Tenerife - nice!

Oct 20th
Tenerife

Second time to Tenerife, and let me say, it was amazing. I haven’t even written yesterday’s blog yet because I want to write this one and then go to sleep. But after a boat drill in the morning, the bassist, Thad, and I grabbed some body boards and went off to find a good beach with some waves. Body boards are simply foam boards they you lay on and use like a surf board with waves, except these are more squared off and you can lay your entire torso on them. So we ended up taking a bus from Santa Cruz, where the ship is, across the island to Puerto de la Cruz, where we then picked up a taxi to the beach El Socorro. Thad actually speaks Spanish due to living in Mexico for some time a while ago, so he was able to talk to the locals and other people with the same plan in mind to figure out directions. So we got to the beach and it was unbelievable. First, the sand was amazing, black sand. It’s a volcanic island, so all the beaches are black, but the sand is really fine and just feels like velvet when you walk in it. It’s the nicest, softest sand beach I’ve ever been on. So we get on the boards and get into the water, where there are already a lot of people surfing or body boarding. The water was warm, like mid 70’s, and the wetsuit we borrowed from the ship’s dive shop probably wasn’t needed, but nice to have anyways. Well, the waves at this place were huge, or at least they were by my standards. I’d say they were at least as tall as I am, so 6 feet from the top of the water. The attendant we talked to seemed slightly ashamed that it was low tide and the waves weren’t as big as usual, but believe me, any bigger and I’d probably be dead. These waves would just swallow people up, and I had a number of spills where I’d just get flipped head over heal under water completely out of control waiting for the moment where I was able to get a footing and jump up for air. It was just unreal how this water could destroy you. So just getting out to the spot in the water right before the waves would break was difficult because you’re trying to swim through these walls of water that have nothing else in mind than to push you into shore as far as possible. Sometimes you could dive under the wave with your board, but if you timed it wrong or didn’t go strong enough, you’d get flipped over backwards and be stuck waiting to regain control. So after fighting for a long time trying to get out to that good area to catch the waves, I’d eventually turn around and inevitably make a fool of myself. I had a few good runs, and it’s hard to completely suck lying on a board, but some of the kids there were just great at timing the waves and riding down the faces, even getting inside the tubes. We had just under 2 hours, which might not seem like a lot of time, but when you work that hard swimming out to these waves and are continually getting the crap beaten out of you and force fed salt water through every hole in your head, 2 hours takes forever. Thad didn’t even make it the whole time. And probably the coolest part was waiting for the right wave, because when you were that far out and looked back, you’d see this black sand beach, a coastline of huge cliffs, and behind it all, a 12,000 foot volcano that spawned the island. So the scenery was just unimaginably gorgeous, I really hope to be able to see that place again someday after I’ve left Europe. I wasn’t able to take too many pics on account of being wet, but did my best to grab some shots before I left. Unfortunately, the coast line I described can only be seen in it’s full beauty out at sea, and I wasn’t about to paddle out with my camera, so I did my best with what I had and got some shots of the area. But it was an unbelievable trip and well worth the bus and cab fares. However, my chest and arms are horribly bruised and battered, as could be imagined when tons of water is heading straight at you. But I’m dead tired now, and have an early tour tomorrow. We had Pete Matthew’s show tonight, and then a BDay party for the dancer Nicole. Ok, that’s all, time to recover from the beating I took. Have a good one.

If you want to see pics, do a search for Tererife El Socorro. Tenerife is the island, Socorro the beach. There should be stuff online, but believe me, this place was like nowhere I’ve ever been. Seeya!