« Tenerife - San Cristóbal de la LagunaTenerife - Parque National del Teide »

Tenerife - a night at Mamio Verde

Added: August 20, 2011

Tags: Spain mountains photos volcano

I usually don't write much about accommodations and I never dedicated whole post just to describe one.

But that is going to change now. Albergue Rural Mamio Verde deserves it as it was most entertaining accommodation we have been to (I need to say we are not looking for fun at hostels and hotels we are staying at. A place to sleep is sufficient).

I have found it at hostelbookers as one of three possibilities around Orotava. This one seemed cheaper and not so far from town. Plus it had higher rating.

When you look at your future accommodation at a map, you might not realize how hard it could be getting there. This one was up to steep hill, we went on gear 1 for at least one kilometer, probably more. And then the final descent to Calle El Olivos. With it even Google Maps is not useful (it was useful for locating place where to turn right, but it said nothing about how steep and narrow it is). This was only disadvantage of this place, it demotivated Peter so much we even did not go to Orotava, because we did not want to absolve the same route again (plus Manolo - owner - told us that a road to Orotawa is even steeper).

Don't take 'Rural' in its name easily. It is really rural. And Manolo is the most entertaining host we ever had. Before our room was prepared, we sat with him in his garden and talked about many things. Most of them were his funny stories and we laughed a lot.

Then he suggested we can get something to eat up the hill in nearby pub. A shop will be closed at this time, but the pub owner owns also the shop, so we might get there too. We went and experienced really good and strong local wine served with cheese bits.

While we were resting and talking with Manolo, his cat made confortable on my backpack.
DSC_5071

A look at hostel. Horses are accommodated at ground floor, people sleep upstairs. If you don't like this setup or have a thing against animals stay away. Otherwise you will remember your stay here for long time.
DSC_5099

DSC_5103

Entertainment for those who like mud and noise.
DSC_5101

Roads of Orotava below look like flowing magma at night. It is not far stretched imagination, because volcano Pico del Teide is just there, behind those clouds.
DSC_5080

When we returned in even better mood from the pub, we have been already moved into our room. Manolo shown us his property - with a pool, yoga room, pool table (as we called it bio-pool, because it was small, at an angle and a some ball were missing. Still it was entertaining :-) ). He also mentioned climbing wall and all these things he built himself. He was proud of it and for good reason.

French group arrived and he went to entertain them. But he gave us box full of brain-teasers. What else to give to programmers, huh? When French went to bed he returned with some local drink, I guess his own production too, and we continued with brain-teasers together. His beverage helped a lot :-)

We went to bed around 2:00 completely tired and it was hard to get up in the morning. To my delight it was nice, clouds breaking slowly and after half an hour we got the first glimpse of Pico del Teide (apart from seeing it from plane couple of days ago). Check what amazing views this hostel can offer.

DSC_5083

DSC_5106

Well, Pico del Teide is really there!
DSC_5112

DSC_5134

DSC_5135

Apart from horses, cat and 2 dogs named after some animated series, there were also other useful birds. Well, this one was not very useful, unless you wanted to get up at 6 in the morning.
DSC_5129

Back