A shared memory

**firebirdbw** · 08-03-2016, 01:04

When I was 20 yrs old,I had been working as a bar man on the Costas, Calella, just North of Barcelona, a few of us, got a passage on a tramp steamer from Barcelona, to Tenerife, on landing at Los Cris, we travelled by coach to Puerto de la Cruz.
We stayed there for 3 months, it was fantastic, and the beach was black sand ! One day just like all mountain climbers, which I am not, I said to my mates, "I am going to climb, that mountain", I set off on foot in just t-shirt, shorts and trainers, and I walked/climbed, the whole way to the top (no cable cars in them days).
When I got near the summit the sun went down, boy was it cold, I met a shepherd, who told me ( I knew a good bit of Spanish by then), there was a refugio, I could sleep the night in, which I thankfully did, he woke me at the crack of dawn the next morning, to show me what he called a Wonder of the World....it was the view, of all the other islands, I will never forget it !

I have visited Tenerife many times since then, and even flewn a solo Parglider, from near the top down into a car park in Playa de las Americas and love Tenerife and I hope to live there one day, I am, 69 now, so that time has to be now !