TENERIFE :
Arrival on July 26th 2001
Departure to La Gomera on September 7th
We've finally left Las Palmas ! There have been quite
a few things done after the making of the mast, including installing
a fridge, sawing sun covers for the boat, doing several woodworks, etc.
And we wanted to have a last evening -or two- with our friends of Las
Palmas...
Ludo really enjoyed the crossing to Tenerife. Personnally, well...,
let's say I did too, but there was quite a lot of wind, and I wasn't
comfortable knowing how it can increase all of the sudden between the
Canarian Islands. But everything went well, we only had 38 knots
of wind, the sea washed the deck better than we could have done it with
a brush, and when Ludo fell on top of me he didn't brake my legs nor
his.
"60 miles against the wind is a humid sport !", teased Ludo
after a wave almost filled the cockpit. The boat worked great : we made
an average of 6.5 knots, braking our record since we left France. With
the previous mast, Ludo would have never pushed the boat so fast. The
new one didn't move an inch.
So here we are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the not very exotic marina
"Del Altantico". I really wonder if we'll ever get rid of
industrial ports like Le Havre. South of our marina, containers are
being emptied from ferries all day long, north from us are the liners
emptying cars, buses and passengers...
The city, however, is very nice. There are many pedestrian streets with
shops, all kinds of restaurants, and trees with red flowers ('flamboyants'
in French). Here, there is an effort to preserve old buildings which
make the city so much prettier. South of the city, near the water, a
huge and very modern auditorium is being built. It will be an excellent
mark for sailors coming into port. Next to it is the "Parque Manrique",
a parc with three big salted water pools where we spent a very nice
quiet afternoon. It was the first time we went swimming since we returned
from France in January ! First sunburns too...
The next day, as usual, we rented a car to visit the island for a couple
days, and here's what we've seen.
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- VISIT OF TENERIFE -
 Weeeeell,
this is a pretty island, indeed !
Its mountains beat the ones in Gran Canaria by far. As we drove up the
mountain to clim the Teide volcano, the landscape kept changing,
going from green eucalyptus and pine tree forests to red hills with
just a few bushes, followed by a real desert-like scenery at the bottom
of the Teide at 3000 meters altitude where nothing can grow.
The most impressive moment was when we came out of the clouds and suddenly
the sun was shining and the sky was incredibly blue. The volcano is
surrounded by lava and huge torn rocks. One can tell by looking around
how strong the eruptions must have been here. It's almost painful !
The Teide reaches as high as 3718 meters, it's the highest peak in Spain.
A cable-way, which we shared with a baby who made his big job during
the trip and a driver who obviously was very hot, took us up to 3500
meters and we walked up the rest of the way.
 
Desert-like landscape and
stone formations on the way to the Teide
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La Palma island,
seen from the top of the Teide
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200 meters seem like no big deal, don't they? Barely more than a walk
to the bakery. Well, beleive it or not, I though I was going to die
climbing that small portion of the Teide. Every ten meters I had to
stop and sit because my heart was pounding like crazy and I felt like
breathing was totally inefficient. And a bit higher from me, there was
Ludo, waiting for me. This man who smokes a pack of the worse cigarettes
in the market seemed to clim the hill like a mountain sheep ! I guess
he is more used to the lack of oxygen than me. Boy, and what did I see
once I reached the top ? Rocks. Period. Thank God there was an awful
smell of sulphur which made it really feel like being on a volcano.
Otherwise, I would have been disappointed...
The 360 degree view was something too. We could see several islands
from there, including our next call, La Palma.
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