June 24 – Santa Cruz De La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain

Weather – 21º

Steps – 11,680

Humidity – 75%

lovely sail in

After 4 days at sea, we set foot on the Canary Islands. It is obvious that we are no longer in Africa. The busses are ‘normal’, the roads are ‘normal’, the cultural is ‘normal’. I loved being in Africa, but European culture is certainly more comfortable and easier. Even if the language is not ours, it is still easy.

The Canary Islands (pop 2.2 mil) are a chain of 7 main islands in the Atlantic Ocean to

salt pans

 the north-west of Africa. They are part of Spain, but I’m using a Canary Island flag today. The name of the island is not name for the bird, but the bird is named after the islands. The story goes that the islands used to be full of dogs, the Latin word for dogs is similar to canary. There’s another story that that island was full of sea dogs.

We visited three other Canary Islands in 2023.

We are away bright and early, 815 for a wine tour…soon my liver will get a break! We board an excellent coach bus – AC, doors that shut, and a mic that works…I actually miss the reverb.

The bus was PACKED by the time we even got on! The Regent system for tours is to meet in the theatre and wait for your tour to be ready to depart. People can ignore the request to wait to be called and go directly to the bus, but we NEVER do, we always wait…rule followers that we are. Typically, everyone follows the rules too. Today was not typical. We were one of the first ones out of the theatre when our tour was called, by the time we got to the bus it was 75% full! Brutal! However, despite people sprinting 

had to pay for these

for the bus, they don’t head to the back. We, along with another couple are able to get seats apart. Fine by us.

We spent 4 hours this morning driving around the island. Santa Cruz De La Palma is windy enough and hot enough for salt pans. We stop for a few minutes to look at the various pans below us.

obey the sign

Next we make another stop for photos at a lookout above vineyards, a resort, and banana plantations. 42% of Santa Cruz De La Palma’s land is covered with banana plantations. Bananas really are everywhere here, they’re very nice to look at. I didn’t think the world needed more bananas, but I guess it does. Not only are there plantations, but people have banana trees in their own yards.

San Antonio volcano crater

At the furthest point on the island, we stopped at the Bodegas Teneguía vineyard. We tasted 2 of their wines as part of the tour and paid additionally to taste 2 of their ‘special’ wines, made from malvasia grapes, I’ve never heard of these grapes. I had a bunch of Euro coins that I was able to unload – I also tried

to use a 50 centavo Brazilian coin they refused to take…the nerve!

Our last stop was at the San Antonio volcano crater visitor centre. Here we learned about the volcano that last erupted in the 1600s and the other

more of the crater

volcanic activity on the island. There was an optional hike to a lookout point which we did. WOW, it was WINDY! The guide suggested we take hats as it was going to be sunny, yeah, but the WIND! At least 2 people lost their hats. We saw one person actually scale down the rocky hill for her hat…not the smartest move I didn’t think. The guide panicked and ran to this woman - I don't blame her. All was fine in the end, but it could easily have gone badly.

2 volcanoes in the distance

The cruise port for Santa Cruz De La Palma is very close to the city centre – about a 5-minute walk…this is glorious, so easy. After the tour we wander in to look around and have lunch.

One of Chris’ and my weaknesses is sitting on a European street, eating a wafer-thin pizza, drinking a glass of wine, and people watching – today…mission accomplished.

lunch

We know how big these pizzas typically are, we always share one, but today I thought it might be a bit smaller than usual, given the 8-euro price…

nope…usual size, perfect for us to share. I

until next time...

guess Santa Cruz De La Palma is a smaller town, so smaller prices.

Then on the way back we couldn’t resist another outdoor, on-the-street place for an ice-cold 2.5-euro beer…delicious.

This place was lovely, I could see possible spending more time here, but not

Canary Islands

really sure what we’d do. According to the guide, many people come here to practice hiking…we could do that.

We were finally back to the boat about a half hour before all aboard. It was a lovely sail away.