Back to the Canary Islands

Sixteen years ago, Chris ventured to the Canary Islands as a young missionary for our church.  It was an amazing growth experience for him and he became fluent in Spanish, which has helped him in many aspects of his life afterward.

Now, many years later, I was able to accompany Chris back to his old stomping grounds.  To me, it felt like a true holiday with my own personal tour guide and translator (did I mention we were kid-less?!)!

We decided to stay on the island of Tenerife and save the other islands for a future trip.  Of course, we did things a little bit more comfortably than Chris did when he lived there.

The resort was amazing!  We enjoyed many of its amenities – the cultural restaurants, the gardens . .

the spa (even had a couple’s massage) . . .

. . and the putting green.

While many of our fellow holiday go-ers stayed at the resort to soak up some rays by the pools, Chris and I ventured out and saw the rest of the island.

One of our first adventures was to go up Mount Teide, the highest point in Spain.

We originally thought we would hike up, but after driving through the Royal Forest and the National Park just to get to it, we thought we’d continue driving until we couldn’t drive anymore.  That took us right up near the top where you could take a cable car up to parts of the summit.

We stood in line for quite awhile before I mentioned to Chris that I hoped I didn’t have the same experience on it that I did on the elevator going up the Eiffel Tower.  He immediately pulled me out of line.  I guess he wasn’t in the mood for a panic attack.  We enjoyed some ice cream and headed back the way we had come.

The view really was amazing and so varied on each side of the volcano.

One of our days was spent driving around the island.  It wouldn’t take you very long from start to finish . . maybe a few hours . . but we made a few stops to view some sites on the way.  Some of the highlights were:

The “Dragon Tree” that is believed to be between 1,000 – 2,000 years old.  They can’t be sure because it doesn’t have rings like a normal tree.  The sap is referred to as ‘dragon’s blood’ because it turns red when it comes in contact with the air.

The famous ‘Canarian Balconies’ –

“The Village in the Clouds” –

We ran into one road with this sign and decided we were glad we weren’t ‘authorized’ to drive there.

However, there were a number of other roads that I was surprised didn’t have similar signs.  We drove on the most windy switchbacks I’ve ever seen just to get to a tiny village in the gorge, called Masca.

Switchbacks on the GPS

Switchbacks in ‘real life’

We were just amazed as we drove through one village to see where there had been a massive landslide of some sort.  I think I would have been moving my house if it was located below that!  Lucky once doesn’t mean lucky the second time!

“The Giants – Los Gigantes” – Chris said these are actually the ‘Cliffs of Despair’ from the movie ‘The Princess Bride’.

A large amount of Banana Plantations –

Bull-fighting Arena –

On one of our many walking explorations, we stumbled upon this flea market/Farmer’s Market in the city of Santa Cruz.

Everyone outside the walls seemed to be in the flea market/garage sale business.  Then as you walked inside there were stalls of almost anything you would want.

Flowers

Fruit

Meat

Candy Store

I cannot tell you how happy Chris was to see this specific candy store all around the island.  He said this was a daily visit for them as missionaries . . and sadly to say, it was for us on our trip too!

Some other highlights for us on the trip don’t seem very momentous, but will always stick out in my mind for various reasons.

This man was an expert in pottery.  He was actually working in one of the Canarian Tourist stores.  This particular store was amazing with people sewing traditional clothing on site, etc.  We watched this man create his pieces of pottery, cut off the ‘sides’ to make them square, and cut them off the ‘stem’.  I had Chris ask him if I could take his picture, but it took more signing than speaking as it turns out he was deaf.

All throughout the islands we would see these older men sitting on benches visiting.  Chris commented that is one thing he remembered about his mission . . . that they would enjoy just talking to these men who sat on the benches all day long.

We had to laugh at the men’s reaction when a couple younger girls walked by.  I think people-watching should be a paid profession because these guys were good!

Chris and I were also able to attend one of the branches he served in (Santa Cruz).  Chris was sad to learn that most native Canarians who joined the church have left for other islands and areas around the world where the Church is stronger.  The members of this branch are now mostly from South America.  But, they still meet in the same building and everyone gave us the traditional kiss when we walked in even though they didn’t know us!  I was grateful for my experience in New Jersey to help me prepare for that, otherwise I would have been very taken aback.

Our 5 days were over very quickly as we headed back home.  We were so thankful to find our kids had been having a holiday of their own with their babysitters.  I’m not sure the kids were ready for us to come home as they went ice skating, park hopping, museum hunting and other fun outings.

We were surprised they even had a ‘Welcome Home’ cake prepared for us.  It was so great to come home to lots of hugs and kisses from these four and hear all about their adventures as well!