We’re early! The captain had planned to be alongside by 5pm, but we actually arrive by 3:30pm, after some fairly rough seas as we made our run off the coast of West Africa and away from the truly awful weather. It was rocky (and I was eating my Dramamine), but it wasn’t the worst we’ve ever been through – by a long shot. But, even this morning, the sunrise seemed to suggest that we are probably not out of the woods yet (or hopefully we have sailed past it) as the sun rose with a gorgeous,yet red dawn (red sky in the morning, sailors take warning).
So, we are very happy that are here, safely alongside in Tenerife. I’m on a conference call that is supposed to be over at 4:30, but of course runs long. Sigh. Finally, we are done and we run outside to just sort of nose around and pre-plan for tomorrow. It’s a lovely afternoon/evening, cool, half sunny, half cloudy, but those dark clouds just slide by without opening up into any downpours.
We are at the closest berth on the far end of the port. We couldn’t get the “best” berth, because the Maremma is here on a turnaround day, so they get the berth closest to town. But that’s ok, it makes for a very nice walk into town. It only takes 10 minutes to get to the port building that has stairs leading up to the seaside promenade and Avenida Maritima that runs along the water and out of the city. There is a shuttle (of course, there is always a shuttle with Azamara), but supposedly it takes longer on the shuttle than if you walk. We can see why it takes so long, as they shuttle goes the exact same way we walk, but has to stop for traffic lights and then navigate around and to the other side of the port building we’ve just walked through.
Our plans tomorrow are to visit two museums in the morning, then have lunch, before returning to the ship for an afternoon tour of Mount Teide. We plot out our route, scope out some restaurants and generally just enjoy getting our land legs back in gear by walking around on land in the nice weather. We have reservations in Prime C tonight, which means we can’t really dawdle or grab a snack or drink outside, so we do an about face and head back to the ship, spying a Spar grocery store on the way where we can stop for supplies tomorrow.
Tonight’s dinner is just as wonderful as the first one last week. Although tonight, we turn down the Filipino food that could be ordered since we want to eat the Prime C food (although I definitely could go for another plate of Pancit!). And while I don’t usually take pictures of cruise food – I couldn’t resist taking one of the beet and goat cheese salad which has one of the best presentations – not to mention taste – of any I’ve ever had.
As we eat, the rain starts to fall and we feel really sorry for the crew who want to go outside. Fortunately it doesn’t last long and we are hopeful that most of the staff can get outside and have some time to themselves this evening – and hopefully tomorrow - before we begin our 6 long days at sea heading to Bermuda.
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