Last Ports in the Canaries

The Canary Islands – Nov. 9-10

Having left the beauty of Morocco (that was sarcasm), we continued our southerly journey to the Canary Islands – part of Spain, but a good four hour plane ride from the mainland.  The Canary Islands are not named for those cute yellow songbirds, but rather for the word in Latin for DOG.  It is comprised of a series of volcanic islands whose main industry is tourism.

Our first reaction when learning about the tour on the island of Lanzarote was – who needs to see lava fields and dead volcanoes.  But knowing that for the next weeks there were no stops being made, we decided to get on the bus and see the countryside.  And are we glad we did!  The comfortable, two-decker, coach was filled to the gunnels as we headed out of the town of Arrecife to the southern part of the island. It is called the island of 100 volcanoes, but it actually has over 300. The last time that there was volcanic activity on this island was in the1820’s, with the last major eruptions in the 1730’s, and that is the ‘recent’ activity of which our guide made continuing reference.  But she hadn’t told us that critical piece of information at the beginning of the tour, and when one hears ‘recent activity’ it does put your teeth on edge.

The landscape was barren, black and inhospitable, but the buildings were white, the streets were immaculate, and where possible there were little spots of green.  Not much grows in fresh lava soil and with only 20 days of rain/year, hydroponic was definitely not an option.  So with no rainfall, the entire island has agreed that no water will be used for plants.  Theoretically lava soil absorbs the little bit of rainfall and retains it, but for the most part what one saw was beautiful black dirt. The best part of the tour was the National Park, Timanfaya, a natural museum whose only goal is to preserve the effects of the volcanos. The geothermal energy still present after 300+ years is so strong that when we were asked to hold a bit of lava soil, just shoveled off the surface of the ground, every pebble was hot.  They then demonstrated the heat right below the surface by putting some dry brush into a hole dug in the soil – within seconds the brush was ablaze. Next they poured some water down a cement tube, and whoosh! A geyser spurted up before our eyes. And lastly they showed us how the restaurant in the park cooks its chicken and pork over another hole in the ground, allowing the thermal energy to cook the chicken. (Many of us with rubber-soled shoes were a wee bit worried about having them melt as we walked on this ‘recent’ volcanic soil.

Having stopped to appreciate the effects, we hopped back in our bus and rode through this lunar landscape. It was easy to see why people film movies here – it was other worldly. The islanders  are allowing nature to bring this soil back to life  with no human intervention – first with lichens and small insects. To ensure that this process can continue without human intervention, no one is allowed to walk in this area. We could only take pictures from the bus as we drove through miles of eerie, black, red and green landscape.

They are trying to grow grapes here on the island - Malvasia wine - and we sampled some. Awful would be the word to use, but they get an E for effort.  Tourism has made this island famous, and it is one of the few places where the entire island has been named a UNESCO biosphere site.  While they are at risk of losing this title, the citizens appear to work very hard to maintain it and to protect their island from over-development. No buildings can be more than 2-3 stories high, everything is recycled, and you could see how neat and orderly they keep everything.  Normally when one arrives at a Caribbean port, the town is orderly and clean, but as you move outside the urban area things get less clean and the housing becomes more primitive.  Here at Lanzarote it appeared that this was not the case, and while tourists flock here for the beaches and the climate, the locals are working hard to keep everything in balance.

We returned to the ship for a lazy afternoon on the aft deck reading, while many of our fellow sailors began the task of packing their bags.  Tomorrow is the last port of call and those not going on the transatlantic portion will disembark, and a whole group of newbies will join us.

We enjoyed a last dinner with Jim and Karen, a delightful couple from Alabama, and Karen of Santa Rosa, CA. Both Karens’ were curly red heads, had wicked senses of humor and a cheerful positive attitude towards life.  On this particular leg there seemed to be quite a few ‘poms’ – British snobs who were hard to engage in conversation, and a few Americans who seemed just a wee bit too big for their britches. So it was fun to dine with more earthly people, and we drank to each other’s’ health, fair voyages, and the future chance to meet in some distant town. 

Saturday, November 10 – Las Palmas on Gran Canaria Island

Our last port, and early in the morning the disembarkation began.  We four waited until late morning to head out looking for WiFi – our last chance for speedy connections to the outside world.  The town of Las Palmas is a large commercial town with a lovely ‘old town’, great beaches and a thriving harbor where yachts, cruise ships, tug boats and other square-rigged sailboats (Esmerelda – a Chilean naval training ship and Christian Radich) coated the docks. The harbor was a welcoming location with large department stores, pharmacies and newsstands convenient to the tourist getting off a ship for a brief period of time.  We took a cab to the big Spanish department store where the top floor promised a café with free WiFi and the lower level promised a grocery store. What more could one want.  For about 1 ½ hours we sat in silence each one staring at a screen doing email, sending a blog, catching up on Facebook or reading the news.  We are starved for more data since BBC really doesn’t care much about our election now that all is decided.  We learned that Florida would go to Obama, that Gen. Petraeus was leaving the CIA having had a long-standing affair, and that the budget crisis was still front and center in Washington with both sides mouthing words of cooperation, but taking hard stands already.  Election? What election. It’s back to business as usual. Let us hope that Obama uses his mandate to be a wee bit more forceful with the intransigent republicans.  Things have got to get moving.

With all messages sent, we quickly got our groceries and hopped into another cab heading to the old town for a tapas lunch. Yum! Our only criteria were that there had to be tapas, beer and comfy chairs, and our cab dropped us right in front of just such an establishment. We dined al fresco on a sampler of four different tapas, we chatted, and we returned to the ship where the newbies were just coming on board.

Mandatory life-boat drill for everyone, dinner and off to bed. Adios Europe & Africa…. With a full complement of sailors – 122 in total - we’re heading South & West, and won’t see land for the next two weeks. The Atlantic Ocean lies before us…and Bob is in sailor-boy Heaven!