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Largest island in the Canaries, Tenerife is a mixture of lush damp vegetation in the north and sunny, dry climate in the south. The volcanic island also has the distinction of having Spain's highest peak, Mount Teide. On a clear day, many parts of the island can be seen from the viewpoints near the volcano summit. Of the many different exotic plants to be seen in the Canaries is the dragon tree which is understood to be the symbol of the island.
We last visited the island in 1981 when we were rewarded with excellent views from Teide. Unfortunately, I did not manage to make the short climb from the cable car to the summit due to breathing difficulties arising from the strong presence of sulphur fumes. In those days the island was starting to expand its tourism to the south-west at Las Americas and Los Christianos, I guess those places have changed somewhat over the last 22 years.
 Our time was limited on this visit to exploring the islands capital, Santa Cruz. The photos are limited to the city centre since it was very hot that day, much of the time ended up being spent visiting a number of bars! However, our walk took us past a roundabout on Avenida de Julio which had some interesting examples of tiled bench seats. Nearby, was the Parque Municipal Garcia Sanabria which had some lovely plants and trees and these are where many of the shots were taken.
At some point I will add slides taken in 1981 at the top of Teide and some of the plant life when time permits.
After having had gentle walk back to the ship in time for afternoon tea, the ship departed at 18:00hrs to its last port of call, Lisbon.
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