Holiday Get-Away Time
One of the nice things about living in England is all the extra school holidays the kids get. Even though Lexi's school follows the American curriculum, they give a week's break in mid-February for what is called half-term. We always try to take advantage of the time off. Some co-workers of Chris recommended a place called Tenerife. It's an island in the Canary Islands. I had never heard of it but it's near the equator so it gets lots of sun year-round. Sun in February... I'm there! The dreary winter days in England really start getting to you by February.
We weren't disappointed. The weather was beautiful. In the 60s at night, 70s during the day... in February! How wonderful to feel the sun on you but not get hot and sweaty from the heat.
Some History
The Canary Islands are owned by Spain but they are located in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Morocco, Africa. They were formed by volcanos erupting 40 million years ago. The islands are basically the tips of undersea volcanoes. Lexi was a little nervous that a volcano might erupt while we were there but fortunately that was not a problem.
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| Mount Teide |
In the center of Tenerife is the tallest mountain in all of Spain, Mount Teide, which is a dormant volcano. Christopher Columbus noted that the volcano was smoking when he sailed past on his way to the New World in 1492. It is so tall the peak is usually above the clouds and it is often covered with snow. You can just barely see some snow on the peak of it on the right in the photo. I wish I had a better picture but my camera battery died right after this was taken. The movies "The Ten Commandments" and "Planet of the Apes" were shot at the Mount Teide National Park.
Christopher Columbus stopped at the island just west of Tenerife called La Gomera on his first three voyages across the Atlantic. It was the last stop where he could take on supplies of water and fresh food. He could also visit with his love interest living there.
What we did
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| Resting on benches isn't just for the old... |
We stayed in a beautiful hotel on the south side of Tenerife. The locals mostly live inland and on the north side of the island. I can imagine they are happy to avoid the 4 million tourists a year. The area we stayed in is all fairly new and built specifically for tourism. There is a nice wide walking path along the water with restaurants, bars, shops, and hotels. There are plenty of benches too, overlooking the water, a nice touch.
We soon discovered how practical the benches are when we noticed the average age of the tourists. All those older folks are probably glad to have a place to stop and rest. It was amazing how many elderly people we saw.
There were definitely a lot of British tourists there but we also saw people from all over Europe: Finland, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Russia. Apparently it's a popular place in the winter for inhabitants of cold places.
There was a Tony Roma's right by our hotel so we had some good old American baby-back ribs our first night there. The next day was spent hanging out by the pool. Waiters bring drinks right to your lounge chair, heaven!
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| Our Hotel in background |
The next day we ventured out to a place called Monkey Park. You can get right up next to the monkeys and feed them. They love bananas.
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| A cheeky chimp |
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| Pilot Whale |
Our last day there we took a whale watching boat excursion. When the captain located a pod of whales, he turned off the engine and we all got silent so we could hear them exhale through their blowholes when they surfaced to breathe just feet from our boat. It was so exciting to see whales in the wild.
We also saw dolphins later in the day. We were educated by the tour guide on how much longer dolphins live in the wild than in captivity.
Our boat then headed to an area of cliffs called Los Gigantes. The movie "Clash of the Titans" was filmed there.
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| Los Gigantes |
and a view looking away from the sunset...
