I’m back in London now. Tom met us at the airport which was such a nice surprise. I’m going to miss the sunshine.

I forgot to post photos of the hotel before. It was really nice and right next to the pool, which was the best bit. We would sit out on the balcony at night and watch movies on my laptop.

Someone on CO+K has already made a version of my Kitty Hood Scarf. It took me over a year to finish and they did it in just 1 week! It looks fantastic too.

Today we brunched with Lynz, Claire & Emma at Plan 9, had the cheapest round ever at the Warrington and then went for cupcakes at Hummingbird.

On the way home I spotted this shop covered in bows. I want to do the same to the Mews!

Today was amazing, we went to Monkey Park (which my Dad has named monkey farm), which turned out to be the best zoo I’ve ever been too.

We went early, so we had the whole park to ourselves and you were free to walk through the enclosures with all the animals running around you.

We were given mixed bags of food to feed them with, but you had to work out which animals liked which food.

The squirrel monkeys were the friendliest animals in the park.

They liked crawling all over us and standing on our heads.

This one loved my Dad’s iPhone and managed to take a photo.

The lemurs were my favourite, with their super fluffy tails.

There were turtles too and lots of lizards.

There were hundreds of little guinea pigs running around, you had to be careful that you didn’t step on any of the animals when you walked.

Zoos are always so much better in foreign countries because of the lack of health & safety laws.

The park also had chimpanzees, panthers and a lot of parrots. We got to cradle this one like a baby, it was so soft and light.

Today we headed up to the top of the volcano. It looked like a different planet.

You’re so high up that you’re above the clouds, which makes the roads even eerier.

We stopped for soup before the top. It was onion soup which had a fried egg and bits of bread in it.

The volcano looked like a desert but it was really cold.

There was a jogger who kept managing to overtake us every time we stopped, he must have been very fast. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and went swimming.

Today we went to Santa Cruz, which is the main city of the island (Tom sang The Thrills song at me).

It’s crazy seeing the old buildings mixed in with the new.

There was lots of awesome graffiti. We didn’t stay too long, just enough time to grab some lunch and go to a bookshop – I’d finished reading the first Twilight book and needed to get the second.

Afterwards we headed to Icod de los Vinos to see Dracaena draco, the Dragon Tree.

It’s the the largest and oldest tree of it’s kind and it has crazy looking roots and branches.

The locals believe that it bleeds blood because it’s sap is so red and that it’s made up of human bodies (as the poster shows).

There was also a volcanic cave, which was kind of creepy.

There was a mummy inside – very creepy.

Icod de los Vinos is also the main wine town on the island (the name gives it away), so we went to a little shop where we tried lots of different liqueurs.

Dad got us cute cookies.

I befriended a couple of parrots.

This one tried to speak to me but it only knew Spanish.

We then went for churros and hot chocolate, one of my favorite Spanish snacks (I posted a recipe for these ages ago) before heading home.

Tonight someone was singing Duffy’s Warwick Avenue song at the karaoke bar over from our hotel, which made me miss home. Also, worst news ever – Mr Warwick Avenue’s Service Information board has been replaced by an electronic one. How’s he going to write his witty signs now?!

Today we decided to escape the tourism of the resort by driving up the mountain to Masca, a lovely little hilltown that was once overrun by pirates.

I don’t think the pirates would have stopped for tea and cake like we did though.

There was the most amazing sink made from driftwood in the cafe’s bar, I really want someone to make me one.

We walked around the town for a bit, it can get a lot colder up the mountain.

And then we had Canarian potatoes, one of the traditional dishes. There are hundreds of different dips that they serve them with and it depends on which part of the island you’re on as to which one you get.

The roads are so windy and scary up in the mountains, they’re even worse when it’s dark.

We spotted this odd couple sitting on stones by the side of the road. They were doing exactly the same pose as each other and had the same movements. We thought they looked like gnomes and Tom said they thought they were on a train, tee hee!

Ola! Our first day of the holiday was spent around the town we’re staying, Adeje. We went swimming in the hotel pool in the morning and then took a walk along the coast – dipping our feet in the sea, which was surprisingly a lot warmer than the pool.

It’s so nice being able to walk around without a jacket, gloves, scarves and earmuffs, like you would in London at the moment.

The volcano is quite intimidating over the town. We’re staying in the south of the island, which is hot but very touristy, filled with British pubs and chip shops.

We decided to give Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant a try in the evening, it has nothing to do with him (which is legal here) but the food was good and very cheap.

We miss Tom but it’s not been too bad because we can chat to him on iChat in the evenings and show him photos. I’ve been collecting a range of foreign beers for him to try when I get back.

After a super tiring flight (screaming kids and snoring old men – I slept while drowning them out with Bright Eyes), we finally made it to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, just off the west coast of Africa. It’s lovely and hot at this time of year, which makes a pleasant change from rainy London. The island looked quite ominous from the plane, with it’s huge volcano (which my Dad tells me is still active) sticking up through the clouds.

We hired a car and heading for the hotel, which was quite hard to find as they all looked so similar. I crashed out as soon as we got in and slept straight through until the evening.

When I woke up, we headed out to get some dinner. We’re close to San Miguel, so that’s was the obvious beer of choice.

It was only €6.50 for a 3 course meal! I had a tuna salad, fish and creme caramel for dessert. There was a “Gordon Ramsay” restaurant next door, but as they were also serving 3 courses for €6.50, I couldn’t work out if it was for real or if they were just using his name. We’ll have to check it out. I think food is going to play a big part in this holiday.

Right now I’m catching up on my CO+K work with the sound of crickets in the distance and making friends with the locals.