Canary Island Road trip and Beaches

Taking a winter vacation to get away from the cold weather has become something of a habit for us. When we were in the United States it often was to the Phoenix Arizona area because it was warm, and also because my parents spent their winters there and we could often freeload off them for a while. But since we are in Europe now and Arizona is a long way away we decided this year we would try the tropical desert archipelago of the Canary Islands.  There is hiking (as in mountains), beaches, and there is suppose to be good scuba diving. Oh and it a cheap trip if you are already on the right continent.

The canary Islands are about 90 miles of the coast of Moroco (That’s Africa) and are considered a part of Spain. The climate is beautiful in the winter and a too hot desert in the summer. A short flight from Amsterdam and a car rental to get us to our hotel and were are ready see some sights.

From Canary Islands Hotel and Beach and Road trip

There is a long board walk down the beach.  Along the boardwalk is hundreds of restaurants where you could get a very good meal and a couple of drinks for two for under 20 dollars. Oh and don’t forget all the tourist things and shopping as well. ( Ask Margaret about her big diamond). In the week we were here I can’t count the number of time we were up and down this several mile long boardwalk.

From Canary Islands Hotel and Beach and Road trip

 If you look at the terrain map of Tenerife which is the biggest of Canary Islands chain. You can see that it is essential a dormant volcano with a 10,000 for peak in the center of the Island. It was our plan to climb to the top of this volcano, but after we drove up there and saw it considering that we had just done the Masca valley hike the other day (see next post) and almost killed ourselves so we settled for some pictures. Check out the erie moon like terain a the top of the Volcano

From Canary Islands Hotel and Beach and Road trip

One of the other things I had planned while here was to re-test for my Scuba certification. I had an old certification from the YMCA that most of the Dive Shops questioned so I figured I’d get a PADI certification which was universal. So I spent several hours retaking the test and doing checkout dives with a team here which I passed with no problems. While I was unable to get pictures of any of the dive sites I was able to dive an old wrecked ship full of stingrays and barracuda’s  as well as a fantastic dive called the grotto where thousands of iridescent blue fish and a natural underwater amphitheater made for spectacular scenery.

From Canary Islands Hotel and Beach and Road trip