Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands

April 22

We last visited the Canary Islands 12 years ago with Maddy and Jackson. That was on our last ever cruise with Holland America. The Canaries have a population of about 1 million; 200,000 of them live in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one of the 2 capitals. The islands are an autonomous community of Spain. It’s markedly different than the African countries we’ve just visited. ..an upscale tourist vacation spot for Europeans.

The islands were populated by Guanche Berbers as early as 200 BCE who lived primarily on agriculture, fishing and shellfish. The Spanish conquered the islands in 1494-96 and were able to dispense with a majority of the residents by spreading smallpox and influenza. The Spanish settlers planted sugar cane, wine grapes, plantains, and cochineal (these are bugs that live on cactus used for dyes.) The location became a critical supply spot for ships going to the Americas and around Africa, providing water, vegetables and meat. With the construction of the Suez Canal and decline of the slave trade, the economy declined. A number of residents emigrated to Cuba and Venezuela, Tourism has grown since the late 20th century and the economy is doing much better.

We entered the port with choppy waters, 20 mile winds and a forecast of rain. We prepared for our whale watching excursion with plenty of clothes. However, we had a low wind, 75* day with no rain. We saw plenty of pilot whales…short fin, of course…on a relaxing 4 hour cruise. It included sangria and a rendition of paella (Canarian rice). The day was pleasantly uneventful. Karla went to town upon our return and found it to be some flavor of charming.

Short fin pilot whales floating on the surface in sleep; like birds and other sea mammals they sleep with half a brain in sleep mode and the other not.

Waterfront condos and hotels; taste of Canaries

Nice downtown; top right pedestrian street and memorial to those who died due to terrorism; below the African market and a statue of an Atlas carrying the worries of the world on his shoulders. (the worries are the branches).

I stayed on the ship to review trump’s most recent Truth Social posting….which follows.

“Everything is going GREAT! People are saying that this is the most impressive start for a president… EVER. The stock market is a bit yippy, but that’s driving people to buy Trump Crypto so it’s OK. It will get better once we dump Powell. I see that the Pope died. He was OK on some things, but BAD on immigration. I’m talking to Elon about putting some money into the next pope election. Think of what we could do if we could shake up the Vatican and get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse. What about JD as the next pope? Or, Pete? He has run a. couple non-profits so could bring experience and it might calm his critics. I bet he could get the Vatican to pay its fair share of defense costs. Then, there’s Easter. I know that Jesus wrote the Bible and everything, but he could have done better. I’m not saying he was a loser, but he died with next to no estate. If I were in his sandals, I would have made a deal with the Jews or Romans or whoever and beat the rap. Then, a bread and wine franchise could have dominated the market….especially with negligible raw material costs. He could have been successful rather than wandering around in old robes. Closer to home, we’re cutting off aid to Africa. Those Africans used to come to America and work hard. Now, lots of African countries have 30-40 percent unemployment. If they don’t work hard, why should we help. My father gave me a couple bucks to get me going. Why don’t their fathers do that too?”