Tenerife, January 12, 2011

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January 12, 2011

Tenerife, Canary Islands, Archipelagos

Ahhh… I’m sitting on my balcony drinking a glass of Spanish rose’ after an AWESOME day in Tenerife. Amazing! We arrived this morning, had our group breakfast and proceeded to the theatre for disembarkation. We got on the bus and I noticed was a lot of big buildings; it was a city. I say that because I was expecting a shipping village, small buildings, but there were a few skyscrapers, nothing like Chicago or NYC, there was a beautiful music amphitheatre. Looks like a smaller version of the Sydney Opera House.

We began our climb up the mountain in our bus. Today the bus was all English speaking. The tour guide had on some hideous black and purple pants. Her dialect was strong and we found ourselves repeating words she said. For example, she was talking about bananas but the way she said it was ba-naaaa-naaaa. Oh and the tour guide in Morocco would say “halala” instead of uh. So he would be talking and then say “halala.” So the students are saying things like “I halala want a halala ba-naaaaa-naaa!

Back to Tenerife, the mountains were created from a volcano, they are large and plenty of them. Our first stop in a square at we went to a church, I don’t remember the formal name but according to the guide it was known as “The Jesus.” They say that they have the most beautiful Jesus on the altar in crucifixion at this church. Although the church was small, pews were normal; the “Jesus” was covered in silver and gold. Most fancy Jesus I’ve ever seen! What was a little strange about this church was that here we are, a busload of tourists, and there were locals in this church praying, having quiet moments and we all just walked in with our cameras and made a commotion in their quaint little church. Then we had some free time to walk in the market. There were lots of animals like rabbits, birds, and dogs for sale. Some of the students asked if they could buy puppies, luckily they listened to us when we said that is wasn’t the smartest idea.

The roads reminded me of the Road To Hana in Maui, little one lane roads winding around the mountain, climbing, at times you would be looking into a large ravine; let me clarify, looking down into a large ravine. The road was a zig zag carved into the mountain and we were on the ride. Adam he felt like he was on the world’s longest, slowest rollercoaster. We ascended the mountain and our second stop was a lookout point. We were high up, not at the top so you could still see the height of the mountains resting in the clouds. We could see the tops of some of the mountains and the sea as well. We had the nice married couple, with the herpes cream from Morocco; take a group shot of us. Adam and I did our classic shot, Christmas Card 2011 get ready! Amazing views, the students got great shots and video clips here. We got back on the bus and continued our climb. The road was windy; a few of the students and Adam with their fear of heights and seasickness began to feel a little woozy. It was like you were driving and since you couldn’t see the road ahead, only what’s to the side, at times you felt like you were going to drive off a cliff, all the while knowing you indeed were not. If a car in oncoming traffic came by both vehicles would have to stop and play a game of back up and forward until one could pass.

Our third stop was another look out point. This one was different as they literally stopped mid road along with other cars and busses and you could see both sides of the island. We took more pictures and video and continued the ascent. Yes, we were still climbing. At this point we were in the clouds.

The next stop was a restaurant where we were to do a wine, cheese, and olive, and bread tasting. When we got off the bus Adam and Mike were pretty sick so they didn’t even go in the restaurant. I walked in to make sure everyone was situated then took a loaf of bread outside to find the sickly ones. Being on land for and half and hour and not in the winding, shaky bus, they began to feel better. The students inside tasted the food. Apparently the cheese, bread and olive oil were excellent, olives were so-so, and the wine was too sweet. I was kind of walking around just taking photos while going back and forth to check on the ones inside and outside. We got back on the bus to go the beach.

We arrived at Laguna Beach and it was fantastical. It was a black sand beach; the sand was sparkly, like a 5 year old went nuts with glitter. The water was surprisingly warm. Mike and I walked down to touch it. Both he and Adam were feeling better at this point as we finally hit sea level! There were rocks coming out of the water and the water was crashing into them. Again I was reminded of Hawaii. It looked like something out of a movie. There was large and I mean large or should I say a great, big, huge, hefty rock that had a walkway where you could walk out. By the time I finally got there the bus called our number and we had to go. Only ten minutes and one of the most picturesque sights I have ever seen; it wasn’t enough. I quickly collected the students who were filming and we got back on the bus.

Our last stop took us to Las Teresitas Beach; this was a light sand beach and the only beach in the capital city of Tenerife. The sand was a light brown, almost like a light color of brown sugar and the sand was so fine. Not at all like sand in the US. The water was calm; no crashing into rocks here. Instead there were about 50 or so little boats all anchored to the bottom of the ocean, probably peoples fishing boats. We stayed here about 15 minutes. Kayla was tongue-tied and did her introduction to the beach on camera about 50 times. We took great photos and headed back to the boat.

Once back on the boat, we finally explored the top level of the ship and walked around and took a few photos. I spent some time checking email, still dealing with a ticket situation but I have handed the problem off to Lynn and they are doing all the phone calls and just updating me. The travel-booking guy sucks at his job but I don’t want to use this blog to bitch about him.

I sat down and wrote this. Tonight is formal night; I called it prom earlier. Hahaha! It’s a second formal night they lump them together so fast. So we will all get dressed up, go to dinner, possibly a show.

Tomorrow is Funchal, Madeira Island, owned by Portugal; the toboggan ride. I can’t wait!

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