Postcards from The Canary Islands
Spanish Autonomous Territory
When and Where: 04/2023 – Santa Cruz (Tenerife), Arrecife
(Lanzarote)
- - Christopher Columbus used the Canary Islands
as a stopover on the way to the Americas.
- - The world’s worst ever aviation disaster
happened on Tenarife in 1977 when two 747’s collided on a foggy runway killing
583 people.
On Sunday, I visited Santa Cruz, the largest city on the island of
Tenerife. Santa Cruz is one of two
national capitals of The Canary Islands.
As I stepped out on the deck before offboarding the ship, I noticed the
temperature was much cooler at around 65 degrees. This was a welcome change after weeks of
scorching hot temperatures in tropical Africa.
From the ship, I could see Santa Cruz and small villages carved out of
the mountainous countryside. The
landscape was picturesque.
My cruise bestie Chancy and I headed into town from the cruise
ship dock. The journey back and forth to
the pier was much further than expected at 2+ miles each direction. The walk was scenic as the streets were lined
with perfectly manicured palm trees. As
we approached the center of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, I could hear church bells
in the distance. I had forgotten that it
was Palm Sunday and the Canary Islands, much like Spain, are very Catholic. Our main mission that day was to go shopping
in the large market in town. Upon
arrival in the market, we navigated our way down the cobblestone streets and
visited various shops. The indoor market
had higher end merchandise and a grocery store.
Given I had run out of peanut M&M’s, I stocked up on candies. My other priority was to find water enhancer. In all the ports we visited around the world,
I haven’t seen it anywhere. I’m thinking
water enhancer is an American and Canadian thing. Anyway, we continued our walk to the outdoor
market which was much more like a flea market complete with low-end clothing
and souvenirs. As we left the shopping
market, I heard singing coming from a Catholic church. Like many other passengers from the ship, I popped
in during the service, took some photographs as services were taking place and
then left. After, we stopped at an
outdoor café where we could sit for a few moments and browse the internet. The ship’s internet is spotty at best;
sometimes it’s good, other times it sucks.
I sat with Chancy while he filed his income taxes and then I made the long
trek back to the ship alone. The day was
completely chill, yet fun.
On Monday morning, we arrived in Arrecife on the island of Lanzarote. The scenery was similar to Santa Cruz with a tall
mountains in the background of Arrecife.
Unlike Sunday, Holland America provided shuttle buses to get to
town. After breakfast, Chancy and I jumped
on the shuttle. Given the narrow streets
in the shopping area, the shuttle bus could not navigate downtown Arrecife so
we were dropped off along the harbor closer to town. The shopping in Arrecife was upscale compared
to Santa Cruz. The outdoor mall featured
high end shops and outdoor restaurants. We
meandered around the narrow streets, before heading over to Castillo de San Gabriel,
a castle/fortress along the Atlantic coast of Lanzarote. We crossed the narrow drawbridge and made our
way to the reinforced structure. The
castle, which dates back to 1574, houses a museum which features the nautical
history of the Canary Islands. The view
from atop the castle offered amazing views of Arrecife and the mountains. Chancy and I made our way to a seaside café where
we had lunch and took in the beautiful views before heading back to the shuttle
and onward to the ship. Like the
previous day, the adventure was chill.
Between both days, I walked at least 10 miles. But that was part of the journey. The real adventure was venturing out not knowing what I would see or what to expect. I enjoyed my brief stays on both islands. I want to come back someday and explore each island a bit more.
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