Canary Island Cruise

What were the Canary Islands named after?  Yes, you guessed it, Dogs.  From the Latin, “Canariae Insulae”, meaning “Island of the Dogs”.  This originally only applied to Gran Canaria but is now used for the entire archipelago of Islands, which are located about 100km of the north west coast of Africa (Morocco and the Sahara).  The Canaries are one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities and are amongst the outermost region of the European Union.  The islands include (from largest to smallest), Tenerife, Fueteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, La Grasiosa, Alegranza, Isle de Lobos, Montaria Clara, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste.  The Canary Islands were all formed by volcanoes erupting from the sea bed millions of years ago.  Before the land even breaks the surface of the sea, the volcano must build up about 4km of earth from the sea bed.  We have only visited the largest four of them.  This cruise will introduce us the the next two largest, La Palma and La Gomera.

However, this holiday is like three holidays in one for Claire and I and like two holidays in one for Sue and Ian who are traveling with us.  The first four days of our holiday are spent on Gran Canaria in a hotel called, “Astoria Hotel” in Las Palmas.  This is half board so we can chill out for a few days before the stress of our Cruise.  We then start our Cruise and travel to, Las Palmas and La Gomera in the Canaries, then onto Funchal in Madera which we have also never been to.  We then sail back to Santa Cruz de La Palma, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and back to Las Palmas where we disembark.  Sue and Ian will be flying home while Claire and I will spend another week at the, “Riu Flamingo” in Playa del Ingles on Gran Canaria.  We have a weeks self catering and so will hire a car and travel around the Island.  The only other time that we came to this Island was for a week all inclusive in Maspalomas in April 2011.  As we were all in we didn't hire a car or see any of the island that we couldn't walk to.

Gran Canaria (Tamaran)

The indigenous aboriginal people that were living here when the Spanish invaded in 1403 were called the Guanches.  They couldn’t remember how they got there but it is assumed that they came in boats from the African coast but they also couldn’t remember how to sail anymore either.  They had never seen a wheel, had no knowledge of metals and were living in the Stone Age.  They were normally naked and traversed down steep hillsides on wooden poles like pole vaulters.  They lived in tune with the land and made “gofio” (a type of flour made from toasted barley and wheat).  They also kept pigs, goats and sheep using their milk, skins, bone and meat.  They consisted of two social divisions, the nobles and the peasants who were easily distinguished by their shaved heads.  The Guanche name Tamaran in the title means “Land of the Brave”.  The first few pictures in this entry are from our previous trip.

Well, we got off to a flying start.  Because our flights had been changed twice for the worst so we ended up having to book a hotel at Gatwick the night before we travelled and the night after we got back, our holiday was extended both in time and price.  We decided to drive to Gatwick at about 3pm on Tuesday but Claire had an email on Monday saying that our Gatwick hotel had gone into receivership.  Great timing; I hope thats not the start of a nightmare holiday.  Anyway, Claire managed to recover and book another hotel prior to our leaving but when we got there they seemed to have 3 rooms and 3 cars booked.  No problem, that was soon sorted out as well.  Our rooms were quite nice with 3 beds in each room so we could have had 9 of us stay there for the same price.

 

We had decided to have dinner at the hotel so we didn't eat much all day.  The hotel was called the Ifeild Court Hotel but their prices were quite high.  Sue and Ian's room was nice and warm but our heating was off so we turned the radiator on full and also the little heater in the room and took our wine to Sues room.  It turned out that we had 3 bottles of wine as well so it certainly was a day of threes.

Well, we drank those 3 bottles and then had 2 more with dinner but by that time we were all pooped and went to our rooms at about 8:30.  I watched Celebrity but everyone else fell asleep.  Just as well as we had set our alarms for 4:15am.  When we got back to our room, it was boiling with all those heaters on and while I was on the toilet I heard Claire scream because there was a wasp in our room.  I came in and it was the biggest wasp I had ever seen.  You would have been proud of me as I swatted it with my boxers and put it down the toilet.

None of us had a very good nights sleep;  Claire woke me up at 1:50am when the main light went on.  She was trying to get out the door to find the toilet.  I directed her to the toilet but we both struggled to get back to sleep until just before our alarm went off.  Consequently, we were all very tired.  I caught Sue good here.

Our flight was on time and I got the car while Claire got the bags.  We had borrowed Chris fords satnav as they have the Canaries on it and we don't.  We had a massive car which was not easy to maneuver around.  The hotel was nice but they had no parking.  I parked nearby and we dropped the bags off and they gave me a card for a car park that they get a good discount on.  What a nightmare; I had to reverse at every corner as it was so small.  We left the car and went to the lady at the kiosk to get our discount and she made us go back up and move our car to the next floor in certain spaces that were reserved for our hotel.  About an hour later we got back to the hotel and Sue and Ian were still waiting in reception for us.

Anyway, the hotel is nice with a pool on the roof with a gym and bar nearby.  This was the best thing about the hotel as we could sit by the pool with a drink.  We were surprised at the bar prices as they were so low.  Its only €4 for a bottle of red wine.  Its only €1.80 for a pint of draught as well.  We have evening meal but it doesn’t start until 7pm so we had a walk down to the sea first.

Tomorrow we intend to set off at 10am and drive to the opposite corner of the island for a day out so I will drive the way the satnav tells us to go to get there and come a different way home so that we can see as much as the island as possible.