Visit to the Coastal town of Garachico

Some evenings when I need some fresh air, I like to go for a drive to the picturesque town of Garachico.

As soon as I see the big rock in the middle of the sea and a long promenade along the seashore, I get ready for my niece to stop the engine and walk with me on the promenade..

Further down the path are the amazing natural pools carved out through the rocks (which resulted after the volcanic eruptions in 1706), making it a safe place to swim with tropical fishes.

There is even a mini children’s park where kids can play after the swim.

Garachico was once a port where ships anchored but this port was completely destroyed during the volcanic eruption. However the castle with the stone doorway of ‘San Miguel Castle’ still stands there at the end of the promenade. This is the finest building, a 16^th century stronghold belonging to the Count of Gomera’ that survived a volcanic eruption in 1706 unscathed.

Further up, there is a natural beach with black sand and more rocks where people can swim and fish too.

Garachico is a beautiful quaint town with rustic houses. It is very Spanish in Character with narrow, cobbled streets with cars parked on the one side of the road. It is still arguably the least spoilt coastal area of Tenerife.

During festivals, the balconies are dressed with a certain theme, for example you will find them dressed up promoting products of the village

There is a plaza in the center of the town where people can enjoy the traditional cuisine with the glass of local wine or with the tiny cup of Cortado (strong coffee)

After a short drive I come back to Icod de Los Vinos, to sit at my brother's store at 'Teban S.L.'  at Calle Sabastian, also known as 'Bazar Hindu', My brother has lots of tourist visiting our store to buy souvenirs and electronic products to take back home. I love too talking English with the tourists, which is a welcome change from speaking Spanish all day with other local clients.

Visit to Basilica: ‘Our lady of Candelaria’

While Indians celebrate ‘The Independence day’ on 15^th August, People in Tenerife celebrate ‘Dia de la Candelaria’

Thousands of pilgrims arrive on the eastern coast of Tenerife at Candelaria to visit the Basilica that houses the statue of Black Madonna. Many people spend the night on the roads on their route that leads them to this town to pay their tribute to their Patron Saint.

The festivals in the town of Candelaria are rich in religion and popular fervor, closely linked to five centuries of faith, belief and love for the Virgin.

Last time I couldn’t go to Candelaria, but instead went for a drive up to the mountains closer to my house and met up with the trekkers who were on their way to the church.

Many people trek through the steep beaten path of hills, trees and shrubs. There are signs-boards at regular intervals directing the proper route to follow. There is one meeting point on the route where different groups from different parts of the island meet. This point offers the most beautiful panoramic view of the island. It is the leisure place, they share their eats and drinks and let their hair down.

On 15^th August there is a big celebration at the church. Since I hate crowded places, I decided to go few days before the real festival.

The road leading to church is a walking plaza. There are shops on either sides of the road selling souvenir articles, flowers, clothes; there are many small cafes, bars and patisseries that churn the hunger pangs and make me drool. 

All the houses overlooking the road have flags and pictures of their deity decorated on their balcony. The street is decorated with colorful streamers, flags, pictures of Virgin Mary and blinking lights. 

The road is neatly tiled, opening to a large open space that has a line-up of bronze statues (running parallel to the sea wall) of Guanche leaders, the original inhabitants of Tenerife overlooking the huge plaza. 

The square is dominated by the Basilica de ‘Nuestra Senora de Candelaria’, built to house the famous statue of the Virgin and this is the site that is popular annual pilgrimage.

Basilica de ‘Nuestra Senora de Candleria’ was built to house the famous statue of Black Madonna that appeared on the beach in 1312 and was found by two Guanches. The current statue inside the church is the replica of the original one that was swept away by tidal wave in 1826, after surviving a fire that ravaged the church.

Indians in Tenerife believe it to be the reincarnation of Goddess Devi and normally come to this church to offer their prayers during Navratas and during other Indian festivals.

