We arrived in the port of Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife just before 9am and we were able to disembark very quickly. The weather was quite good, quite a lot of blue sky and about 19C. We had to walk about 1100m from the ship to the hire car office where we’d booked a car for the day. £55 for an Opal Corsa. It was pretty new and an automatic.
We headed north from Santa Cruz up into the mountains, taking an extremely narrow and meandering road along ridges studded with viewpoints. The main one was called Pico del Ingles. Absolutely stunning views to either side of the road, looking down over green hills and valleys to the sea. It started to cloud over as we drove along but remained dry.
Came down from the mountain to the quaint university town of La Laguna and parked up. We intended to wander around but it came into hard drizzle so we just had a cup of coffee and then headed on again to Puerto de la Cruz. Thankfully the rain stopped by the time we got there and the sun came back out again. I used to holiday in Puerto quite often with my mum and dad back in the 70s, early 80s, and I also had quite a memorable holiday there with friends Penny and David, so lots of memories. It didn’t seem to have changed very much. More built up definitely but I managed to find my way around easily enough. We walked across the waterfront looking at the black beaches and the surf and the enormous Lido area. Came back through the pretty squares of the old town and as we got to the harbour the rain came back, pretty hard. We ducked into a café and had a snack and some drinks and used the wife for a couple of hours till the rain stopped. It absolutely torrented down.
Headed off about 245 back to the ship. We had a bit of trouble finding a petrol station but eventually did. Got back on board about 430. I sat on the promenade deck and had phone calls to both girls and used my phone’s wifi. We sailed at about 7. A good dinner with our tablemates and then a show from a female singer. She was good but not outstanding.
Tomorrow we start the first of 8 sea days before we arrive in Namibia. Hopefully the weather will now get steadily hotter and we can begin to really enjoy the pools and outside decks.