A Spanish Treat Off the Coast of Africa

Day 89, Grand World Voyage

Sunday, April 2, 2023; Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.

After a number of West Africa ports, it was refreshing to step off the Zuiderdam today in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Not that I am complaining about Africa. I did come all this way to see new places and experience new cultures. And we did that in these last ports. The ports could be dirty, and many people were extremely poor, but they still welcomed us and I am richer for these experiences.

Tenerife is a large and mostly modern Spanish city, with a well-run port from which we can explore the city on foot. I’ve been here before, so I pretty much knew what to expect. The stunning opera house, designed by Santiago Calatrava, sat just ahead of us.

I vaguely remember exploring the northwest coast of the island in 2011. Today we headed into the interior and Mount Teide on a private tour with our friends Karen and Brad (also on our 2011 cruise). Other than contorting myself into the third-row seat of the small vehicle, it was a great and relaxing day.

At more than 12,000 feet tall, Teide is the tallest peak in Spain, the fourth tallest in Europe and the third highest volcano in the world if measured from the ocean floor.  Our guide John took us deep within the Teide National Park, where we saw varied landscapes left by the complex volcanic history of this island.

We peppered him with questions, and he was seldom stymied for an answer. Yes, there are birds here, and we saw a canary. Lizards are common. There are “skinny rabbits,” but we didn’t see one.

Mainly we saw lots of tourists. Most pull-offs were full of vehicles, and if we saw large tour buses, we passed by. We could catch that view on the return drive.

I fulfilled one objective in taking a few minutes to sketch during the trip. I’ll paint them later.

The Canary Islands are not named for the bird (more later), but there are many species of animals and trees with versions of “canary” in their names. John said early explorers from Europe stopped first at the Canary Islands, saw new species and, assuming they were specific to this area, incorporated some form of “canary” into their names. Later they saw the same species elsewhere, but the canary names had stuck.

John also said some question whether the word “canary” came from the same root as canine. It is generally believed that the islands were named by early Romans for the “giant dogs” that lived here. No one has ever found archeological evidence of giant dogs, John said. They may have mistaken the loud barking of sea lions for dogs.

A word about yesterday – April Fools Day. It seemed every day but Saturday greeted us from the elevator carpets. When I asked to exchange dollars for Euros at guest services, the manager said “No!” And then laughed.

The highlight was our special Jellicle dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. We could never get a good answer about what to expect of that confusing name, and I think they were still working on the menu. As cellar master Jacques promised, it was full of “chaos, anarchy and confusion.”

Just read the menu – it seems to start with dessert, but the course was savory. Our water course was an excellent soup, served from aluminum water cans. The eggs sunny side up were a refreshing palate cleanser of granita and ice cream. The meal ended with a sushi-looking sweet dessert, complete with shortbread chopsticks.

Our dear friends Ian (whose wife Megan was slightly under the weather) and Jolanda joined us for the fun evening. Jolanda has sailed with us twice before with her good friend Don, but sadly Don left the ship in Angola due to illness and passed away earlier this week. He lived a very full almost 90 years, and while I know he was doing what he loved until the end, he leaves all of us grieving.