Mountainous Tenerife

 Wednesday's port stop was the island of Tenerife, not far from Lanzarote geographically, but it could not be more different. It is smaller, less volcanically active, with much higher peaks and more lush vegetation. People also paint their houses in whatever colours they like.

Our tour was a bit shorter today, but took us to the other side of the mountains at the northeastern end of the island. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital city and our port, is at the narrow end of the island.

That didn't mean the trip from one coast to the other was short, though. As the crow flies, the distance may not have been great, but the extremely winding road we took to get there was quite a wild ride at times, reminding us of a combination of Swiss mountain passes and the infamous Road to Hana in Hawai'i. 

Many small residential areas are built
up on hillsides like this

...and even higher up the mountains. We're 
getting closer to the clouds here

On the way back down after crossing the
summit on the trans-island road. Yes, those
concrete slabs are the only things between
the vehicles and a sheer drop!

You can see just how high we were as
we descended to the area of Taganana

After a short refreshment stop at a restaurant up in the hills, where we sampled some local snacks, we headed down to the beach, Playa de San Roque, on the other side. As we came out of the restaurant, there was a fine mist of rain, which we soon figured out was more like the clouds having come down to meet us, since once we got back to sea level, nothing was wet any more.

The beach sand was very dark, and although some from our 2 buses descended from the street to walk there, we had no idea how badly it might stick to the soles of our shoes.

The beach at Playa de San Roque was beautiful. It is also
good for surfing

Some of the buildings at Playa de San Roque, across from the beach.

Once we had visited the beach, we boarded the buses again for the return 40 minute trip across the Massiv de Anaga and through the Anaga Rural Park, and back toward Santa Cruz. The road was only built fairly recently to give the people of Santa Cruz easier access to the other coast, instead of having to drive all the way around the coastal road. It is 29 km long in total, although we probably traveled about 20 of them in each direction. The road splits near the top to go to another town along the coat from Santa Cruz. According to some driving bloggers, it is one of the curviest and possibly most dangerous roads in the world to drive or motorcycle.

We arrived back in Santa Cruz and headed for the original capital city of the island, San Cristobal de la Laguna. It is now part of Santa Cruz proper, but the historical city centre is still intact and lively. The University of La Laguna is based in this area, with more than 25,000 students. This is one of the best universities for studying Marine Biology and Astrophysics, because of the geographical location of the islands and the proximity of some of the best telescopes.

Our buses dropped us off near the town market, where we wandered around for a little while before setting out on a short walking tour in the town centre.

Of course, everyone is preparing for 
Christmas. These pink poinsettias
are really pretty.

Baked goods

Nuts

Seeds and spices

Some of the views on our walking tour:

This passage is decorated for Christmas. The
wooden tower at the far end of the building is
connected to the abbey which is still
home to 12 working nuns.

Some very nice Christmas decoration in a window

This is a typical courtyard from a house
in the old town, although this one is part
of a municipal building.

The fountain in the middle of one
of the old city parks

And from the very old to the extremely modern, our last quick photo stop near the port was at the Auditorio, the concert hall of Santa Cruz. Some say the design was partly inspired by the Sydney Opera House, but other than the rounded shape, it isn't very similar at all.

Once again, a very interesting introduction to Tenerife in just a few hours. We only visited a small portion of the island. There is also a national park in the area around the largest volcano on the island, Teide, as well as a number of beaches and other small communities.

After leaving Tenerife we began the 6 day voyage across the Atlantic, taking the southerly route toward San Juan. We're just hoping that the weather and seas are better than the last time we did a transatlantic cruise on Crystal Symphony that ended up being 5 days of high winds and high waves.

So far the internet has not been the greatest. We've had to work on the blog early in the morning or late in the evening to be able to upload photos, so it may not be until after the 6 days are done that we manage to post more about the ship and its amenities.

The Many Faces of Lanzarote

 On Tuesday we arrived at Arrecife, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. We have never visited these islands before, and were looking forward to seeing some spectacular scenery. The good thing about researching shore excursions as far ahead as I do, is that I forget what we're going to see in certain places, so I am just as awed as everyone else. That definitely happened here.

We were going on the 8 hour all over the island tour, which was apparently an amalgamation of 3 different tours with lunch included. The Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa, are very old geologically, up to 11 million years, but are still volcanically active. You might recall only last year the eruption on La Palma that went on for 3 months. Lanzarote is not as volatile, although the first place we visited on the tour, Timanfaya National Park, is technically still an active volcanic site.

A good part of the north and western part of Lanzarote is a sea of lava, much of which was belched up during the eruption of 1730-1736. Yes, it lasted 6 whole years, and destroyed a number of villages, but apparently no lives were lost because of the warnings it gave beforehand.

Camels were used as pack animals as they had no 
difficulty walking over the volcanic 'sand'. Now
they take tourists on rides just outside the park.

 We were given three demonstrations of the heat that is still being generated from the Timanfaya volcano:

This pit is only about 2 metres or 6 feet deep. There was some dried grass sitting on a ledge about halfway down, and when the guide dropped some of it to the bottom of the pit, it smouldered and ignited within 5 seconds.

The second demonstration was one that I only have video for, and can't upload at sea. I'll try later. One of the park staff poured a bucket of water down a 6" diametre pipe, and 2 seconds later it literally erupted into a geyser and sprayed out about 20 feet in the air!

The last demonstration was how the restaurant, where we were at the time, uses the volcanic heat to barbecue meat for its menus. In this case, chicken is roasting over a deep pit.

