We arrived in Tenerife, Canary Islands on Jan 22nd and spent a week exploring. The Mercy Ship was docked in the capital city of Santa Cruz and we stayed on board. Nigel's parents were in Los Christianos (another city on the island) on vacation and we gallavanted around with them there. The island's main feature is Mount Teide, a large volcano, which we got to see from the top. The surrounding area is volcanic rock and had an eerie moon like quality that was used in the shooting of the movie "Planet of the Apes".
The view from our 2 day stay in Los Christianos.
Keith and Katrin.
It is quite dry with rolling hills. It reminded me a lot of British Columbia's Okanagan region in Canada.
The buildings all have a distinctive mediteranian feel.
This was shot travelling in the country side. Every so often you would come across small towns.
Although there are no bananas in this picture, they are a huge export of Tenerife. From the plane it looks like vast land is covered in concrete, when in fact they are huge tarps that cover the banana crops.
There is no need for insulation in Tenerife housing. We were there in the winter and the temperatures were 15-20 degrees celcius.
As we began our decent up the mountain it gets a bit greener on the way up.
At the top plateau it is very dry. Dad, this shot is for you...you can see the motorcyclists in the back ground. There were a lot of them. Tenerife seemed the perfect place to be a biker!
The landscape near Mount Teide was lava rock and moon-like.
The volcano, Mount Teide.
We took a gondola to the top and could look down at the eerie landscape.
You can see the ocean in the distance from this shot.
Nigel with moon rock.
We were surprised to find snow at the top.
The mount from a distance.
