Half way between Los Cristianos and Santa Cruz, a blonde explorer fell to his knees and kissed the ground as Tenerife´s TF1 motorway trundled by. Nearly a year without live CD Tenerife football does that to a bloke. Appropriately, it was a Saturday and Los Roques has been the half way match day stop for the Armada Sur for many a season. It´s also a beautiful setting that deserved a deeper exploration below the Los Roques and Oasis bars.
The Playa del Abrigo with its sweep of black sand was being raked by foaming waves on a 26 degrees January afternoon. A few people were sand strolling but although it does attract adventurous swimmers, the currents must be wildly unpredictable beyond the craggy guards of this stretch of the east coast.
The municipality of Fasnia is one of the smallest in Tenerife and can appear to be trapped in a time bubble. The Bahia Apartments showed no signs of life but up above new housing, wooden benches, and a well maintained road told a different tale. The big surprises came on the other side of the main bay, once linked by a beach track, for me though it was up and over at the top, and into a small traditional fishing community. Built around Playa del Roque, a church and some houses had been damaged by rock falls. Trying to resist the mood swings of Mother Nature must be a constant challenge to the local council. A recent large cliff collapse on neighbouring Canary Island, La Gomera, had led to wide spread protection measures on other vulnerable spots.
Despite that, there were plenty of encouraging signs. A new water treatment plant topped by a viewing platform sat alongside a huddle of old houses around the steps to the beach. They showed a great sense of pride in their fishing traditions and the people who toiled the sea. Most thirsty drivers wont dip any deeper than the two bars but the Saturday agricultural market had a queue, hopefully that will bring further good harvests.
If you do stop off, cast a glance down to the beaches, it´s a magnificent sight. If your not in a hurry, you can also pop under the motorway via a tunnel to see the ancient Fasnia water train that used to help bring water up from the deep pools to irrigate the fields. Inland and a little up hill Las Casas del Camino Real are a flag ship for rural tourism in the area. They are soon to be featured as the setting for a German reality TV show. There´s a strong beating heart at the centre of Fasnia, the municipality and its neighbour Arico, are pioneering the Titsa bus comany´s pre booking local bus service called TUWAWA.