El Peñon del Fraile, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain

After feeling the worst for wear on the Mallorca trip, I decided that I needed to take easy at the start of the one to Tenerife. After flying there on Saturday, I then did not overdo things on Sunday though a piece of business took me to Puerto de la Cruz that morning. Later on, I returned to Santa Cruz where I was based, and more walking ensued there.

Though the British weather was rather mild when I left, the shock of a temperature difference was still one to watch when days routinely warmed up beyond 20° C though mornings felt chilly. Sunrise was around 08:00 while sunset was around 19:00, so there was plenty of time for the longer hikes that I did during the trip. It was only on my return that I encountered a cold snap in Britain, but that was without any real health effects.

It was while I was strolling about Puerto de la Cruz that encountered the above sight, one that is more typical of Santorini in the Mediterranean than where I was. In English, the name becomes Friar’s Crag and was a place for prayer for Juan de Jesús in the seventeenth century after arriving from Icod de los Vinos. In 1813, it was beautified with a stairway and flat floor by Luis Lavaggi from Genoa and that was followed by a shrine in 1855 and replacement of its bronze dome in 2003. The base underneath all of this is a rock hurled from a volcanic eruption in the 1430’s.