Canary Islands, Spain-a Tropical           Paradise
      Monday, November 29

 It's a long way to Tiperary, but a longer way to Tenerife--although actually this largest of the seven Canary Islands and the highest point in Spanish territory and the Atlantic Ocean is just 60 miles off the coast of Africa! And this proximity to the African Sahara becomes clear when you learn that these islands contain volcanic semi-deserts and that droughts
are common and water sometimes scarce.
       However, we only saw Tenerife, which is said to have eternal
 springtime.  The island was quite fascinating, mostly for truly lush and gorgeous plantings and many banana plantations in every part of the island that we visited. You look up and you see fog shrouded mountains, and you look down to the sea at Puerto Santa Cruz and you see brilliant black sandy beaches, the result of this being a volcanic island.
       The vegetation varies from semi-tropical in the port areas, to pine forests growing up the steep mountainsides.  There are about 700 plant species growing on the seven islands-- There is the dragon tree which has red sap traditionally used to heal wounds, the beautiful sapphire blue jacaranda flower, brilliant saffron colored flowers dotting the hillsides, and many varieties of magnificent huge cacti growing everywhere. But I was suddenly homesick for Christmas (and surprised) to see enormous brilliant red poinsettias 10 or 12 feet high in full bloom popping up everywhere and growing in profusion all over the hillsides, in public squares, and decorating many home landscapes.
      But though these islands have almost more plant species than anywhere else in the world, the Canaries are really more important for their location just 1,150 kilometers off the coast of Africa.  I learned that the Herodotus called this the Garden of Hesperides, Homer the Elysian Fields, and Pliny the Fortunate Isles and I could see why.  They are a tropical paradise---and our guide told us that "snowbirds" from Germany are buying up the beautiful multicolored modern houses as second homes all over the islands.
     But they are more important historically as the stopping point for the New World, with Christopher Columbus actually stopping here on his first voyage before venturing west in search of the Indies.
     As with Columbus, we stopped for the day and spent some time walking the an extraordinary botanical garden created by von Humboldt 204 years ago---the gnarled knobbed trees, including many varieties of palm and banana  trees and some of the other species dated from that time.  Curiously, there are no large animals native to this tropical paradise we were told---but I had my first real taste of awkward tourism when a parrot hopped onto my shoulder and before I could stop him, a man took my picture with the parrot. Of course, I got stuck paying a dollar or so for that experience.  I went to sleep to the gentle rocking in the cradle of the deep.  I awoke in the morning to a dramatic shift in the sea, with major rocking and rolling accompanying my attempts to go down the narrow hall to breakfast.  Just as I finished breakfast, a tremendous crash signified that many bottles of liquor had fallen off the shelves in one of the bars nearby.  The captain
announced that he was doing a 20 degree shift in direction to avoid some of the Atlantic swells we were experiencing.  So much for a placid crossing to the Cape Verde Islands, which will take two days.