Ports of Call

 

In Southampton unlike New York, you very rarely hear car horns, even though there are some pretty congested streets, and backed up traffic. It was more than once riding in a Uber when  pulling out of the hotel car park that someone would just  let us into traffic.  You would almost think that motorists here  are more easy going than drivers  in The Big Apple.

About the only horn we did here, and the loudest was when our ship pulled out of port. And it must be because our captain in Italian that every time we leave port, he plays the theme song from the Godfather, on the ships horn.

Ships Horn

We sailed for what seemed weeks but was only 4 days with the last sea day thrown in because we missed our first port of Las Palmas.

When we finally did stop it was in Santa Curz de Tenery, where the port is the largest deep-water port in the entire Canary Islands.

The port was very busy with oil exploration, drilling ships. Because  recently a billion barrels of oil has been discovered under the waters of the Canary Islands archipelago.

The Colorful And State Of The Art The Drilling Ship Amazon

Along with the Amazon there were several other drilling ships, and one platform, all waiting to be deployed, I guess.

Platform & One Of 6 Drilling Ships In The Harbor

As with most islands in the middle of the ocean the Canaries are all Volcanic with the last eruption happening  in 2021 on La Palma

La Palma At Sunset

We had a shore excursion to hike into the caldera here on Tenerife, but I chickened out at the last second, and instead roamed around the city. My traveling compadre later told me that I made the right decision as the hike was very much like the trail of no return, and not all that started made it to the bottom.

The town was quite nice to wander around it. Lots of shops selling everything imageable, including sunglasses, and since I only brought my empty  sunglass case, I managed to pick up a very nice tortoise shell pair of Ray Bans.

Most Of The Downtown Is For Human Powered Travel 

I also located a shop that had piles of bars of soap, and since on the ship you only get liquid soap for showering,  and I don’t really like liquid soap for showers, I picked up a couple of bars of soap.

Fountain In The Town Plaza

It was a big day in town!

Back on board we settled in for the ride to our next port Funchal, and sure enough the captain played the godfather theme song as we left port.

Pulling into Funchal you could smell the trees. It was quite noticeable, as you do not get that on the ocean

The big thing in Funchal is to ride the baskets downhill.

The Funchal Baskets Of Doom

Having done that last time there was really no need to cheat death and do it again.

We walked up to the motor company tee shirt outpost. I stayed outside and sat on the bench, as it wasn’t the easiest walk on the cobble stone street.

We had planned to take a taxi back, but the cabs didn’t accept credit cards, and only accepted Euro’s, and we had none of those.  My traveling compadre managed to exchange some amerikan dollars for Euros at an international fast-food chain, and  she went off to explore a old fort or maybe a  dungeon?

I waited for a shuttle that never came, and ended up walking back to the ship, for a peaceful afternoon of reading out on the normally crowded aft deck.