Exploring the Real Tenerife, Goats & Tomatoes

There’s one thing you can almost be sure of when exploring the real Tenerife and that is that you will see something ‘different’ on every little voyage of discovery; something that joyously announces that the island you’re visiting is overflowing with delightful little – and big – quirks that people who stick like glue to their pools or resorts will never see, or know about.

In one simple trip yesterday we experienced enough little incidents to write any number of blog posts; from buzzards and distracting views over lunch; sampling hearty Canarian cuisine; Elvis on a tree in dense forests; wonderful old merchants’ trails through a valley that most tourists don’t go near; bad driving on the Masca road, how to serve an almogrote that most people like; a fainting wine deliverer… and so on. We weren’t looking for oddities or anything in particular to write about and the lunch stop was an impulse. But when you explore the real Tenerife with your eyes wide open and engage with people things just occur. Take the goats and the tomatoes.

On the winding descent into Buenavista del Norte during the late afternoon, we turned a corner to see the low sun bring out a zingy vibrancy in a field of discarded tomatoes. Discarded they may have been but some of them looked a lot better than the sorry toms in my local supermarket of late.

What really gave the scene that special little touch was that the field of tomatoes was acting as a cold buffet treat for a very contented looking herd of goats. It was too good a scene to miss.
The goats in this area dine very well. Apart from tomatoes, wild fennel and other herbs are also favourites with the goats in these parts.

Subsequently the queso de cabra around Teno is a humdinger of a cheese and full of intense, eyebrow raising flavours that make ‘being Tango’d’ feel tame by comparison.

The field of goats and tomatoes was seen on Real Tenerife’s Hidden Depths driving route.

About Jack 434 Articles
Jack is co-editor, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Facebook

2 Comments

  1. Love this post! It’s as if you were reading my mind! Every time I become frustrated with some aspect of living here, & decided it’s time to move on, something/s like the ones you describe happen and I’m hooked again!

    • There can be any number of things that drives us mad on Tenerife… but an afternoon in one of the remote valleys helps put things back into perspective and reminds us exactly why we’re here. The El Palmar Valley is one of those places. Full of surprises.

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