[ Dec.2018 ] Anaga Natural Park in Tenerife, in Spain, is as large as 14,419 hectares.
There are over 120 kinds of endemic plants and animals there, apparently.
The jugged mountains are the centre of the park, but because Tenerife is an island, it also faces the sea.
After 
enjoying the mountain views, we went down to the seaside of Roque de las Bodegas.
The sea view was lovely, too, with many rugged rocks.
We saw some people enjoying surfing.
It is a major surfing spot here on the island, apparently.
Our taxi driver, David, was taking many photos with his mobile, as he rarely visits around here.
After walking along the seashore, we went eastwards as far as possible.
There was a nice looking beach on the way and some middle-aged people in swimsuits were in the sea.
It was warm, no doubt, but not warm enough for us to go swimming in the sea.
They were probably tourists from northern Europe.
It was lunchtime, so we went into one of the seafood restaurants lined up on the seaside.
The simple restaurant we went to did not even have a menu, but the man there spoke English and recommended one whole fish for us to share.
I asked him to write down the name of the fish and it was Abadejo.
It was a large white fish and they served it fried, which was good.
For the starter, we had salad with onions, which was nice and sweet.
With the fish, small dark coloured potatoes with the skin on were served.
They were simply cooked and tasted nice and salty.
We saw these small potatoes later, too, so I suppose it is one of the typical dishes in Tenerife.
The white wine was served in a ceramic bottle.
I did not check the name of the restaurant, but it is run by a family for sure, as he said that his mother is the chef.
We were the only customers at that time, but it may be popular in summer.
After lunch, we headed back to La Laguna, where we were staying.
David, the driver, did not go back the same way and thoughtfully changed the route, so that we could see a different part of the Anaga.
We came out to the sea on the other side of the island and went to see the beach called Playa de las Teresitas.
According
to David, this beach was made with sand brought from the Sahara, which was ordered by Franco, the notorious ,dictator.
Franco himself enjoyed holidaying here, apparently.
Tenerife is a volcano island, so most of the beaches have black sand, but here the sand was golden.
I touched it and it was really smooth, which reminded me of the feeling of the sand of the desert of Tunisia.
Dictators do drastic things, regardless of whether it is right or wrong, don’t they?
From here, we went back through Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife.
David stopped the car for us to see the famous concert hall, Auditorio de Tenerife.
This is a modern building built in 2003 and they say that it reminds people of the Opera House in Sydney in Australia.
I have not been to Australia, so I cannot say anything about that, but I remember a building in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia in Spain.
I checked on the internet and found that the architect of this Auditorio de Tenerife is Santiago Caratrava, who designed the City of Arts and Sciences, too.
Finally, we came back to La Laguna.
It was a very satisfying journey.
