Welcome to Tenerife Island

We pulled into the port this morning around 6:30AM. The photo above is of a big cruise ship across from us with the city of Santa Cruz behind it at moonset. It was a beautiful sight. Notice the eye and lips on the ship?

We had an early tour to Teide National Park. It is the home of Teide volcano, which is dormant. I had to close my eyes on the way up there. It was a very curvy road. Once we emerged from the trees, the landscape was very barren. We went through the caldera of an extinct volcano that’s been dead for hundreds of years. It was rocky on the floor with areas where you could see the lava flow. One of the sides had collapsed. Then we got to an area where we could get out and look around. There were steps cut into the sides of the rocks but no railings and they looked very steep. We elected to stay on the level ground. The Teide volcano is 13,000 feet high. From our viewpoint you could see where it had last erupted. It was an eerily beautiful landscape. We stopped at an overlook on the way down where we could see Teide, a city on the coast and the Research Station on a hill.
‘We then drove back down the mountain, me with my eyes closed again. We got back to the ship by noon. The bus driver and guide were taking another group up the mountain at 12:30. Busy day for them!
‘We came back to the room for a few minutes, then went to lunch in the Cafe. After lunch we went to the shops along the pier. They had the usual cheap stuff, tees, magnets, dresses, etc. Bunny did find a connection for her phone to download(upload?) photos from her phone to computer. I decided to breakdown and buy a small suitcase. I’m hoping all the stuff I pulled out to send home will fit in it. I’ll have to pay for an extra bag but that will be cheaper than sending a couple boxes home from France.
‘We’re on our way to the back deck and infinity pool for a swim and visit with the gang. We are practically the only ones who go there in the late afternoons and we love it.
‘Tomorrow we will arrive in Agadir, Morocco but not until the evening, so it will be almost like a day at sea.

Photos:Moonset, cross on the hill for Santa Cruz, 3 city views, Bunny and I with Teide in the background, 4 views of the landscape, the volcano research station. On to Morocco tomorrow!