We had a nice, relaxing day at sea yesterday. I went up to the fitness center and spent a little time on the treadmill, bike, and in the whirlpool. We spent most of the rest of the day sitting on the verandah outside our room. We are on the south side of the ship so we get the sun mot of the day. Last night we had reservations for dinner at one of the ship's 2 specialty restaurants - Portofino’s. We had a wonderful full course Italian dinner. I started with the restaurant's specialty drink, a cucumber martini and we shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio with dinner. For an appetizer, we had Risotto al Gamberetti, a shrimp and rice dish. I had a tuna dish called Carpaccio di Tonno for my 2nd dish and Ray had a Caesar salad. For the main course, Ray had Spiedino di Mare (lobster, gamberoni, scallops & salmon) and I had Saltimbocca alla Romana (veal wrapped in sage and prosciutto). We also shared a mushroom & pasta dish. The desserts were hard to choose. I had a wonderful Tartuffo al Cioccolato, which I can only describe as chocolate heaven. Ray had a sampler dish with small portions of the 4 desserts on the menu. His favorite was berries in Grand Mariner. We finished with special coffees and practically rolled out of there, we were so full. It was great.
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| Lazy Gorilla |
Today we docked at our final port before crossing the Atlantic. I didn't know much about the Canary Islands before arriving here. There are 7 islands in this island group, which is located about 180 miles west of Morocco. We visited the largest island, Tenerife, docking in the capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. These islands are a vacation spot for many Europeans. The climate is warm almost all year, it is clean, and friendly. The guide on our tour said that the residents of the Canary Islands have more in common culturally with South America and Cuba than Spain.
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| Penguins |
Our tour for today was different than any of the others so far this cruise. We took a 45 minute bus ride to a place called Loro Park in the town of Puerto de la Cruz. This was originally created as a parrot park, but has grown over the years to house many endangered animal species, as well as many exotic palms and plants. Our guide took us around so that we would get to all the shows at the right time - an Orca whale show, a Sea Lion show, and a Dolphin show. We also got to walk through the shark tunnel, see the aquarium, penguins, chimpanzees, gorillas, a white tiger, and a large walk-in bird cage, as well as lots of different kinds of parrots in cages along every path. After we got to all the shows, we had time to walk around on our own for about an hour.
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| Parrot |
We were both very impressed with the island. We passed through the city of La Laguna en-route to the park, This former capital city is the university city of the Canary Islands. The main university specializes in the study of micro biology and astrophysics. This city is also the location of a teaching hospital specializing in kidney transplants. So, Pete and Christie, if you are ever looking for a tropical island, this may be the place for you. You might have to brush up on your Spanish, but they get a lot of English tourists, so most people speak English.
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| Orca |
The only problem is that the islands are volcanic. There is one main volcano, Teide, and a number of little ones. The main one has a history of going off once every 100 years, give or take a few, and I think he said the last time was around 1907, so it's due. There is also a haze that hangs over the mountains. Our guide told us this is made up of fine sand that blows in from the Sahara Desert 200 miles away.
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| Dolphin Jump |
By the way, the Canary Islands were not named for birds. When the Spanish explorers found the islands, the people living there had lots of dogs. The name comes from the Latin word for dogs, canis.
Now we will be at sea for the next 7 days. This is the real vacation part of the trip - no tours, no alarm clocks, just plenty of relaxation and enjoyment of the ship's ammenities, as our mood directs us.
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