I never imagined that I would stay anywhere like this. I stood at the foot of our huge villa which was sprawled out in front of me for as far as my eye could see. This land was ours for the weekend. I almost felt like Simba looking out over the pridelands. Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
Casa Pico literally translates to Peak House and it was exactly that, a house tucked away amongst Tenerife’s lush peaks. The house consists of 3 main parts: the main house, the apartment and the caves. Within the house there are 3 double bedrooms, one with an en suite and also a shared bathroom. There’s also a kitchen, dining room, breakfast area and cosy living room fitted with a log-burning stove. As the weather was cold whilst we were visiting, we put the log-burner to great use. There was a log store outside which we would fetch fresh logs from. Outside the main house are 2 firepits and a large swimming pool.
On the other side of the swimming pool (which was fitted with a waterside and colour-changing lights) was the steps to the caves. There are 3 caves in total, carved into the soft volcanic rock. One of the caves is draped in Moroccan fabrics with warm lanterns whilst the other two are fitted with twin-beds and sofas. There was also a separate ablution block for the caves just a short walk away and a firepit.
If you return to the main house and step onto the veranda, you are greeted with a gorgeous view of the gardens on the tier below. There was a pond just below with a trickle of water flowing into it. Occasionally we were lucky enough to spot the terrapin that lived there but he was mostly shy and would leap into the water and hide amongst the reeds as soon as he was spotted.
Steps led down to the tier below the main house where the gym was located, tucked into the mountainside. The gym also had its own bathroom.
More steps led down to yet another tier where you would find the apartment. The apartment was underneath the lawn and included two bedrooms (both en suite), a living room and dining-kitchen. The apartment also had underfloor heating throughout.
Finally, opposite the apartment was the stables where two horses were located. There was also a ménage and some indoor stables further down the path.
The house was incredible. I just couldn’t believe how much space we had! Lewis and I were staying in the main house and had a beautiful view of the pool outside of our bedroom window.
The main house spanned over one floor. Robbie (my brother) did find a flight of stairs that led up to a mysterious second floor.
“Did you go up?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“What was up there.”
“Oh.” He started walking off. “You don’t want to go up there.”
It sounded rather ominous. We never did find out what it was he saw up there…
One of the most notable characteristics of the house was the resident millipedes. They were everywhere. I mean everywhere. You couldn’t get away from them. It was incredibly sad as you had to watch where you were walking at all moments otherwise there would be a horrific crunch as another millipede bit the dust.
“I got scared earlier.” Robbie remarked. “I went to the toilet and there was definitely no millipede before I went but when I’d finished, there was one in the toilet and I was like, did that come from me?”
From then on, the running joke of the holiday was that Robbie was the one pooping millipedes around the house.
Everyone hated the millipedes but I was rather fond of them. There was something quite adorable about the way they marched round the house and up the walls. But why they were here, we had no idea.
