Canary Islands: Tenerife and Day at Sea
April 25, 2012
Aboard National
Geographic Explorer
The Canary Islands are located a little over 60 miles west
of Morocco and Western Sahara. They consist of seven islands, belong to
Spain, and are a member of the EU. The Canary Islands were named after some form
of dog, as in canine, and there is much speculation as to
why.
Wednesday, April 25 we had several lectures in the morning as it took until
about 2:00 in the afternoon to arrive in Tenerife. We went alongside the dock behind the
large Holland American Ryndam.
Tenerife has about five million tourists a year. The main city of Santa Cruz is one of the
two capitals in the islands.
The four-hour-long tours of the island ran from 3:00 – 7:00. Our first stop was a mile-long beach where they had imported over 200,000
tons of sand from the Spanish Sahara. It was cool and windy, which made us glad
we had not chosen to spend the afternoon at the beach.
The drive took us up into the Anaga Mountains on a very
windy road though remote ravines, villages and forests. At one viewpoint we
could see the coast on the north side of the island.
As we drove nearer the top sumit the fog started
to roll up and over us, obstructing any further views. There was a rest stop in
the Mercedes Forest, but no view.
 |
| La Laguna |
After another windy drive along a different route, we
arrived at La Laguna, Tenerife’s second most important city. It was the
island’s capital until 1723. It is the cultural and religious capital and full
of 17th and 18th century monuments, palaces, and
traditional homes.
La Laguna is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We spent
about a half hour walking through the town and enjoyed the architecture and
almost car-free streets.
Back at the ship, we ate dinner. The ship remained docked
until 11:30 allowing passengers to use a shuttle service and enjoy a night on
the town if anyone wished.
Thursday, April 26 was a day at sea. Our first session
involved all of our disembarkation instructions for Friday, and then there was
serious packing.
In the afternoon we had the second Laptop Photo Gallery Show and I
joined many others in the lounge with my three-minute looping slideshow. Again, there were many compliments.
Friday we arrived in Morocco for the drive to Marrakech where we spend the night then head home. We had very mixed feelings as this fabulous, but long trip was coming to a close.
That's it for now. Grace and Paul
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