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One of the <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred._Olsen_Express' target='_blank' >Fred Olsen fast ferries</a> that run between the Canary Islands (which, surprisingly means 'Island of the Dogs'). The port town of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the Isla de Tenerife. Up the hillside from the harbour. Typical barren landscape on this side of the island. Our welcoming committee at the pier. We met a Norwegian couple on the ship, Per and Grethe. They have a place on Tenerife and have been spending the month of February here for the past 25 years. They became our tour guides for our time on Tenerife. This was an interesting looking castle-ish building which had been turned into a gallery and coffee shop. A viewpoint looking down over the town, under the clouds. We headed up into the hills for a scenic trip around to the volcanic area. It was an overcast sky when we started out. Because of the steep hills a lot of the farming is done on terraced areas. Looking down on a couple of cities in the San Jaun de la Rambia and ... Puerto de la Cruz areas. Mount Teide in the distance. It is the highest elevation in Spain! And if you don't believe me you can <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teide' target='_blank'>check</a> for yourself and find out some other really interesting stuff. Interesting colouring on the hillside. We were there on a Sunday and it was a great day and a super area for bikes (the road should have been closed to four wheeled vehicles!). Notice the sun has come out and the sky is blue, great day for biking. OK, who's interested in astronomy. Check out the <a href='http://nightsky.at/Photo/OT/' target='_blank'>Mt. Teide Observatory</a>. There is no shortage of lava rocks on this island. The vegetation is coming back but very slowly in some areas. Amazing, some would say, that he still found something to take a picture of! It is a rather majestic site in a sometimes barren landscape. But it is a fantastic motorcycling road, too bad about all the cars and tourist buses. Look out London and the 2012 Summer Games --- here she comes - shotputter Elaine!! Here we are, in search of ... ... The Sea of ... ... oops, not this little character. He certainly camouflages well! Looks like something out of Star Wars. Oh yeah, as I was saying, we're searching for ... ... Nope, not it. Nope, not this one either. I'd like you to meet our Scandinavian friends - Per and Grethe. They were our dinner partners on the ship, even though they sat at a different table. Per was able to come up with challenging questions for us every night about geography, he even knew the answer to most of the questions. If there was any doubt then Grethe would check in the 'bank' to see if the answer was there. Now this is starting to look more like what I would think The Sea of ... Nope, we're off track again. Here it is! This is what I think The Sea of Tranquility would look like if you could get close enough! But then again that's only my idea. Apparently this area and the previous pictures were used as scenes in a few space movies. I don't know why they would pick those locations. Anyway, we thought we'd better have our picture taken here just in case. We're now on our way out of the Teide Notional Park and heading for the coast again. Heading for the Puerto de Santiago Overlooking a part of Puerto de Santiago and <a href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Gigantes' target='_blank'>Acantidilado de Los Gigantes</a> in the background. A closer look at Los Gigantes with the fish farms at the base. You can just see the ultimate breakwater (actually a wall) surrounding the marina. A close up ofthe fish farms. Very typical of the coast all along here, warm weather, mild seas and lots of apartment buildings. Tenerife greenhouses, literally acres under cover. Part of the grounds area of Per & Grethe's apartment complex. Looking from the water side back to the apartment building. Leaving Tenerife at dusk and heading out for five days at sea!!!