Impressions of a Belarusian guy from life in the Canaries

Our today's hero is IT specialist Artyom. In December last year, he decided to escape from the crisis and uncertainty, bought a ticket in Tenerife and left the country with € 200 in his pocket. About prices, housing, the nuances of legalization in the Canary Islands - his story.

"Crisis, cold, longing ..."

I am an freelance IT developer. In December, I looked at what was happening around. Crisis, cold, longing ... Decided - why do I need this? And flew to the Canaries.

Why Canary Islands? Because there is summer all year round. Temperature is from 19 to 25 degrees Celsius. Walking down the street in shorts and a T-shirt. You can pick oranges, bananas. Just recently we went to the mountains, plucked cherry tomatoes right on the street. Cool!

Many people think that it is better to winter in Thailand and other countries of Southeast Asia, but for the freelance programmers, the Canary Islands are suitable, it seems to me, more. The issue is in the business climate. There are no problems with translations, it is easy to connect PayPal, everything works without failures. Well, no monsoons! I live in Costa Adeje. For the entire time that I am here, once a little rain drizzled.

Travel preparation

There was no special preparation. Booked flights from Poland. A bus for 200 with a penny of thousands drove from Brest to Warsaw. For 26 zlotys I got to Modlin Airport. A ticket to Tenerife cost $ 53.
In fact, it was like this: woke up, took a man purse, laptop, jacket, a pair of pants, two underpants, boots and flew to heaven.

The islands

First impressions: you get off the plane, and everyone smiles! And you want to smile. People greet in hotels. Sellers and security guards are welcome in stores. Here I do not want to be sad or depressed.

Canaries - islands of eternal spring. If there wasn’t a calendar, then one would be confused in days. All thanks to the climate. The temperature is always the same, there is no cold or hellish heat - always perfect. The water temperature also remains virtually unchanged.

Canaries do not like to work hard. Shops and banks are open until 14:00, then the siesta begins, and on Sundays nothing works at all, everyone has a day off. But, of course, this does not apply to the tourist area. Most of the shops at hotels with prices for tourists, which are two to three times higher, are open around the clock.

Housing

In Tenerife, as in all resorts, there is a caste distribution: tourists and non-tourists. If you come as a tourist, then cheap housing is very difficult to find. The first couple of days the girl and I were hanging out in the basement. We went around the neighborhood, asked the price and found a long-term option. "Long-term" starts from six months, and the price tag is absolutely humane.

For one-bedroom apartments we paid € 550 per month for two. We are currently renting a studio for € 450.

But there are options for € 250. Quite decent, not some kind of hacks.

Prices

We settled in the resort area, you can walk and not spend money on transport. Buses run well, tickets start at € 1.45 or more, depending on the distance.

As for products in stores, for some items the Belarusian price tag can be divided into two, or even three. Fair! If in Minsk a kilogram of pork costs € 9, then here you can buy for € 3. Bananas - 60 euro cents per kilo. Chicken thighs - € 1.5 per kilogram. One and a half liters of sangria - € 1. And these are the prices of the resort town. We went north to small villages - it’s even cheaper there.

Chicken thighs

Bacon

In December, we collected checks and calculated that every three days we spend € 20 on food, shopping at the store and not denying anything to ourselves.

Approximately € 50 comes out per week. In cafes, the average bill is € 15 for two, but the portions are huge.

In general, you can live. And sometimes, if you want, you can really dine for free in chain hotels at the buffet. If you know the place!

Internet is expensive here: about € 20 per week for using a 3G modem. But again, expensive if you are a tourist. As soon as you receive NIE (something like a taxpayer account number, which I immediately started upon arrival), you can connect ADSL for € 30 per month. Unlimited, 10 megabits. Quite normal.

Real estate prices are nice. In the resort area, you can buy one-bedroom apartments for € 40 thousand. If closer to the coast, within a radius of 1.5 km from the ocean, the price will be € 80-100 thousand. For € 120 thousand, the owner sells apartments with excellent views from the window - in such I lived. The ocean is three minutes walk. What will you buy in Minsk for that kind of money? Three-room apartment, and then not in the center. A car - some kind of golfik - can be borrowed for € 2-3 thousand. For the island it’s enough.

Entertainment

There are a lot of interesting places on the island, you can always come up with something to your liking, and almost for free. For example, take some provisions and go to the mountains, exploring the caves that come across on the way. Or dive, hunt sea urchins, and then cut them and eat real fresh caviar. You can catch crabs on the breakwaters. Or make a homemade harpoon and illegally go fishing. As such, fishing is prohibited if you do not have permission, so you have to get out.

Twice we rode around the island on a mountain serpentine. The first time we went to the province of Icod de los Vinos, where they make the local wine "Malvasia" and there is the oldest dragon tree on the island, which is supposedly about 2.5-3 thousand years old. There is Parque del Drago. The entrance fee is about € 5, but we made our way for free, there are also workarounds. They also looked into the Teide National Park.

The Teide Volcano is the main local attraction, the highest point in Spain - 3718 meters. Around him are truly Martian landscapes!

Last week we wandered into a banana plantation, ate bananas. Moreover, the plantation is not fenced, access is open. There are four types of bananas on the island, each type of crop is harvested four times a year, all this is exported.

There are also nightclubs. The most famous is called Papagayo. On Thursdays, there are parties for the Russians. There is an opportunity to meet new people you need. In general, the island is teeming with various entertainments: water park Siam Park, Loro Parque, where you can watch shows of killer whales, dolphins and fur seals, and even more than 300 species of parrots. There is a walking route "Devil's Gorge", at the end of which there is a waterfall. There are also cliffs of Los Gigantes next to the most beautiful black sand beach on the island. You can go to the neighboring islands of Homer and Lanzarote - very interesting excursions. Paragliding is very popular in Tenerife: you scatter from the mountain and fly on a paraglider, examining the island from a bird's eye view. There are pyramids of Guimar, which are of particular interest to lovers of archeology. Monkey Park, ostrich farm, valley of butterflies - you don’t get bored, there is still a lot to see ...

Earning

I earn mainly "udalenki". Part-time work on the ground is problematic. There is a service sector, you can clean the apartments and sell booklets with excursions. But knowledge of English and Spanish is desirable, and officially it’s impossible to work for the Spaniards, they only take local ones. I was lucky to find a job as a nanny for Russians by acquaintance for € 7 per hour.

Now I’m finishing up English, I’m thinking of going to a Spanish school and learning Spanish. It is inexpensive, € 45 per week. In general, there is still enough money. I’m thinking of opening a real estate site, something like Booking.com, focused on Russian speakers. There are other plans.

Legalization and risk

- I have a regular Spanish tourist visa for three months. Received in Minsk. So far the idea is this: I stay here for three years and get resident status. Canaries are a separate economic zone, if you have been living here for three years, then you can automatically obtain a residence permit.

- Are you planning to live illegally? Will you take a chance?

- I have never seen policemen. In general, there are many Russians who have lived this way, live and will live. Some have already received resident status. The main thing is to have an identification number. Getting NIE for the unknowing is quite difficult, but they helped me here. And now I help my countrymen. Once you have a number, you can get a bank card, buy real estate, a car, and the like.

And the risk ... Who does not risk - you yourself know. The guys fly between the islands and the mainland, they say that no one is looking at visas. I have not tried it yet, but I think everything will be fine. I will not be lost!