells
Finding out the secrets words won't tell
Whatever it is it can't be named
There's a part of my world that' s fading away
You know I don't want to be clever
To be brilliant or superior
True like ice, true like fire
Now I know that a breeze can blow me away
Now I know there's much more dignity
In defeat than in the brightest victory
I'm losing my balance on the tight rope
Tell me please, tell me please, tell me please...

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know

Hang on to the good days
I can lean on my friends
They help me going through hard times
But I'm feeding the enemy
I'm in league with the foe
Blame me for what's happening
I can't try, I can't try, I can't try...
No one knows the hard times I went through
If happiness came I miss the call
The stormy days ain't over
I've tried and lost know I think that I pay the cost
Now I've watched all my castles fall
They were made of dust, after all
Someday all this mess will make me laugh
I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait...

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know
[x2]

It's like somebody took my place
I ain't even playing my own game
The rules have changed well I didn't know
There are things in my life I can't control
I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don't try to deny
I'd better learn to accept that
There's a part of my life that will go away
Dark is the night, cold is the ground
In the circular solitude of my heart
As one who strives a hill to climb
I am sure I'll come through I don't know how
They say an end can be a start
Feels like I've been buried yet I'm still alive
I'm losing my balance on the tight rope
Tell me please, tell me please, tell me please...

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know
[x3]

Phoenix - If I ever feel better

Marina Anaga

I have recently visited an exhibiton in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. Its name is "Inserciones e Inmersiones" and it is located in the "Círculo de Bellas Artes", until April the 5th.

We can see both buildt projects and future ones, of the architects Antonio Corona Bosch and Arsenio Pérez Amaral. It is a short, but interesting exposition. There are many pictures, descriptions and scale models.

Speaking about the future, the project "Marina Anaga", shown in the picture, inmediatly caugh my attention. Nowadays, it is only a proposal, but it could become true in some years.

It consist of an addition to the harbour area near San Andrés. It pretends to have shops, restaurants and a sports port. Its shape evokes me some kind of half moon.

Larger Map

On this map, we can see the blue area on the sea. In that location would be situated.

I do not know if the people would accept it. The Teresitas beach is very close, and I suppose that this project will be influenced by what have been happening around the "Teresitas case" and the possible illegal enrichment that it´s being investigated.

Anyway, I recommend you not to miss the exhibition, in order to be aware about what design ideas we will be speaking in some time.

More about this and other projects (such as the famous Tenerife North airport) on the architects site.