Time after time

I'm so sorry that I've been MIA for a while. Tenerife is so beautiful and fun, and I've been trying to see and experience much of it while I'm here. Plus, having lost so much crew has made those of us who were here for the sail and before it much closer, so it has been wonderful to spend time with people.


I figure the easiest way to do this is to give the highlights of the past few weeks. I've done so much, mostly because it's so easy to go out here. In Africa it was so exhausting to make an expedition out of the ship. Even just walking in town was an ordeal of avoiding traffic, pushy sales people, and the stares of locals. The heat was intense, and the smell could be less than bearable. Tenerife is cool, clean, and nice. It's so different, and I am fully enjoying the time here, although I strangely miss Benin.





I have taken a couple of nice bus trips with friends to places in Tenerife. The public transportation is really good here and reasonably priced. This expedition was with my friends Aimee, Kendall, and Chelsea, (pictured above) and we got off the bus in a random town. It was fun to explore, and quite pretty as you can see from the picture below:





However, we had to walk a lot:





New Year's was a lot of fun, as my last post talked about. Here are some pictures. First, me with my friend Danae, who I am cabin sitting with:





Here are my friends celebrating with our lovely party favors:


They are, from left to right: Carmen, Bethany, Rachael, Lyndsay, Chelsea, and Kendall.


Chelsea's family came to see her and took us out for dinner. They were great, and we all had so much fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but if you want to see some, her blog is Leander's Meander, which has a link on the side of my blog.

We discovered a layered coffee that has truly captured my heart. It's called a barraquito, and it's a speciality of the Canary Islands. It has sweetened condensed milk, espresso, and milk froth. It's great, and quite attractive (I know, I know. It's the coffee equivalent of me):




We have also tried some Spanish food, such as Jamon Serrano, which is a kind of Spanish dry cured ham. It was very tasty, but the texture was odd, like raw bacon. Anyways, it was a good experience, and I hope that my brother-in-law Matt is proud of me! Matt, I did it for you!





We are docked next to many cruise ships. It is sad to see how boxy and small our ship looks compared to the sleek, pretty ships. However, it makes me proud, because our ship provides us with a place and means to help people. Here I am next to the aft of one of the biggest cruise ships I've seen so far:



Three King's Day is a HUGE deal here. It is when they give each other presents. There is a parade through town, which we went to, but didn't see much of because we decided to stand in what turned out to be a really bad location. However, Kendall and I ate the most amazing chocolate-covered, cream-filled churros:




Here is one of the herds of goats that got to be in the parade:





Kendall's sister Alyssa is visiting for a week. Yesterday the three of us attempted to hike Mount Teide, which is the highest elevation in Spain. While we didn't make it (we started too far away), we still hiked about 20 kilometers total during the day, which isn't too shabby. Plus, the views were phenomenal. We started off with cafe con leche, which is always amazing.




Mount Teide, from our starting point.


The landscape sort of looked like Mars in places:



There was a bank of clouds that was so amazing. I loved it and I loved being above it:



One of many "accretion eggs."


After the fact, with Teide in the background:

Me, Kendall, and Alyssa

My beautiful and amazing sister Emily has campaigned family and friends to send me cards. I have received many cards (I haven't counted, but it was a LOT), and then some gifts from friends. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me! It's been so nice!

Toothpaste for dinner shirt! Thanks Courtney, Cori, and whoever all contributed to it!

Socks from my old bunkmate Katie!

Cards cards cards! Thanks so much everyone! (There are a TON here but I had to overlap them so they would actually fit in the picture.):

Well, that sort of sums up my past few weeks during the non-work hours! It's been wonderful so far.