We docked about an hour earlier than planned about 1100. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and is a territory of Spain. They operate on the same time zone as mainland Spain but geographically are about 30 degrees to the west. Therefore sunrise is about 0830 and sunset around 2030 so is a little odd to get used to.
We caught a taxi for a scenic tour of the island which took us from Santa Cruz and up into the mountains to Mt Teide which is an active volcano. The drive took us through a diverse range of landscapes misty eucalyptus forests, pine forests and eventually, the Martian landscape of the volcano 3700m ASL.
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| Tall pine forests |
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| Mt Teide |
On the way up near the top we had a close call with a falling rock. Two large rocks came from nowhere and rolled onto the road and came to rest about 10 metres in front of us. Very close call - the largest rock was about half a metre in diameter. If we were 2 seconds further along the road, we would have worn it.
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| That's not a rock, Dick Johnson - This is a rock!!! |
We then descended from the mountain on the northern side of the island through the small historical town of La Oratavo then on to the seaside tourist city of Puerto de la Cruz. Here, we wandered around taking in the sights and sounds for about an hour before heading back to Santa Cruz to board the ship.
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| Opera House, Santa Cruz |
A very odd feature of the city is its black beach. The sand is black.
Another last minute change to our itinerary - our next port Funchal is closed due to bad weather so we will divert to Arrecife which is another of the Canary Islands. We are due to arrive there at 0800 tomorrow.
