Tenerife

Before the sun was fully up I could make out the outline of the Island of Tenerife. It is quite distinctive as Mt. Teide is the tallest peak in all of Spain. The island is much larger than I expected, literally filling the horizon. There is no sign of any other islands; I was expecting a short cruise through them before docking but that was apparently scrapped. As we near our pier the deep ravines cutting into the craggy jagged hillside are revealed with communities of different sized boxes piled one on top of the other all painted different colors. These are “villas” built over the years as vacation homes and some permanent ones. They used to be all concrete color but the Island official told everyone to paint them. They used to be built all willy-nilly with no regard for conformity, size, or design. I think they are very attractive. Now, however, they must be built “in an orderly fashion” so says the government. And build do they. I never saw so much new construction in one place in my life. Let me stop here and get something said right off. This is perhaps the most happening, attractive, clean, well-run, sophisticated place I have been. Do not hesitate for a moment to take a vacation here. You will not regret it. The temperature is perfect. It’s usually sunny. They have wonderful shops, beautiful old homes and municipal buildings [along the Rambla General Franco], parks, plazas and impressive new structures like the Opera House crated by Spains’s Santiago Calatrava [it looks like smaller version of the Sydney Opera House, by Danish architects Jorn Utzon and Ove Arup]. They just completed a huge underground parking garage, a new tram system with brightly colored cars and new above traffic and below ground pedestrian rights-of-way. Many of the shopping areas are “no cars allowed.” The harbor and piers are all very new. All the containers and cargo ships will move south. In just a few years this port will serve passengers only. There are well-marked paths with colored lines to lead you into town or to the Opera House or Plaza Espana. There are sparkling white late model taxis [most are wagons or hatchbacks] everywhere. They only let 5 on the pier at a time. The roads are brand new; the highways are wide and well marked. The streets all have street signs. There is traffic everywhere but it is orderly and courteous. I did not here a horn anywhere. Everyone is beautiful and friendly. Many speak English. The gelato/helado is top-notch. There is no garbage anywhere and no begging, indeed no street people. More roads and highways are being built everywhere Transportation between Islands is mostly by ferry and they are HUGE. The Fred. Olson line has giant hydrofoils. The fares are reasonable [15.40 Euros to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria]. Am I gushing too much? All of the Islands have airports now and inter-island flights are frequent and short. They do have strict baggage allowances on these smaller planes and it is much more costly than taking a ferry. You can even take ferry to Cadiz. You can buy anything you desire in the larger cities with department stores like El Corte Ingles put Macy’s to shame. The prices seem to me to be very reasonable. I am not used to shopping in foreign countries and I don’t generally shop for luxury items but the places I went into offered fine looking jewelry, shoes, handbags, handicrafts [embroidery, lace] and what all at prices that seemed, at the very least, fair. The south and east of the Island are dry with lots of cactus, vineyards, chaparral and exotic trees. The north end and the east are lush and green. The beaches are all black volcanic sand except for one “new” beach north of Santa Cruz where they brought in golden sand from Morocco. We don’t leave port until 9PM and I am tempted to go back into town I enjoyed it so. We sail for Lanzarote. Tonight we have the Philippine crew performance. We haven’t had internet access all day; Mt. Teide was in the way of the satellite. I just now got on.