Inside the church, it is very peaceful. During the festival, the statue is placed out on the altar for full view. It is the magnificent building with high walls and intricately designed ceiling, stained glass windows depicting the figurines, flowers and abstract designs. Every wall emotes a feeling of bliss. In the inner room, there is a smaller alter dominated by a huge painting of the last supper.

Devotees offer flowers, as they enter the church, placing them in the buckets of water, lined up against the wall, they then walk to the inner rooms, which is filled with electric candles, you insert a coins to light the candle. This is the new addition to the church because initially there used be hundreds of wax candles burning all day and the room used to be very dark because of the smoke. I inserted one Euro in the slot and three candles lit up.

After spending fifteen minutes inside the church, we are out in the square. There is a fountain outside the church, where people used to throw a coin in the small pond surrounding it and make a wish. Unfortunately, Tenerife is undergoing recession, probably saving on light and water, I think, hence most of the fountains in the city are dry and this one was too.

There was lot of activity at the plaza. A big stage was being organized in the center of the plaza for the big day. There will be folklore music and dance till late hours after the mass on the celebration day.

We walk behind the church, on the promenade along the stone wall. The angry waves make a roaring sounds as they approach the shore in groups with rising crest, and splash against the shore, sending the spray of showers, two meters up in the air. There were some very old houses behind the church and a big cave at the end of the path. 

We spend one hour walking along the shore, watching the angry crest and trough of waves, its splashing against the seawall and I squeal with joy whenever I feel the sprinklers against my face.

The beach on the other side of the path has black sand and is not safe for swimming in these rough waters, nevertheless, it does not stop tourists from braving the waves and enjoy few moments of swim.

The best part of the visit is to sit in those restaurants facing the seawall and enjoying the seafood which most of these restaurants specialize.

Hopping Around Butterflies

I entered the closed area filled with flora and fauna, hundreds of butterflies, each one more beautiful than the other, all shapes and sizes and of different designs, all fluttered around me at the ‘Butterfly Center’ The temperature was just right ( 25-29 degrees centigrade and 80% relative humidity) and a soft music played in the background. I stretched my hand and one butterfly came to rest on my hand, “Leave it free, if you touch it, it will die the next day, Butterflies are very fragile, you must not disturb it while they are feeding on flowers” said the supervisor. I let it free after few moments of bliss.

‘Butterfly Center’ is just opposite my shop at Icod de los Vinos and many tourists visit it everyday. I remember one day, a lady had entered my shop to buy a souvenir, as soon as she opened her purse to pay, one large beautiful butterfly escaped from her purse and flew around me. I saw her look and realized that she had stolen it.

Indeed, Butterfly center had beautiful butterflies. They have many species directly imported from special breeding centers (Malaysia, Philippines, Costa Rica,  Australia, etc.)

I pointed to this one and asked her, where was this one from, and she said “India” Ah well!

The dust that covers the butterfly wings is actually tiny scales that give color and design to the wings. These scales give the name to the butterfly (Lepido=scale, and petron=wings). There is no other insect that has got scales.

One of the women had one particular species of butterfly surround and follow her wherever she went. She was curious as to why that particular species followed and not the others, on enquiring the attendant, she was told that they followed one particular type of scent. I asked her what cream she applied and she said that she used Aloe vera products. (no wonder!)

Butterflies mainly feed on the flowers’ nectar. They also like to suck on ripe fruit juices, as well as trees’ sap and even animal secretion such as tears or urine, from which they obtain salts and minerals.

There were tortoise, fishes and reptiles too. The children were more amused with that, so while they chased the butterflies, they stood to gape at animals too.

I had never seen so many butterflies under one roof. I was filled with awe and waited at one spot, still and quiet, almost holding my breath, hoping that many butterflies would surround me too.

Post card from Darjeeling

I looked out of the bus window. We had arrived after five hours journey. Different shades of green glistened under sunlight. The small wooden cottages behind the lush greenery looked so cozy and inviting. I envied the people who lived so close to nature away from heat and dust of Mumbai. The air was cool and crisp. I wrapped myself with my woolen shawl and got off the bus. I needed to walk, to stretch my limbs. It’s awfully tiring to be travelling in the bus for so long. The scenery was breath-taking and we had passed many tea gardens down the winding road. I made a mental note of visiting those tea gardens later during the day. But first we had to check into a hotel and freshen up. Hotel was closer, just few minutes away but driver had decided to stop for a while.

