The island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands is the first land we have seen since leaving Nassau. Steaming along for 168 hours at around 19 nauts (nautical miles per hour for you non-cruisers), we covered about 2500 nautical miles. (1.15078 nautical mile = 1 mile)
If you grew up on Hanna Barbara cartoons, you know canary birds are always yellow and speak with a lisp.
No so in the Canary islands where the canary birds are green and don’t speak.
Actually, the Canary Islands were not named after the bird, nor were the birds named after the islands. Story goes that the Islands were named after the wild dogs found living on there. Canaria/Cane is Roman/Italian for dog(s).
Just as sailors before us, landfall was much looked forward
to. It was an opportunity to get reacquainted with solid ground, re-provision
and for many of us, the most important reason, cheap internet. During our seven sea days, I personally witnessed passengers fondling
their smart phones and whimpering pitifully while obvious Captains Club members
flagrantly flaunted their free internet privileges for all to see, all be it
very, very, very, very slow privileges.
The Canary Island of Tenerife is a beautiful tropical island
that could be found anywhere. It is
believed to have been inhabited since around 200 BC by early Roman snow birds.
The island is volcanic in
origin, with an age in the millions of years but has not experienced an
eruption in over 400 years.
For our shore excursion, we chose to take a hike into the Gran
Canadas, which seemed somehow appropriate for two Canadians. The area is located in the centre of the
island and home to the main volcanic cone. It was a hot, humid and thankfully, a mostly downhill hike with the bus dropping us off at the top of the trail and picking
us up at the bottom. The whole trip involved a two hour rocking bus drive up
then again back with a 3 hour hike sandwiched in between. It was with a happy heart and thirsty soul,
we returned to the ship just in time for happy hour.
The next day saw us arrive at the Canary Island of Lanzarote, a
much different place than Tenerife. It
too is volcanic but much newer having experienced its last eruption
in the early 19th century. There are over 300 volcanic cones dotting the island.
While only a few hundred kilometres from Tenerife, it is completely different. On first glance, it is completely barren of any natural vegetation. Wikipedia says that it has about 500 species of flora of which only 17 are endemic to the island and 180 are lichen.
Eruptions occurring in the mid 18th century lasted 6 years and created 16 new cones. Thankfully the eruptions happened slowly, giving the inhabitants plenty of time to move to safer areas of the island. Those living on the island then, described it like living in hell. So much so, that the island has taken the figure of a little devil as their mascot and is seen all over the island.
The climate is very dry with only a few days of rain each year. The inhabitants are still able to carry on agriculture using a unique method of irrigation. Plantings are first surrounded by small walls to protect them from the ever present prevailing winds. The plants are then covered by 6"-8" of very porous, black volcanic soil. At the night the prevailing winds bring in air from the Atlantic Ocean that is heavily laden with moisture. This moisture condenses and is held by the soil, slowly releasing it to the plants the next day. Interestingly, we have seen a similar method of protective small walls used by the natives of Easter Island in the Pacific. Lanzarote is able to maintain a very robust wine industry and deliver new wines to the European market months ahead of Spain, France and Italy. Don't believe, I have ever seen any in North America but I will keep an eye out for it now.
It was a wonderful 4 hour hike, and before we knew it, it was time to return to the ship. It definitely put the happy into "Happy Hour".
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