Bird Islands?

Nope.  The Canary Islands were not named after the birds.  In fact, some sources say that the yellow birds were named for the islands.  The most common story we have heard is that the islands, when first seen by the Romans, had a lot of wild dogs.  Since the Latin word for dog is canis,  the Romans called the island a name which, in English, translates to Canary Islands.  However, the other story says that a slang name for seals or sea lions in Latin translates to sea dogs.  It makes some sense, since a sea lion sounds more like a dog than a lion.

There are now eight islands in the Canary Islands group.  One more was recently added for some unknown reason.  There are only 50 people, no government, schools, banks, stores or much of anything else.

We landed on Tenerife, the largest island.  Incidentally, Grand Canary Island is the third largest.  Santa Cruz, the capital of this island was our starting point as we headed to explore the northern areas.  This eastern side is the dry side, but this area has lots of trees on the rugged mountains.  The roads heads up from sea level to about 4000 feet, climbing toward the rugged peaks.

The road started out as a freeway, but when we turned inland on our way to Taganana it narrowed considerably.  It was extremely winding and not wide enough in most places for a car and bus to pass.   Our big bus had to maneuver around the tight curves, even backing up to make several of the corners.  When we met a car, it took a lot of hand signals, backing and getting close to the mountain or the drop off to get by.  This is the anniversary of the first Portuguese landing on the island in the early 1400's and a national holiday, so there were a lot of cars and even some buses.

.  The valleys were steep and narrow with flat-roofed buildings squeezed into them.   Farmers had to build terraces to raise crops.  Many of the terraces have been abandoned as people found easier work than farming.  The rich volcanic soil is great for raising vegetables, even sugar cane.  There is a species of palm, the Canary Palm, which provides a sap which used as a sweetener.  They used to call it palm honey, but the EU is fussy about names, saying that only bees can make honey, so now they call it palm syrup.








In the little town we stopped to see a local church, but is only open on Sundays.  Then we went down to the coast to have a snack at a pub.  They served the local wine which was awful when I tasted it before we ate.  After a few bites of bread, goat cheese and green olives I tasted it again and it tasted much better.  The black sand beach in front of the hotel provided entertainment for a group of teens.  I am not sure of the purpose, but they were digging a deep hole.  This is not much of a swimming beach, rather one where surfers were trying to catch a ride on the waves.

The interior of the pub

On the front of the pub, a brief menu was in Spanish, French, German and Norwegian.

La Laguna and the (not seen) volcano in the background

Now it was time to go back up the windy roads into a "biosphere reserve."  This is is a forest with the type of trees which covered Europe thousands of years ago.  The ice age wiped out this type of vegetation on mainland Europe, but is still survives today on this island.  Hiking trails wind through the area making it a favorite for hikers and family outings.  There is a lookout where you should be able to see Spain's highest mountain in Spanish territory.  However, all we saw was clouds.







On our way back to Santa Cruz we drove by La Laguna, the second largest city and former capital.  Unfortunately, there was not time to go into the city and visit the church and other sights there.  Then back to the ship, passing the Opera House.