Sunday, April 2. Docked at Tenerife. 23 C, blue sky. Day 89. 70% done, home in 39 days.
We Four went on a four hour Shore Excursion into the Anaga Mountains behind and around the Town of Tenerife. One could certainly tell we were out of Africa. Everything looked fresh and clean and we hardly saw a piece of litter all day long.
The tour was very nice, but I will let the pictures tell the story.
I find it absolutely mind boggling that here we are a couple of hundred kilometres from the mainland of West Africa and it is an entirely different world. Where is the litter, filth, poverty and street vendors following you like a stray puppies? How refreshing is that! From the instant I stepped into the bus I could tell we were no longer in Africa. One lady while on the beach, looking at nothing, said to me “It is just so nice just to be out of Africa."
The Tour? It was a bus tour, plain and simple. I don’t like them, never did. The benefit is they are predictable, you know what you are supposed to see and they are secure and comfortable. The guide was a very pleasant local young woman, bubbly and full of life with a very heavy accent, of course.
We stopped and started, as coaches do. The tour was good but compared to Africa it seemed quite tame and a bit boring. [I thought that might be my reaction.] The adventure part was watching the bus weave and take the bends in the mountain road squeaking by passenger vehicles.
We stopped for some light refreshments of bread, olives and goat cheese and a bottle of quite pleasant local wine at a mountain top restaurant. Then back down the windy road, through Tenerife and up to the Town of La Laguna, the old Spanish Capital City. The guide led us, a pack of about 39, through the streets as a city celebrated the Sunday before Easter. It was amass of families out for a Sunday stroll. A bit chaotic but fun to be in a happy populace. We had a few minutes in a large market: the cleanest Market we have seen since we shopped in our own Supermarket at home!
We were back in our cabin around 1:15 and picked up some food in the Neptune to tide us over until dinner time. [Did I mention that the ship took off the self-serve ban and we are back to where we were before we had the Norovirus outbreak a few weeks ago.]
Fellette and I have been to this port before, in January 1999. Our first World Cruise, on the P&O Ship, Oriana, new at the time. I had retired the week before we sailed, from Southampton, England. Son Wally had just taken over at Canada Ticket.The ship stopped here for fuel before crossing the Atlantic to South America, on the East coast and went South before crossing again to Cape Town. I wondered at the time why the zig zag down. Now I know why: they were skipping West Africa! In those days, 24 years ago, fuel was cheaper and the ship went faster, cruising usually around 21 knots compared to 14 or so with Zuiderdam.
All In All, A Pleasant Day Back in Civilization…
They imported something like 216,000 tons of sand from the Sahara Desert on this strip of beach. Great sand, think big!
Very, very windy roads, not made for modern busses methinks.
Just a remote beach.There seem to be some European Recreational Vehicles that are roaming around and enjoying camping, the water is cooler now though.
More.
Hillside terrace gardening.
Brief refreshment stop.
I scored a few corks from this bucket while there.
Typical European Candy Stand for the strollers.
A few churches were on the menu today of course.
Just clean and looking like the Mediterranean.
Flowers, always nice to see. It is just early spring here.
The market is just a EU controlled sanitary supermarket, like at home. No rats here!
Yup, treats and Yum Yumms.
Smoked and cured meats, etc.
Fruits.
Another guy making a living.
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