This is the inside of the restaurant and the view over the lava field and remnants of the volcano cones. The views at sunset, particularly in the winter months, are apparently quite spectacular. Remember that the Canary Islands are among the very best places in the world for stargazing, and La Palma has its share of the world's best and largest telescopes.

Some of the views from our drive around the park. In order to maintain public safety, as the volcanic stone is always quite hot, around 80 degrees Celsius, private cars are not allowed on the roads that go through the park. Only park tour buses and private tour buses are authorized to travel around as we did. The lineup of cars waiting to get into the parking lot at the restaurant, where the park tours begin, was quite long.

This was the remnant of a blown-out lava
tube

There once was a small village where this crater is now

Timanfaya is almost a moonscape. For that reason,
lots of movies, ads, and special events have
been filmed here.

During our stop at the Visitors' Centre, we were able to walk out over the lava sea on a raised walkway and take a close-up look at it.

The next stop on the tour was at a small Bodega in the area of La Geria for a wine tasting. Yes, even in this soil, they grow grapes and make enough wine to satisfy the local population. The main white grape is the Malvasia, and, as you can see, the cultivation method is quite unique. Most of the vines are actually placed in round depressions in the rocky soil, with small walls built up around them as wind breaks.

We tasted a dry white wine and a sweet one. Most of the people on the tour thought the dry one was too dry (I didn't; it was much like an Italian Pinot Grigio), and the sweet one was too sweet. Again, it tasted like a German dessert wine to me. The bodega was apparently all out of red wine for tastings.

Our next stop was at the Casa-Museo del Campesino for lunch. We had been hearing from our guide about the importance of one man, Cesar Manrique, in the contemporary history of the island. He was an artist and architect, born in Arrecife in 1919. He spent many years in the USA, as an artist and then, when he returned home in the 1940s, he designed and helped build some of the sites that are now among the island's most visited attractions. We had already visited one ourselves - he helped the park service design the roadway through Timanfaya National Park.

The Casa-Museo del Campesino was another of his interesting designs. He seemed to know how to work with the lava caves to get the best use of them. Here, he had designed an underground restaurant and banquet facility.

This is apparently a very good and well-known event venue, and our lunch bore that out. We started

with a salad of tomato and local feta cheese, which was delicious.

The main course was pork medallions with potato gratin and a vegetable stack, also great.

And dessert was a local specialty Torrijas Conejeras, dessert fritters. They had a bit of an almond, honey and cinnamon taste to them.

 

Some of the decoration around the interior of the restaurant:

And around the outside, the area is set up like a small village with tables and chairs dotted around. The sculpture is one of Cesar Manrique's pieces. It was too bad that we didn't have enough time to take a few more photos after lunch, but we had to be on our way to the next stop.

All of the houses on the whole island of Lanzarote are painted white, and those inland have green trim on the windows, doors and stairs while those near the ocean have blue trim. This was another result of Manrique's vision of the island. He was all for keeping everything in harmony with nature, and convinced the citizens that painting their homes white would also keep them cooler by reflecting much of the heat. It seemed to have worked well, as this style has been adopted across the entire island. The temperatures on Lanzarote hover between 22C and 30C pretty much all year, and the island doesn't get very much rain. Here are some of the houses we passed on our drive:

We made a brief stop at Mirador del Rio, which is a panoramic overlook on a large bay called Bateria del Rio. The views are spectacular from here. Our guide told us that in January and February, when there is a little more rain, the northern and eastern parts of the island turn green from brown and there are actually some flowers blooming. He showed us a satellite image of August and February, and the difference is very clear to see. No wonder a lot of northern Europeans like to come here to escape the damp cold in winter.

By the way, the overlook entrance and terrace were also designed by Cesar Manrique.

This holiday village doesn't allow cars inside and is
quite a popular getaway spot. You can rent a car to 
drive to the beaches on the other side of the peninsula.

Our final stop on the tour was at Jameos del Agua, caves that originated when the lava flowing from the volcanic eruptions made its way to the sea. Another product of Cesar Manrique's skill at making use of the natural caves, this is one of the prime tourist attractions on the island. The logo of Jameos del Agua is a small crayfish, because there is an albino version that normally live deep in the ocean, but live at sea level only here in the subterranean pool.

Again, a very popular spot. There are bars on multiple levels inside the caves, with some spectacular ambience.

This is the pool where the crayfish live. I couldn't see any, but we didn't have a lot of time to look.

There is also a large amphitheatre here, with amazing acoustics. Someone was setting up a presentation on the stage, and we had no trouble hearing everything very clearly from the entrance at the top. Apparently the acoustics are due to the lack of echo since the sound is absorbed in the small pores of the volcanic rock.

And outside is this beautiful pool.

Overall, we had a fantastic overview of all of Lanzarote in one day. It looks like an amazing place to vacation if you want to lay back and relax. The beaches are apparently also quite lovely, but, we suspect, usually fairly busy. Our guide mentioned that there is no real high or low tourist season, just people coming from different parts of Europe at different times of the year. In summer southern Europeans want to get away from the heat, and in winter those from Scandinavia and Germany want to escape the cold. Either way, the island is worth another visit.

We were so tired, and still full from the big late lunch, that dinner was a salad at the Pool Grill. So far all the food we have tried, and there are multiple venues open most of the time, has been great. We were early to bed since we had an 8:15 start for our tour in Tenerife on Wednesday.