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The Canaries are a group of islands off the west coast of Africa. They are part of Spain, though they are officially a “Spanish autonomous community.” By the way, “Canary Islands” does not refer to any birds. “Islas Canarias” is from the Latin for “Islands of the Dogs.” And we’re not even talking about land dogs, but instead monk seals or sea dogs.
Tenerife is the largest and most populated island of the Canaries. Almost 43 percent of the Canaries’ population lives here, not including the 5 million tourists who visit every year. And the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the capitals of the Canaries. It used to be the only capital, until they decided the Canaries needed a second capital (Las Palmas).
During our stop in Santa Cruz, we had no excursion escort assignments. This was just as well, as Gail is still recovering from a nagging headache and backache. She gave herself a slow and easy start this morning, and we didn’t leave the ship until almost 11:00 am.
There was a free shuttle bus to downtown. It circled completely around the parking lot before stopping at a pedestrian bridge just a few hundred yards away from the ship. (We ended up walking back to the ship later.)
We had a leisurely walk through both the newer and older sections of town. Gail was able to walk for a few hours before deciding it was time to go back to the ship. Russell went back out in the afternoon just to take some more photos, and he ended up being one of the last to reboard by the 4:00 pm deadline.
