Folks, this is my 100th post here, and that is as good a time as any to make it the very last one.

Ok, I am not saying goodbye to blogging, but I am saying goodbye to Blogger. This blog ends here and now, and moves to it’s new home at oceankid.wordpress.com.

This blog started as a travel-blog when I traveled to the remotest parts of the Sahara, to view a spectacular solar eclipse. I am still quite fond of those early posts. Those days in the desert left some unforgettable memories, and led to several subsequent posts related to africa.

Total eclipse at Waw an Namus
March 29, 2006

Another memorable moment of this blog was The Tandem Story Experiment which resulted in two rather morbid stories. Speaking of stories, another favourite post was when I was had to set the record straight after a long absence from blogging. And for some strange reason this little tag from Soraya reamains vivid in my mind.

If you wonder why I am moving from Blogger to WordPress, I must say that in comparison WordPress is sooo much nicer to use. I will be happy to elaborate, if anybody asks me, at my new blog.

And that’s it. Adieu Blogger.

And that, I am afraid, applies to my little trip too. My last three days on Tenerife were great, but blogging… well I just did not find the time and energy. Now it feels a bit strange to write this closing post from home. Anyway…

The island of Tenerife, has slightly less than one million inhabitants. You can drive a full circle around the island in less than four hours. Yet – as I see it – this little island contains two entirely different planets.

The south has places like Las Americas and Los Gigantes, which I blogged about recently. It is quite warm, and the beaches are fantastic. It is dominated by mass tourism, and a lot of people really like it. But the first time I crossed the mountains, to the north was: true joy.

The north is considerably cooler. The beaches are less spectacular. Of course there are loads of tourists, but the vulgarity of mass tourism does not exist here. The coastal landscape is also IMHO a lot more interesting, and there is not a house on every coastal square metre.

And the small village of Taganaga in the remote north east is really pretty, and the drive to it takes you through rain forests as well as fantastic serpentine roads. If I ever return to Tenerife, Taganaga will definitely be a must-see-again.

Taganaga
As seen by meteomara, Creative Commons License

And: “That’s all folks!” The time has come to close my last chapter on Tenerife. My next post is due soon. It will contain another major closing…

…my grand day out when I drove around the island in order to mount the peak of Teide, the famous volcano rising some 3718 metres above sea level.

But unfortunately, the Teleferico (skytrain) was closed that day due to strong winds. So this is as far as I got:

But that was not so bad, as my road trip gave me some fantastic views of Tenerife’s volcanic landscapes:

La Orotava is a nice little town on the north coast, with pretty houses…

…and a meticulously kept garden…

…with exotic flowers:

And in the charming mountain village of Masca,

I bought some fresh oranges from this farmer:

The major town of La Laguna, offered many nice walks:

I took this photo at a market during my trip to Libya in March/April 2006. Not sure exactly where but I think somewhere on the road east of Ubari: Garagara, (or maybe Murzuq) is my best guess…

View Larger Map
My Flickr posting is not nearly as prolific as Tom’s but I do have loads of pictures tucked away on old hard disks, half forgottern CF-cards, and who knows where else? Perhaps I should pull myself together and post my best photos to Flickr.

Most of you are familiar with the first one. I had him neatly chopped in 12 slices and shrink-wrapped into 4 DVDs.

Dexter is IMHO the best TV-series ever made, at least the only one which has maintained superb screen-writing (great characters, clever dialogue and and nail-biting plot-lines) for four consecutive seasons. I thought I might need some distraction on slow days so I decided to bring season 1 with me.

Now, if you have missed out completely: Dexter is a forensics expert with the Miami police department. His professional specialty is blood. His main hobby is: killing people. He is mass murderer with a twist: he only kills really bad guys who have managed to escape justice. He is clearly a deeply disturbed person (due to a childhood trauma), but he follows a very strict morale, or “code” as he calls it himself. So if you haven’t yet, I warmly recommend you to check Dexter out. Buy it, borrow it, download it, steal it, whatever.

And then…

The other guy in my bags is Böddi. Now, “who the hell is Böddi?” you might ask. Well, I had him evenly spread-out over 427 hilarious pages.

Stormland (Swedish details, and an English translation of another novel) is a highly entertaining book by Hallgrímur Helgason. Just like Dexter, Böddi has failed (or refused) to adapt to the norms of society. He lives in a tiny town, in the outbacks of northern Iceland. And I can tell you, he is one angry dude. He does things his own way, and loses every job he gets. On his blog he spews his sarcasms over everything he detests about Iceland and the people in his hometown. He then experiences an unbelievable string of unfortunate events, and slowly he starts to lose his grip on reality. But his anger remains unbroken. It then escalates to a Gargantuan confrontation with society. He decides to take them all on, single-handedly, from a horse-back. Epic stuff.

The book was written in 2005, well before the global economic crisis and the total collapse of Iceland’s financial system. So it can be seen as a quite strong and prophetic story on the dark side of the heedless greed that was prevailing in Iceland (actually, not only Iceland (and actually not only was)) before the crash. If you have a soft spot for dark humour, I recommend it warmly.

In any case, I can tell you the Aliens are here:

Not my photo, but note the size of the earthlings at the stern

But that is not all. I have further proof that the Aliens are here. Here is what I saw next to my hotel the other night:

Alien life-forms, arriving in Garachico, Tenerife, January 2010

El bonbon

Bonbon is an espresso with condensed milk. (If you have discovered the joys of Vietnamese Coffee, then you are familiar with condensed milk.) Here you see the milk at the bottom of the cup. As you see it is extremely thick, it does not mix at all until you start using the spoon. Also it is very sweet, so there is absolutely no reason to add any sugar. Maybe not your cup of tea, but I warmly recommend you to give it a try when you get a chance.