We have been five people for the past week. Our perception of time and our knowledge of this place expands day by day as we keep exploring the island. We live in a small village on the coast and have multiple possibilities to drink our coffee in truly spectacular spots while carefully planning the day ahead.
Noons and afternoons are diverse. Some of us work (remotely), some of us spend time snorkeling, tanning, reading or making mandalas in the sand by using left over shells. It’s all part of a vast process of integration into the new rhythm of life, relaxing and even healing. By luck, as our neighbours put it, we have found Yuri, who does all sorts of things, various forms of massages, acupuncture and one morning he taught us the moves of Chi Gong. Working carefully with energy, he tells us, balances the Yin and Yang. Most of us have a disbalance of energy, which in time pushes the body to use its energy to try and regulate the flow and sometimes, this natural compensation, can create various malfunctions. We all felt the miraculous work of Chi Gong and are meaning to try and integrate it into our daily (masomenos) routine, which takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
In the late afternoons, we take our rented skoda with beige leather interior, and drive around the island discovering its incredible diversity of flora, fauna and human habituation. We found out more about the Guanches, the first inhabitants of the island. Apparently, the island is surrounded by strong currents and in the past, some ships would get stuck at its shores. The Guanches knew which are the ways out and in exchange for this information required the ships to give them the most beautiful female they had on board. As the story tells, the Guanches venerated the female and treated women with utmost respect. We don’t know yet how they were organised and what roles did the females really have, but we intend, of course, to keep asking and searching until we find out. The thing we observed about the human fauna these days, is that most of the locals are not tall and the males are the ones who seem to take more care of their looks. They have fit bodies, more so than females, and tend to be more fashionable. Females have the usual look, tight clothes and proudly expose their healthy appetites. Most of the people have small dogs. When we inquired into it, from a dog trainer who happens to be our car owner, he told us that one of the reasons is that the big dogs here have to wear a muzzle in public and in a lot of places we see the sign: Prohibido Perros. Therefore, small dogs and cats are really having a blast here. Cats are everywhere. You feed one, ten more shall come and they are wild. But then again, extremely beautiful, just like their cat princess, Luna.
While visiting the Botanical Garden in Puerto de la Cruz, we saw how vast is the vegetation on this island. Almost all of its plants and flowers and trees have been brought here and acclimatised from all over the planet. After coming out of the Garden, we could see the specimens all over the island and experience how outside of a special area, spread all over, they seem to lose their specialness and instead become a usual occurrence. Just a tree growing on the street or a flower bush, or a gigantic cactus, have actually travelled from the other side of the world and found this harsh soil to be perfect for growth and maturing. We mainly followed the spread and incredible circumferences of the Drago tree, one of the natural symbols of the island. We found out that there are very specific rules about its plantation and ulterior care. It shouldn’t be planted close to the house fundaments and have to be really well kept. It has a bloody sap which was used in rituals and its age cannot be told by its rings but by its ramifications. It’s impressive beyond words to see it around, both in well kept gardens and in wilderness.
Our life in five people is lovely, some of us know each other for many years and we are glad to have been reunited after years of all sorts of individual and global happenings. And some of us are new, therefore, while strengthening old friendships, we form new ones and this intensifies our sense of perpetual inner growth.
From Monday on, the pandemic regulations allow us to sit six people at one table, so we are more than happy to share the same table, since until now, for the past 2 weeks, we had to improvise with the table arrangements. All in all, once more and always, travelling remains an absolute necessity for a life well-lived and we are grateful with every ‘wow’ and with every silent look at one another, understanding beyond words how important it is to know that through us, others may travel as well. We are here with many and we salute you all and hope to inspire you to explore this planet in all its glory. Who knows, maybe we are all made to keep moving, our homes in our hearts and our dreams simplified to a short walk through a wild backyard garden.
