The Town Where the Sun Goes Missing

Vilaflor sits more than a kilometre above the sea — high enough that, some days, it simply vanishes into the clouds.

This is nothing like the Tenerife of the postcards. It's cooler up here; the hills are thick with pine, and old farming terraces and vineyards climb the slopes. Almonds, potatoes, whatever else the ground will grow — everything seems perfectly content.

The town still has its cobbled streets, its old houses, its churches. And when the fog rolls in, Vilaflor slowly dissolves into the white haze, growing quieter, smaller, unexpectedly intimate.

So yes, the coast may promise you endless sunshine. Nobody in Vilaflor has confirmed the sighting.

Vilaflor, Tenerife, Spain.
September, 2008.
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