November 2017 - Canary Islands, USA

November 30

We flew to Fort Myers Nov. 24 to stay with Sally's sister Brigid's family in Cape Coral. Their 95 year old Dad lives there with Brigid during the winter months. We had lots of time to visit with Dad and go to some favorite lunch spots. He likes Miceli Restaurant and Bert's Bar in Matlache about 5 min. from Brigid's. So we try to visit them all when we're there. We also drove out to the Mucky Duck on Captiva Island.Nice to be back in summer weather for a few weeks.

Nov. 14-24, 2017

We flew to Chicago via Madrid November 14 to begin our USA home visit. Tight connection so no luggage but we made the flight. We had a fun 10 days with our son Justin's family. We had at least one of the girls home with us each day to do something special and then had fun family activities planned when we were all there. Sara and Lucy always want to bake or help cook so they each had a turn. Chicago Art Institute, Macy's Children Activity day, Santa Land, Pump It Up (bounce land) Holiday lights at Morton Arborateum, Gingerbread Houses and Thanksgiving Parade were some of the highlights. We played lots of games, read books, art projects and many songs.

Nov. 12, 2017

We were suppose to ride the Teleferico up Volcano Teide 3,718m high but it was cancelled. We rescheduled for the next day but unfortunately/fortunately they closed it down after one group sat in the air for an hour waiting for it to restart! It was a beautiful drive though Bosque de la Esperanza another forest winding road. We saw lots

of interesting woodland hiking trails but no time to stop. Tourist Information had hiking maps available. Then we drove through Las Canadas the valley leading to Volcano Teide. The rocks definitely look like a lunar landscape. We had a nice picnic and visited the El Portillo visitors center about Volcano Teide. The visitor centers in the Canary Islands are very informative and hands like a museum.

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Volcano Teide

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Volcano Teide |Teleferico (cable car)

Canary Islands|Tenerife Island | Volcano Teide National Park TF24 | Volcanic rock strata

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Volcano Teide National Park TF24| lunar landscape

November 11, 2017

Another gorgeous but scary drive today. More hairpin turns, narrow roads and step drop offs. This time we drove the north end of Tenerife through the Anaga Rural Park. Enormous cliffs and beautiful Laurel Forests said to be one of the oldest in the world dating to Tertiary Period. We had lunch in Roche de las Bodeges and visited two beautiful volcanic black beaches Playa Tachero and Playa Benijo. We then continued up Monte de las Mercedes through the park back to La Laguna and Santa Cruz.

Canary Islands| Tenerife Island| Roche de los Bodeges

Canary Islands| Tenerife Island| Roche de los Bodeges | Restaurant Los Roche

Canary Islands| Tenerife Island| Roche de los Bodeges | Playa Roche de los Bodeges

Canary Islands| Tenerife Island| Roche de los Bodeges

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island |Anaga Rural Park | Monte de las Mercedes

November 10, 2017

Visited Candelaria, Puerto Colon, Los Gigantas, Santiago del Teid, Buenavista del Norte and Grachico, We thought the Moroccan roads through the Atlas Mountains was wild! Road T436 between Santiago del Teide and Buenavista was very narrow with only slight pull offs for approaching traffic. winding hairpin turns for 28km! Very often there were no lines drawn on the road to guide our way. Gorgeous views put a bit scary. We had a yummy fish dinner on the sea. Later we stopped in Buenavista for ice cream.

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Los Gigantas |Los Gigantas marina

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Los Gigantas |Los Gigantas marina

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Garachico

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | T436 road to Masca

November 9, 2017

We picked up our rental car at the airport today and drove up the north west coast of Tenerife. We visited the historic district of La Orotava one of the oldest towns in the Canary Islands. After lunch we continued along the coast to Icod de Los Vinos to see the centuries old Dracaena (dragon tree) . Fun having a car as we can pull over and take pictures whenever we feel like it.

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | La Orotava | Casa de los Balcones

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island La| Orotava | Church of Our Lady of Conception

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island La| Orotava | Church of Our Lady of Conception

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | Icod de Los Vinos| Plaza San Marcos | Dracaeno tree

November 8, 2017

Lovely day we took a Tram to La Laguna on Tenerife from Santa Cruz. We wandered this World Heritage Site and especially enjoyed the Cathedral and the Basilica The views from the tower were quite nice. We stopped for a beer and light lunch. We are renting a car tomorrow for the rest of our stay here so we can explore other parts of the island.

Canary Islands | Tenerife Island | La Laguna | Beautiful traditional houses Old Town

November 1, 2017

We had a beautiful sailing day and night from Isola de Lobos anchorage to Marina Santa Cruz Tenerife. We knew it would be an overnight passage so we decided to work before heading out. We had noticed after our long stay in Lisbon and then again in Morocco the boat was going a knot slower under engine power. We have a sea breathe apparatus which allows us to dive without a tank on our back. So Al dove on the boat to scrap the propeller before we left the anchorage. The water was crystal clear and a lot warmer than we've been in since leaving the Med. Al did wear a wetsuit. The prop, thru hulls and waterline got a good scrubbing. We left about 0930 and arrived in Marina Santa Cruz this morning at 0730-0800. Our boat speed is back up to normal and we had great sailing we had a broad reach 10-27kts. The weather forecast called for 5-10?? Glad they were wrong for a change as we sailed all but 3 hours on this 22 hour passage. Not much boat traffic, warm and lots of moonlight. The marina staff helped us into our berth where Artemis will stay until we return from USA December 29th.