The Canary Islands
I'm writing this on Friday, March 09, 2012, our last "at sea" day of the cruise. Since arriving at Las Palmas, we haven't had a day without a shore visit and I have had little time to write. In any case, the pictures tell most of the story.
The big news is that I finally sold my Tennessee house! My real estate agent e-mailed me that after a number of delays; the closing DID take place on Tuesday. I no longer need worry about phone calls from Tennessee neighbors that start, "I was looking at your house and I saw water coming out from under the garage door." That actually happened two years ago. No more worrying about thousands of dollars worth of damages and repairs. No more mortgage payments. Hooray!
We visited three Canary Islands and made two stops in Morocco before this good news arrived. Even though I was nervously awaiting the closing, I did manage to enjoy the stops immensely.
The surprise up-grade to a veranda cabin ended and we moved down to deck four and our old familiar cabin 437. See Michael's blogs for the humorous details surrounding this event: http://cbu-africa1202.blogger.com
Our visits to Las Palmas, Tenerife and Lanzarote were a study in the differing effects of volcanic activity.
Las Palmas was the least striking. Michael and I did not take an organized tour of the volcanic island but explored the city on our own. It was refreshing to see a European city after nearly a month in Africa. Our initial walk around the harbor area only revealed an ordinary looking city, but we stumbled upon the central market, which was clean and had good-looking produce, meat and fish. We found an interesting red painted church dedicated to Our Lady of the Pine Tree (no kidding) and I saw my first interior of a highly decorated Spanish church. We avoided the shopping centers and malls.
After lunch on the Silver Wind, we ventured out again. This time we took one of the red hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus with the recorded narration that is found in almost every major city. Michael had saved the receipt from Cape Town, so we got a 10% discount. We got off at the old historic district several miles from the port and explored the Cathedral square and the maze of 16th century streets around it. It was siesta time and most shops were closed, including the cathedral. There were statues of dogs – I discovered that the islands are named after dogs (l. canis), not birds. The birds are named after the islands. After the bus tour, we visited a beautiful beach where Michael discovered a free wi-fi hot spot. Hint: it's where all the young people with laptops and smart phones are hanging out typing madly. We watched a beautiful sunset from the Silver Wind as we departed our first stop in the Canaries.
Tenerife offered a different experience. Michael had visited some years ago and told me that the tour to the Mount Teide National Park to see the volcanic crater was similar to visiting Mt. Haleakalea in Hawaii, a dormant if not extinct volcano, which I had done. It was interesting but there were other sights to see. A friend aboard told Michael about the electric tram from Santa Cruz, where we landed, to a town on the mountainside, La Laguna, that was the old colonial capital of the island. This mountain town, originally settled around 1490, had a wonderfully preserved historic section. For five Euro total (about $7.00 US) we bought round trip tickets on the tram and had a marvelous four or five hours exploring La Laguna for one tenth the cost of one tour ticket. We watched another lovely sunset as the ship left Tenerife for Arrecife, Lanzerote, the Canary Islands.
Michael and I sprang for the all day tour of Lanzerote, the most volcanic of the three islands we visited. A volcanic eruption in 1730 created the mountains that cover nearly half the island and a second eruption in the 1840's further altered the landscape with lava and pyroclastic flows. There is no rain on Lanzarote though the humidity is high and there is dew every night. There is some agriculture mainly grape vines surrounded by weird circular fences. Otherwise the landscape is uneroded and bizarre. We went to the Timenfaya National Park to see the Montana de Fuego (Fire Mountains) and ride a dromedary (camel). The tour also included a stop at a winery to taste the amazing local wines (not good, just amazing the grapes can be grown there). We later went into the town of Arrecife, pretty and just being developed into a major tourist attraction. Another stunning sunset departure and we were on our way to Morocco.
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Barbara Borsuk
barbara@mborsuk.com
Boulder, Colorado, USA
303 408-3639
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