It was pretty much exactly 2 years ago when I went on "vacation" with my then-boyfriend and a buddy for 2 weeks in a cave by the sea in Tenerife.
We figured it out because another friend used to do it every year, we loved camping anyway and sleeping outside...why not in a cave on the beach ?
Of course without water, electricity, and a tent to close! next level "camping"
🤠hiiiihaaa of to this adventure !!
We landed in the south of the canary island and continued to Los Abrigos, a small coastal town with only 4600 inhabitants. I was curious about life in the cave and also a bit excited I hadn't looked at any pictures beforehand! Not that I then lost my lust, 2 weeks can be long without a bed...Our buddy had flown before and picked us up in the city.
We walked towards the end of the town, to the left of us a wide, stony area with a steep slope and the sea. our buddy marked the entrance to his cave with a stone tower and a plastic bottle. It was a relatively steep slope but crawling on the po doable. Anyway, the landscape here in this area was just stony. Clearly, it is a volcanic island that arose from a volcanic eruption...what green one has searched here in vain!
Our buddy's cave was medium-sized compared to the others! (2 rooms, kitchen, balcony-with sea view ;)) We made ourselves at home, I brought a mini air mattress and a sleeping bag... "mini" because everything had to fit into my small travel backpack. It turned out that I had ordered the last piece of shit, an air mattress where I should still feel every second stone and a "sleeping bag" which one could rather describe as a plastic. haha, I had probably ordered "too cheap".😒Our buddy slept on an old mattress that a villager put on the street, you can find it disgustingly or not. But after a few nights, you'll be glad about a mattress.
The first night was great, by the way, despite a 2cm air mattress and not really a sleeping bag, i slept great, you slept best under the starry sky🤩
We first looked at our new residential area and found out in this area were, in total 40 caves, almost all of them were inhabited! Some people inside were cooking. Some were chilling in their cave and the others were doing their laundry in the sea or anything else. The people in the caves came from everywhere Poland, Germany, England, Ukraine, and a lot of other countries. Some were here for 3-4 weeks, some years for others it was just a stopover... it was very different.
Which was also cool...there was a kind of natural pool, sometimes more sometimes less filled with water.
Near our cave was the "main cave" where people met in the evening and cooked or chilled together. The "owner" of the main caves was also from Germany and lived almost 4 years in his cave. He had a got job in Germany, but after a holiday here in Tenerife he just didn't fly home anymore, he still has some money on his account, but mainly lives from the containers.
That means you took that out of the trash, what people in Restaurants or grocery shops can not sell anymore...Sounds weird to most people. I did the same in Germany and it is crazy what the food markets put into the trash. Especially in Germany, things are thrown away that are still in good order. Just because a new delivery arrives the next day, e.g. crates of cucumbers, apples or something else are sorted out. In Tenerife, it wasn't that much, but you could always find good food in the "garbage" bread , fruit or vegetables from the supermarket. That's how most "hippies" were able to survive without money.
We cooked over an open fire near the cave. Sing songs together, play guitar and of course, they smoke weed a lot.
Oddly enough, everyone had the money for grass...you could just buy it in a small shop in the city.
In the morning my friend and I usually went to a coffee shop in town, unfortunately, I forgot the name. In this cafe, you usually met a few "cave dwellers" again. Every socket was occupied, everyone wanted to charge their cell phone or power bank came too late you had to wait haha
The hippies were popular in this cafe, but that wasn't the case everywhere in the city, many thought the hippies were dirty and would fill the caves with garbage. That was of course not the case, they respected nature. Most people from the small town liked it, but they even regularly Put things on the street that they no longer needed, mirrors, clothes or mattresses. One woman even took a cave hippie into her home because he was a bit ill and nursed him back to health.
But the police also came about every 3rd month and cleared the caves. Then the residents simply moved out for 3-4 days, some go to "La Calette" there is also a huge community living together. On the neighboring island of "La Gomera" or "La Palma" there are also inhabited Caves. It seems that this is a very popular "housing model" in the Canary Islands.
After about 1 week we were a bit bored in the caves and we rented a car and wanted to explore the island. The north of the island of Tenerife is so much nicer and greener, but unfortunately also colder because this area is higher up.
We also drove up the volcano "Teide", which is the 3rd highest elevation in the Canary Islands and all of Spain. For the last piece, which was about a 3-4 hour's walk, my friend went without me. I had seen enough stone landscape, up here it really looked like the moon. I stayed in the car, I had already downloaded a Netflix series in the cafe haha. I enjoyed the peace and quiet alone and a bit of "luxury" after 10 days. My friend hadn't made it to the top of the volcano either, it would have taken too long to descend and all the hikers were already coming towards him. He was still totally enthusiastic about his hike.
In conclusion this adventure, I can say that I would do it again and again. It's probably not for everyone and most of them thought we had a problem too😵💫 I think there is no better place to sleep than under the starry sky, without wifi radiation ;) I loved to cook outside over the fire and to live with the simplest things.
The only thing I missed was a chair because at some point you just want to sit down normally, the stony ground made my butt hurt. And I missed washing my hair after swimming in the salty sea...my bleached hair didn't do the salt water. But I just bought a 5-liter canister of water and washed my hair with help in the city haha. You just have to know how to help yourself
I got my first tattoo at the end of the holiday. A self-created sun
That was one of my biggest "adventure journey"
I would be happy if you tell me in the comments if you have done something similar.
Thanks for reading :)
see you next time
anna