July 28 - Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

last night - off the African coast

Weather – 27º in Santa Cruz, 19º in San Cristóbal

random cool shot from Laguna

de La Laguna 

Back home, I anticipated melting throughout the entire time we were in Europe. I’ve been hot a few times, but no where near melting – the trip’s not over, but so far, the weather has been great! Today, in the small town of San Cristóbal de La Laguna it was actually cold. The temp was about 19º, it was windy with some misting. 

Steps – 14,754, Guillermo, our guide, was

La Laguna convent

new bus with a missing seat!

impressed with our step count for the day. Of course, we had to brag that just a few days ago in Barcelona we were over 22,000!

 Today was a big day for touring. We scheduled ourselves for 2!

The highlight of today’s touring is a mojo picón making workshop. Mojo picón is a traditional Canarian sauce. Before the workshop, we drove around Santa Cruz de Tenerife as the guide gave us info about island life. At one point, I thought the small bus we were on was having a bit of difficulty and sure enough,

mojo lesson

it was. What should have taken us 15 min to get to San Cristóbal de La Laguna took us about 30. Eventually we made it. We went off with the guide on a walking tour and the bus driver took the bus in for a swap.

San Cristóbal de La Laguna is a small

Chris in an apron!

colonial town 2000 feet above sea level, which is why it is so much cooler than Santa Cruz at the sea. We only wandered with Guillermo our guide for about 40 min, until the bus was back.

Santa Cruz sculpture

The mojo workshop was a lot of fun. It took place at a winery which we toured first. In fact, before the tour started, we had a glass of sparkling wine with some tapas…this was an apology snack from the bus company…nice. We’ve had mishaps with buses in the past and they never said sorry with wine.

Hands on tours are rarely offered and when they are, we rarely take them. We weren’t quite sure if it would be an actual hands-on activity or a demo – this was both. Mojo picón is a sauce served as a garnish for all sorts of dishes here in the Canary

Santa Cruz monument

Islands. We tasted it with boiled potatoes, and bread. Ingredients for the sauce typically include bell peppers, medium-hot picón peppers (called puta madre peppers, which is Spanish for MFing pepper – the woman from the winery telling us about the recipe called them this mater of factly, kind of acknowledging that it was a curse, but not really), paprika, garlic, almonds, and cumin. We also paired the sauces with local wines.

We got back to the boat around 2:00, just enough time to clean up, chill for a bit, and head out for the evening’s walking tour and tapas tasting. This tour (with Guillermo, the same guide as in the morning) was conducted entirely NOT on a bus. I have to say, this cruise’s tours have been light on the bus time…15 min to this local, 30 to the next etc. Not a lot of time for a bus nap, but that’s fine with me.

Santa Cruz cathedral

I always love a walking tour. I prefer to experience a town or city close up rather than from behind the window of a bus. I see the benefit of the bus tours of a city, but walking gives you more of a sensory experience…the smells of a bakery or the sewer, the rain on your face, or the sun on your face…all the while dodging people, pets, and cars.

Anyway…this evening’s tour had us strolling

cool winery interior

through the Plaza de España - a square centered around a Spanish Civil War monument. We stopped at the 19th-century Teatro Guimerá, the oldest theater in the Canary Islands – the Canary Islands seems to have a lot of ‘biggest, oldest, deepest in the Canary Islands’. The guide stopped us in front of a 16th century church for a bit of a chat.

We finished the evening at 2 local tapas bars where we sampled tapas (including the mojo sauce) and local wine. Yesterday Chris and I were chatting about the lack of basic tapas since we’ve been on

local cider

the cruise. On cruise tours, we’ve had ‘fancy’ tapas…these have been good, but we’re longing for the Barcelona tapas we had…tomato bread, cheese, dried meat, olives, calamari, croquettes. Tonight, we had some basic-ish tapas. I realize I am spoiled to be able to nit pick the tapas I’m eating.

more monuments