Images: Faces and Places - The Canary Islands (click on images to enlarge)

Welcome to The Canary Islands

Locals Displaying traditions as we left ship

The cruising life continues and the days are flying bye.

With six then three long sea days in a row over, its now only one to two days between ports of call. Since our day in Dakar we have had a day in Tenerife in the Canary Islands this Island belongs to Spain followed by a day in Funchal on the island of Maderia which belongs to Potrugal. We have travelled through both these countries on main land Europe, but, not these Islands.

In Tenerife we got on the free shuttle bus (very unusual for MSC cruises to have a free bus service) that took us out of the harbour area to the edge of the city, from this point we just happened to meet up with another couple from Perth and our night time dinner table.

As we left the ship we were pestered by Taxi drivers wanting euro 145 to take us to places around the Island (about 4 hours taxi hire) to yet more drivers wanting our business after we walked away from the shuttle near the city. The drivers all have map and a plan on what to visit etc. When I asked one driver what his best price was he told me euro 20 per person and that it was normally 25 a person, the plan was the same as those taxis near the ship and his time was not really stipulated he just said as long as it takes. The other Perth couple told us they would be interested so we agreed and away we went.

Sleeping Volcano

Birds with same name as Island

We stopped a few times at view points with fantastic views of the Island including the sleeping volcano. Then on to a village with cobble stone streets and terrace balconies which had a lot of history and some very well run tourist type shops, the next stop was to be a boat harbour. On the way to the harbour the driver stopped and left us in the Taxi, we thought he was off for a pee, but, no he came back with a big bag of banana's and a extra bag so we could divide them up. ( very few banana's on board ship and this must have come up in our conversation) This Driver did his best with his English, Teresa and her Italian and us with our understanding meaning there was no real barrier to our chatter as we fired questions about the Island and his life as he was born and lived all his life here.

We visited the harbour and beaches, with the driver making sure we saw the places of interest and the time we wanted to see them.
These locations are all geared for holiday makers from Europe mainly, and also include very well know movie stars and other people of interest which included the four of us from Perth, Australia.

Art work on floor done with coloured sands

The Habour

Back in Tenerife (city) we paid the driver off with a extra euro five each, we had, had a great day of sight seeing. I got a kicking from Teresa as I did not have one of those caps with kangaroos on, to give him, as this was the exact occasion that we carry these hats for.

The driver made sure we knew the way back to the ship and also the way to maccas to try and get on the net to check our emails etc. Teresa was talking on Skype to back home when the other Perth couple departed to look around the city mall. (what a din it was in Maccas kids were having a party, very loud indeed), we left maccas and ran into the couple from Perth again, the girls wanted to get to a supermarket for a few goodies before going back to the ship. A young girl pointed us in the direction of a supermarket and we headed that way. We saw a Asian woman with goodies in a shopping bag and asked her which way, another group of Asians were near by and she said they were going there and we should follow them, she also told them we were looking for the shop. next thing they were passed us and going fast so the girls quickly followed them, I stopped to take a photo of a statue with yellow eyes and George was near by with his camera also, but, as quick as a flash the girls were gone.
We followed up the road but they were not in sight
After asking a few people none of who spoke English, directions to a supermarket, George and I found a supermarket a blocks and a half away, George kept watch outside while I went in and checked NO GIRL's inside Help!
We made our way slowly back to the yellow eyed statue as that's where we had seen them last.

I said to George that Teresa had enough sense to go back to where we last saw each other, then it hit me, she has trouble when coming out of the lift and heading to our room on the ship, ten out of ten times she will go in the wrong direction.

We decided to wait about ten more minutes then head for the ship as time was ticking away and it was going to take time to get back. George also mentioned that the ship had our passports and that we would have a problem if we got left behind.

The girls were just no where to be seen, I decided I would walk back up a block to the traffic lights for one last look while he waited at the statue and then if not found it would be up to them to get back. the only comfort we had about the situation was the ship had always been late when leaving a port so the girls should have a good chance of getting back on board. As I was walking back to the yellow eyed statue they appeared out of a side street they both had a bag of goodies each and seemed very happy about it. George and I had both been stressed about the situation and knew we had a problem if we could not find them, but, these girls of ours were both very happy they had both had a shopping hit and in the end we all agreed we had had a great day together of sight seeing.