World cruise traveling is getting very busy here with several port of calls coming up with no break and an overland excursion to prepare for so I have fell behind in posts so I will catch up quickly.
After 2 days of sailing from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands (specifically Tenerife Island and the city of Santa Cruz) we were ready for some land walking because the two days were fairly rocky with a side swell that caused lots of creeping and clanging throughout the ship. With 120 days of sailing however, we managed the rough seas fairly well.
Making to Santa Cruz we went on a morning excursion that was taking us to a remote town on the northern shore of Tenerife called Almaciga which requires a 45 minute drive on a very windy road up and over the mountain… but offered beautiful vistas. We had a chance to walk on the beach and visit the small town of about 200 residents. We had snack (cheese and crackers with local wine before heading back towards Santa Cruz.
Prior to arriving in Santa Cruz, our tour took us to the top of the mountain ridge which was covered in a blanket of fog – supposedly we would get some good views of the ocean from the tropical rain forest, however, the clouds had other ideas. It was windy and a bit chilly up at 3,200 feet in elevation and we were in the cloud forest (a real one, not an exhibition in Singapore) so it was chilly, thus I thought the mountain and Tenerife was cool.
We arrived back at the ship and quickly grabbed the shuttle bus to the downtown – actually we could have walked it, it was was not far at all – but some of these ports don’t like pedestrians walking in a commercial port.
In Santa Cruz we loved walking the pedestrian mall area that had a number of stores and offering – it was a magnificent street with tile sidewalks and wide areas. We thought the whole experience was wonderful and we checked off our list that Tenerife is one place we would love to return to and spend more time.
