Outside Of The Box Family

A little over an hour from Puerto Santiago, where we have called home the past couple of months, we traveled to Puerto de la Cruz to visit a new friend of Scott and Eli. Once there our friend, Mat showed us around the huge boardwalk of Puerto de la Cruz where everyone was celebrating the end of summer.  School starts the next day! Mat, is the name of our 7 foot friend (but Scott likes calling him Mateo because it sounds way more international than Mat 😆). Mat and his family are from eastern Europe and are now residents of Tenerife, Spain and loving life.  He is also really connected with other expat families in the area. We walked from one end of the boardwalk, ate at a yummy cafe and were in awe of how different Puerto de la Cruz was from Puerto Santiago.   With a population well over 35,000 (that's 6x more than Puerto Santiago), it was a lot to take in.  It was definitely more touristy with lots of stores and cafes to choose from. Apartments, homes, offices w...

  We were lost!  Yep, you heard right!  We were driving around trying to get to the Teide Observatory.  The directions kept telling us to turn around and take a different route.  I felt like we were going in circles around different parts of the island.  Finally we needed gas and I asked directions.  "The roads are closed to the Observatory!" A-ha!  That explains it!   As we drove away Eli pointed to something that looked like pyramids.  I remembered seeing an advertisement for the Pyramids of Güímar at the information center.  Lo and behold we had gotten lost in Güímar, exactly where the pyramids were located!  Onward! With the Premium tickets and the audio walking tour, we began with the Casa Chacona Museum that housed all sorts of information regarding pyramids all over the world.   As soon as we stepped into the Casa Chacona, we realized we were stepping into a large part of history of the world and civilizat...

A month before my birthday I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I wanted to be out on the ocean.  I wanted to see marine life like whales and dolphins.  I also thought it would be fun to do it on a touristy pirate ship called Flipper Uno.  With pictures of people having fun watching whales and dolphins, eating chicken paella and swinging off a trapeze into the ocean blue, I was sold!   Finally, my birthday came annnnnnnnd, we did not go on the Flipper Uno.  Well, not on the exact date.  Eli and I had just recovered from some sort of stomach ailment the day before, I thought it best not to hop on a boat.   A good decision, I might add.  For my birthday was the first and only day (so far) where there was cloud cover and a drizzle for most of the day.  This confirmed my decision to board Flipper Uno the following week. Without a cloud in the sky, the day we went on Flipper Uno couldn't have been a better day!   These pic...

A large and out of control fire in NE Tenerife (Arafo-Candelaria fire) that started on August 15th cancelled our plans to go to the Mount Teide Observatory.  Road closures, evacuations and low visibility are a cause for concern.  We prayed over the situation, and continued on with our daily lives.  Because it was a last minute email cancellation, we didn't exactly have a Plan B.  Then we did! Just shy of 20 acres sits a little area in the south called Jungle Park.  With the unusual heat forecast (above 30℃) we thought it would be best to just stay in the shade.  The Jungle Park contains various walks with tunnels, suspension bridges, waterfalls, lagoons, and caves.  The boys loved watching the monkeys swinging around.  Scott just was trying to figure out why they just didn't run away and be free.  There were no fences or anything.  He kept looking up, trying to figure out how to swing from one tree to the next and then hop on people....