Today we left the hotel around 10:30am and drove to a winery not far from our hotel. Bodegas Monje was located in El Sauzal and was high enough above sea level to have a gorgeous view of the ocean and vineyards. We had a personal tour of the winery (probably because we were the only English speakers) and it was amazing. The old caskets of wine, the new technology they are using, the special wine tasting room, and the restaurant/patio were just beautiful. It was very interesting to see how they mixed the old, traditional style of wine-making with the new technologies of today. The winery has been a family business for 5 generations, and it made some seriously excellent wine. We tasted 6 different types of wine, 2 butter and cheese spreads, and some chocolates all made by the winery itself. The winery holds an event 4 times each year called “Wine & Sex” where patrons sample wine and indulge in the purchase of exotic toys. Our tour guide said that they sell out of tickets for each W&S event about 2 months prior to the date. After purchasing our souvenirs, we said goodbye and headed out to the Monkey Park.
We drove about an hour to the southern part of Tenerife where we found the Monkey Park (mostly by accident, we had actually given up on finding the Park and were looking for McDonalds when we found the monkeys). The park sold “goody bags” of food for monkeys, containing pieces of bread, peanuts, sunflower seeds, etc., and we walked into the monkey cages armed with food! Of course, the monkeys were particular about what they actually wanted, because all day long they’re fed the same food from the same goody bags. But we got a few monkeys to eat out of our hands and got some of it on video as well! We toured the rest of the facilities and said goodbye to the monkeys… they weren’t quite as cool as the camellos… and eventually found the McDonalds, where we had lunch. The best part about eating at McDonalds in the Canary Islands, is that it tasted just like a McDonalds in the US! Of course, they had some things on their menu that we don’t have at home, but a Big Mac is a Big Mac whether you’re in Tenerife or Minnesota. Delicious.
The day was winding down, but we still had time to check out a beach and we had heard that the beaches on the southern part of the island were quite a bit different than the beaches in the North (where our hotel was located). We made our way to Playa de las Americas, and it turned out to be one of the most gorgeous, amazing beaches that either Joe or I had been to. Joe said it might have even been better than Waikiki in Hawaii! The sand was white, and it was SO soft it was ridiculous. The ocean was relatively warm, and we were sad that we only had a couple hours to spend in the sun. It appeared that there were many more tourist hotels and hotspots in this part of the island, and we heard that the southern part of the island has many more sunny days. Around 7:30p, we packed up our things and drove the 1.5 hours home to our hotel. The trip took longer because we had to drive almost the entire trip around the outside of the island, to avoid the crazy curvy roads on the inside part of the island.
That night we packed up our things with a bottle of wine, and planned how to get to the airport the next morning. It was pretty sad to leave Tenerife, but we had an excellent time!
Side note: The trip from Tenerife to Madrid was pretty painless. We took a bus from our hotel right to the airport, and our flight was only delayed by about 20 minutes. We arrived in Madrid safely and took the Metro to our hotel, which is in a great location. We’ll post about Madrid soon!