“Hurry up” said the driver “If you want, you can take a short walk up the hill to see the war memorial, that stands as a reminiscence of the Gurkha martyrs of Darjeeling, who sacrificed their lives for their country in the wars and operations that have taken place since independence." he said, adding, "In 1976, Manish Gupta, the then Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling, had taken the initiative to construct a War Memorial, to pay homage to the 76 brave sons of Darjeeling who had sacrificed of their life, for the cause of their nation.” explained the driver pointing towards the monument.

We started to walk up the narrow path, and had almost reached the steps leading towards the monument when we were distracted by the train whistle. The toy train came chugging and we stood to watch it roll by, excited like kids even though we saw this train many times, as it kept turning, making several u-turns and passing us from different attitudes of this park, we stood there, stationed at one position, turning our heads in the direction of the train and following it with our gaze.

Some of the other people walked up to the war memorial to get a closer look, but for me train was a novelty and I stood there, leaning against the railings till the train disappeared behind the hills and the whistle faded in the air.

Un-visit to Shivneri Fort

The road was narrow. On one side were the steep hills and a deep valley on the other side. Our car moved slowly up the slope. I went click, click, click, like some curious tourist, clicking the pictures of trees, stones and leaves. Most of my pictures will be deleted ofcourse, but thats the advantage of having digital camera. As we neared our next site, I adjusted the setting of my camera to get different look. What setting I should set for our next site? Portrait? Landscape? I had read about Shivneri fort and was curious to visit it. It seemed like an important historical place to visit. This is the place where the great Maratha warrior Shri Shivaji Maharaj was born.

Shahaji, the father of Shivaji Maharaj,a general in Adil Sha of Bijapur sultanate put pregnant Jijibai for her security in Shivneri.Shivneri is a hill fortress with steep rocks in the mountain ranges of Sahyadri.

As we neared the historical site, we were in for a surprise. Such an important tourist spot and there was too much commotion. The honking is the next most famous passtime of our drivers in India. if the FM radio is not working due to poor reception in their vehicle, you will hear them honking for some music. a person with musical ear might rubbish this honking as irksome noise. But for un-musical person, there was a reason. There was no parking space, not enough space to drive through the road to reach the steps! All I saw was traffic jam.

Big huge tourist buses, scrambling for space with different sized cars, trying to reverse in small space to escape the mayhem, little wonder that the expert drivers were not plunged down the deep valley to give me some extra-ordinary shots..

My friends complained about the 700 crores rotting in Swiss banks when they could be easily used to beautify the tourist spots and create jobs for low income groups.

"Are not the authorities in the higher place aware that there are thousands of tourists who would be interested in visiting such historical places." grumbled my friend, "The least the government could do was to build a proper infrastructure to make the people’s life easier and pleasant."

There was open space one kilometer away from the actual site and those who braved to climb up the fort to appreciate the site had to walk a mile in the hot sun to board the comfortable vehicle which was parked so faraway.

Had I climbed up the fort I would have seen the museum and also a Badami Talav, my friends went up there and came back panting, sweating and grumpily shared their experience with us.  
 

I was not that brave to climb those steep and high rocks they called steps. I am a delicate darling and only pure comfort will suffice. I chose to wait in the vehicle, rather than climb up the fort and then walk back one kilometer in hot sun. I shut myself  from this commotion by switching on my smart phone and entering the virtual world, reading the comments of my friends on twitter and facebook. The face-to-face interaction in the real world is diminishing nowadays and online virtual friends walk into my mind to scream their rants. When I woke back to the real world surrounding me, I sat listening to the endless rants of my friends who complained non stop about our inefficient system of government and their insensitivity towards common man’s comfort.

I could not solve their woes and I am sure nobody will.

It happens only in India