To the Canary Islands & Azores - Santa Cruz, Teneriffe page

Friday 20th April. Up even earlier: at 0635. Santa Cruz de Teneriffe is unrecognisable from 31 years ago but still a dump. Fortunately, we were soon going up on the Esperanza road but up in the forest, we were in cloud. Soon, it gave way & both Teide & La Palma island were visible in a clear sky. We stopped for Teide photos & then for hot chocolate, biscuits (all in) & pees. We were driven past the hill to Garcia's Grove, with its fantastically shaped rocks, originally from the core of the previous volcano on this site, the caldera of which is still largely visible.

Then, back to the ship, with one extra stop in the caldera because of the flowers to been seen. Lunch at 1330, after which Avis did gym & swim, while I took the shuttle to the port entrance & walked up to the public park, which is in practice, the botanical gardens, where I took a lot of photos.

Looking back to the harbour	Whats this?	Bandstand in the square
The Botanical Gardens in the Public Park (top of the city)

On the way back, I drifted off course into the areas the tourist office would rather you did not know about.

The theme of the evening was 'tropical' & I had just the shirt my 1st wife brought back from Jamaica. The deck party was cancelled because of the temperature, which did not seem that cool, it having become quite a hot day for the Canaries. Heat was the theme of the show team, who had their usual triumph.