Tenerife

After 2 days at sea, our private yacht arrived at the Santa Cruz port in Tenerife, Canary Islands. I say private yacht because at the moment there are only 750 passengers and nearly the same amount of crew. At the end of this leg in Ravenna, Italy, 1600 more passengers will be joining us!! I think this will be conditioning us for the month we will be spending on land in Italy when we finish the cruise in Rome. All of Europe is experiencing increased tourist numbers and Ruthie’s been busy booking skip the line tickets for the attractions.

We teamed up with an Australian couple (Vic and Gayle) for a hire car. Before we knew it Vic had us on the motorway doing 120kph along the coast. This part of the drive was dotted with wind farms along the water and mountains on the other side. The buildings had a different flavour and look to where we had recently been. Very colourful. Little towns scattered back into the valleys between the hills. I’d hate to have to travel to work along those roads everyday.

Maps had us heading for Masca which meant we had to head into the mountains. The road narrowed and only barely had room for each way traffic. In some cases we had to pull over to give way or vice versa. The drive was definitely worth it for the views at the top of Masca. (Well I can say this as I wasn’t driving!)

A quick lunch stop as we had to hustle to drive to Teide National Park to make the last cable car for the day up to the volcano. As the car climbed uphill, we were in thick cloud and light rain. I was thinking all this rush and we’re not going to get to see anything. All of a sudden we were above cloud level and looking at sunshine and bright blue skies. Our road ran alongside a volcano crater.

Mt Teide is an active volcano, 3718 metres above sea level and a UNESCO world heritage site. We only just made the last cable car to the top for the day.

I’m so glad we did. It felt like we were on another planet. We visited a moonscape in Namibia and now were on the moon again here. Two visits to the moon in one trip. Various layers of rocks and lava that had spewed out of previous eruptions surrounded us. Lower down was a thick blanket of cloud that we were floating on. Spectacular!

Lower down some regrowth had occurred with the flowering cacti very colourful.

Vic as driver and Gayle as navigator had done a magnificent job and we can’t thank them enough for allowing us to tag along.

As the ship was docked overnight, Ruthie and I ventured in to the Santa Cruz township for a nightime experience. As we do when in these countries, we sample the local….. Sangria!

The next day we walked and explored Santa Cruz in the daytime. Some cruising friends had been to a tapas bar the previous night and raved about it. We thought we would try it for lunch. Tapas and Sangria! What a great combination. The thinly sliced ham and cheese, the warm goats cheese salad, crusty bread all washed down with Sangria. Oh and the waiter gave us a bonus shot of honey rum just in case we weren’t happy. If you’re ever in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, you must go to Tapas 26!!!!

Exploring the narrower, cobblestone back streets was fun. It is certainly a clean vibrant city. Locals were out and about enjoying the many eateries and plazas in this very cosmopolitan part of the world. A very nice stop indeed.