Canary Islands

Hi everyone! Yes, it’s been a minute since we were out and abroad. We’ve spent the last 4+ months traveling domestically, to visit family and friends. We chose the Canary Islands because it’s usually warm and sunny here year round, and November in TN is pretty dreary.

I just wanted to send out a quick post so you can go to your favorite place to look at a map, to find out just where in the world we are. Any of the maps I found on the Internet didn’t translate well to a small picture, so I decided to let you look us up yourselves.

Of the 7 main islands, the closest one to Africa (Fuertaventura) is only 100 km from the western coast of Morocco.

(until I posted this, I didn’t realize I got a shadow picture of us!)

The first island we’re exploring is Tenerife, and it’s the largest of the lot. It’s in the middle of the archipelago. I don’t have a lot of pictures, but I do have a story to tell…

This turned out to be another one of those trips with an inauspicious start. On our first morning, we were walking back from breakfast, and Steve lost his wallet to pickpockets! Thinking about it, we’re quite lucky it’s never happened before, given some of our choices in itineraries. :) We were cleverly distracted by a driver in a car blocking our way across a street, as a young couple passed us by. We were just a few doors away from our accommodations, and as we got inside, Steve noticed his wallet was gone. Soon after, we started getting notified that his card(s) were being used to try and get cash withdrawals but were denied. So, we then spent a good portion of that first day on the phone and computer getting cards cancelled, and ensuring that we still had access to cash from ATMs with a card that I had. Nice way to start a vacation, huh?

Some of the buildings in La Orotava were built in the 1600’s! And the streets are pretty steep -

I hope to post again about Tenerife… after we have a better day tomorrow.