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| Volcanic Mountains and village, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands |
(Please note: We are now into the part of our cruise that
we are in port day after day and with shore excursions in most ports as most
are new to us. Of necessity, we will
have to shorten or eliminate some of the blog reports. We know that if we don’t write the blog
promptly, the details of one location begin to blend with later ports. We will do our best, but can’t promise blog
posts for every port.)
It was pitch dark when we sailed into our second port on the
Canary Islands. I am guessing that Spain
keeps Canary Islands on Spanish time for easier administration much like Chile
keeps Easter Island on Chilean time. All
we could tell was that there were mountains behind the city because as dawn was
breaking, the city lights ended and it was dark behind the city. While more people live on Tenerife which we
visited the day before, Las Palmas is the largest city on the Canary Islands
with a population of just under 400,000 people. In fact it’s Spain’s ninth largest
metropolitan area and it’s the largest city of the European Union that’s not on
the European Continent. It will come as
a surprise to some people but not to others that the Canary Islands are a full
part of Spain much like Alaska and Hawaii are states of the United States.
Since Barb found no excursion that she liked that met her
present physical abilities, I chose an eight hour tour, The Best of Grand Canary, and was pleased to find that our friend
and table mate, Alice Jackson, was doing the same one. We had met Alice on the 2012 World Cruise on
excursions to the Argentine pampas and and on Easter
Island as well as on the 2013 World Cruise.
When we found out she was doing this cruise, we asked if she was
interested in having dinner with us each night.
She responded favorably and then a couple days later Barb broke her
sacrum and our whole cruise was on hold until late February. Alice has owned a television station in
Evansville, Indiana and has been an on air anchor in that market. She’s very knowledgeable on world events and
we’ve had some great conversations with her at dinner. So it made my excursion more enjoyable having
a good friend to be on the same tour.
It was a rather cool day with temps in the city of Las
Palmas having a high of about 64 degrees.
After a few minutes on the bus, we had a short stop along the coast of
Las Palmas to see the outside of the modern Alfred Kraus Auditorium and
excellent views of Las Cantras Beach. We
then continued along the coast before cutting inland and heading for the small
town of Arucas with it large St. John the Baptist Cathedral. Since it was a Wednesday and that cathedral
is closed on Wednesdays (figures), we were denied an inside visit. However the town was interesting and we were
able to walk around the cathedral grounds and nearby areas of Arucas. We
continued, passing some banana plantations, on to another town, Teror, with its
Basilica of Madonna of the Pines. This
basilica is smaller than the cathedral in Arucas, but it was open on Wednesdays
so we could visit and take pictures. Outside
the basilica were tall pines, after which it was named. It is the third basilica on this site since
the 15th century and has gargoyles watching everyone from high on
the basilica. Alice and I wandered this
interesting town in the time that was allotted before getting back on the bus.
From there we climbed higher and higher into the mountains
of Grand Canaria until we reached our lunch destination in a restaurant at Cruz
de Tejeda in the middle of the island.
We had to walk a short distance to the restaurant in cold, damp
weather. Clouds had rolled in and a rain
had settled in. Fortunately the rain was
brief but it was still colder than we had anticipated. Following our lunch, consisting of vegetable
soup or salad and chicken or fish as well as a dessert, we were on our way out
of town, climbing the spectacular volcanic mountains. From rocky mountains and moss covered pines
to other forms of shrubbery and trees, varying hues of green made for a
beautiful sight. We could look below and
see the switchback roads and villages below.
The only two things that detracted were the overwhelmingly gray skies
and the narrow, winding roads. We took
pictures from the windows, some of which turned out(!). I commented to Alice that pictures couldn’t
really capture the magnificent scenery that surrounded.
We continued along, dropping down the mountainside but
meeting buses and other vehicles along the way requiring us to stop while
clinging to the pavement along the precipices.
It was my turn for the window seat and I leaned in to make sure the bus
didn’t topple into the ravine below. I
must have done my job well as we stayed on the road, but it was much more
nerve-wracking for me than our mountain drive on Tenerife. We continued to go up and down but after an
afternoon rest break and more wonderful views at Ban Bartholome de Tirajana and
a panoramic viewpoint at Mirador del
Castillo, we finally reached the coast again and lower, straighter roads. We stopped about 30 miles from Las Palmas and
enjoyed checking out the dunes of Maspalomas. By now, on lower ground, the
weather cleared and we headed back on a superhighway to Las Palmas within five
minutes of when we should have been back. All aboard time was to have been 4:30
and we got there at 4:35. All back on
the ship, the ramp was pulled in and the ship was on its way to our third port
in the Grand Canaries, the island of Lanzarote.
CT
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