Today was our last port for this trip – the Canary Island of La Palma. What a beauty! The colorful buildings reflect the colorful personality of the island.
The island is quite steep - mountains up to 8,000 feet, with a huge crater in the center.
We took a bus tour up to the rim of the crater.
It’s 8 miles across, and 6,000 feet deep.
We hiked along the rim to an observation point, then back to the bus.
It was a little hazy which made the pictures grainy.
It was impossible to capture the depth of it in a photo, but I tried.
It was breathtaking.
Our tour guide was hilarious.
The road up to the top of the mountain was barely wide enough for the bus.
It was winding, twisty and a long drop down if the driver made any mistakes.
One lady sitting near the front of the bus was white-knuckled the whole way.
With each hair-pin curve she would yell out, “Oh my!”
After a few times, the guide said, “You have mountains in the US.
Don’t you USE them?”
I tried to get a picture of the road, but it was tough with all the trees.
It’s blurry, but you get the idea.
We toured a center for the disabled where they produce jewelry, embroidered items, woven items from an old loom, cigars, and dried peppers.
They had some beautiful wares.
They drove us around all over the island and we had lots of stops for photos.
We stopped at the oldest cathedral on the island.
The altar is made from 3,600 pounds of silver that was stolen from the Mexican Indians in the early 1500’s.
All the wood is from the local chestnut trees.
The tour guide explained that all Catholic churches have a bar next door.
The wives drag their husbands to church, but they sit in the back so they can sneak out and go to the bar.
Sure enough, there was a little cantina by the church.
So Bruce had to sample the beer.
The driver dropped us off downtown so we could shop. The town was about like all the others we’ve seen lately – narrow streets and cute balconies on all the buildings.
We have now set sail for Ft. Lauderdale. Seven glorious sea days. However… remember the morning we left Colorado and the song on the alarm was “Rock the Boat”? I had no idea that it would be so foretelling. We’re on the edge of a big storm which is on our tail. Voyager of the Seas had to divert from the Azores and joined us in Tenerife yesterday. They’re one day ahead of us and reporting back that we’re headed into really rough seas. We’re already rockin’ and rollin’. Tomorrow should be interesting.
Several of you have asked what I’ll be talking about on our sea days. I’ve been saving up some cool stuff, so stay tuned…
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