Cruising Home....November 9-23, 2019

One last look at the Basilica befoire we head for the ship.

This was the easiest departure on a cruiseship ever.  Taxi to port, onto ship as soon as we got through check-in.  Room ready soon after at 1:00.

 Love our room, 3592.  Rhapsody of the Seas ship.  Weeks is our cabin steward and we are so pleased to have him.  I don’t know what YOU like when you travel, but I like to have my room cleaned and never see how it happened.  I think it’s so cool to go to breakfast and come back and the room is made up.  Go to lunch and it happens again.  Then dinner and again, the magic.  Weeks is such a pleasant person and is so good at what he does.

 So far, we’ve only set our clocks back once, on the first day, but the strange time changes are coming—for 4 days in a row we will set our clocks back one hour then one day without then one more day of setting them back to get back on US time.

Our stops along the way—the first 3 off the coast of Africa:

Lanzarote, Canary Islands—its known for its year-round warm weather and volcanic landscape.  Very pretty white-washed villas and beaches here.  Just a week ago, a migrant shipped overturned trying to reach this island and 5 bodies of the 16 on board were found just off the shore of a resort.  Only 4 men who swam to shore have made it safely.  Very sad. 

Our captain getting us docked safely:

The Cueva de los Verdes has caverns formed by an underground river of lava.    

Underneath the waters here, you can dive to see these statues:

...and this creature was waiting for us that night:

Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands—This is the 3^rd largest island in the Canary Island archipelago.  We are 93 miles from Africa here.  got off the ship here and walked into town to the shopping center.  The oil rigs as we departed looked like they were decorated for Christmas—they were all lit up!  

In August there was a monster wildfire here.  Over 1100 firefighters were deployed along with 16 water-dropping aircraft.  Around 14,800 acres were charred in just 48 hours.  Villages were evacuated and two dozen roads were closed. 

Santa Cruz de la Palma, Canary Islands—This is said to be one of the most dangerous places on earth.  Running north to south through the center of the island is a ridge of volcanoes called the Cumbre Vieja.  Some geologists believe there is a huge crack down the center of the island and claim that the western flank of the Vieja could collapse if there is an eruption, sparking a landslide into the Atlantic and sending a mega-tsunami with 160 ft. waves across the ocean—wiping out the Caribbean and the Eastern sea-board of the US.  Recently, there were hundreds of earthquakes within a 15 hour period.

There is a new lighthouse on the island called El Faro de Fuencaliente, which I hope to get a look at if we go south from here.  The very tall mountain that sits right on shore here across from our ship is fascinating.  Seems at the very top to have its own “Old Man of Storr.”  And lots of caves all over the mountain.  Very pretty.

Also across from our ship is a beach with black sands.  Very pretty.  Evidently the star-gazing here is amazing since there are strict anti-pollution laws on the island.  It has clear skies more then 350 days a year!  With the thin air at high altitudes, they say you can get a bit woozy, feeling a little high, which is probably why back in the 1960s, the island became the go-to place for Europe’s hippies.  Hippies made their homes in the caves in the mountains with amenities such as electricity provided by the Spanish government.  If you hike the mountains, you may stumble across one of these caves with stoves in the kitchen and wooden furniture all about.  

In this weather, this is as close and clear a picture as I could get of the new lighthouse:

but this is what it looks like up close:

After we leave Santa Cruz de la Palma today, we will have SIX full days with no stops.   I hope I don’t go stir-crazy.  I was finally able to get some books from the library onboard, so hopefully they will keep me busy. 

On severral days, the winds were at 35 mph with 20 feet:

One of the chandeliers shaking with the vibrations of the ship:

Finally, Ray gets a day off the boat on Coco Cay:

We DID go stir-crazy!!!

We were SO ready to get off the ship on Saturday morning that we carried off our own luggage rather than put it out the night before to then have to wait to retrieve it. We were off the ship and at the car rental lot in no time and they gave us an Orange Dodge Charger to drive home, which was so comfortable!  

Stopped one night then went by to go to brunch with Katie, Russ, and Henry, who has grown SO much!  And he remembered me!  Called out "Yaya" as soon as he saw me.

Henry is such a cutie--and he's running around and saying sentences, though we can't figure out what they are yet!  He clearly names bunches of things and especially names of people.  So sweet.