Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands), Spain Day 107

Hello Everyone,

Today (Wed 22 Apr 2026) we arrived in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It's beautiful here, and Santa Cruz is a modern, metropolitan city with a bustling downtown waterfront area. The forecast was for intermittent rain and temperatures in the 70s, but thankfully there was more sun than rain and it was a perfect day to get out and about.

Canary Islands and Santa Cruz Background

The Canary Islands are located off the northwest coast of Africa but are politically part of Spain, with a layered history that starts with the indigenous Guanches, a Berber-descended people who lived in relative isolation until the 15th century. The islands were conquered by Spain during the Age of Exploration, and they quickly became a strategic Atlantic waypoint for trade routes to the Americas. Today, the economy leans heavily on tourism, supplemented by agriculture (bananas, tomatoes) and a growing services sector. Politically, the Canaries are an autonomous community within Spain, with their own parliament. They are politically stable, though there are periodic debates about economic dependence on tourism, migration pressures from nearby Africa, and preserving local identity.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one of the archipelago’s two co-capitals, reflects that blend of history and modern life. It grew from a key port during Spanish expansion into a lively urban center known for its harbor, commerce, and one of the world’s largest Carnival celebrations. The city’s economy is tied to shipping, administration, and tourism, with a cosmopolitan feel shaped by centuries of transatlantic traffic. Politically and socially, it’s quite typical of contemporary Spain—democratic, EU-aligned, and stable—though like the rest of the islands it balances development with concerns about sustainability and the impact of mass tourism.

If Tenerife sounds familiar to you, it might be because one of the airports here is infamous for having had the deadliest accident in aviation history. On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s, operated by KLM and Pan Am, collided on the runway in heavy fog at Los Rodeos Airport. A combination of miscommunication, poor visibility, and procedural misunderstandings led one aircraft to begin takeoff while the other was still taxiing on the same runway. The result was catastrophic, with 583 fatalities.

Today the airport is known as Tenerife North Airport, and is located just inland from Santa Cruz in the northern part of the island. Most international tourist traffic now goes through Tenerife South Airport, partly because it has more reliable weather, but Tenerife North is still active and serves inter-island and domestic flights.

Stroll Through Downtown

This morning I decided to take an independent walk through the downtown waterfront area rather than go on the included "windshield tour". My afternoon tour was going to Teide National Park, so I figured I'd see plenty of the island on the way there. Things worked out great!

This was the view of the harbor as I walked from the ship into downtown. There were a large number of boats and yachts here, many from points far away like Gdansk, Wiesbaden, and Croatia. It was very scenic.

Santa Cruz Harbor

The economy of the Canary Islands and Santa Cruz in particular are heavily dependent on tourism. The architecture and infrastructure in the waterfront area reflect this. This Santa Cruz logo was a popular spot for people to take each other's picture.

Santa Cruz Logo

This view up the main street from the harbor was very typical. There were lots of small shops and restaurants lining the way. 

Shopping District Near the Harbor

I soon came upon a very nice park in the downtown area. I saw this monument there but couldn't find any signage telling me what it commemorated.

City Park Monument

This is a view of the city skyline from the harbor. The tall building just left of center was undergoing renovation and was covered in netting. I saw several older buildings during my walk that were being restored.

City Skyline from the Harbor

We shared the port this morning with the MSC Seaview, another of those 5,000+ passenger mega-cruise ships. When we were at sea yesterday I noticed them paralleling our path, off near the horizon. The ship is huge, and dwarfed our 1,000 passenger skiff, barely visible behind it.

Teide National Park

I went back to the ship after my 3.5-mile walk through town and chilled for a couple hours until it was time for my afternoon excursion, a sightseeing trip through Teide National Park in the center of the island. It's an amazingly beautiful place and surrounds the 3,715 meter (≈ 12,200 ft) volcano known as Mt. Teide. It's the highest mountain in Spain and is also the highest point on any Atlantic island.

The weather was dynamic and dramatic today as we ascended the highlands surrounding the mountain. We ultimately climbed from sea level to just short of 8,000 ft, first entering some clouds, then breaking out on top. At about the 5,000 ft point in the climb we stopped at a small rest area to catch a brief glimpse of the dormant volcano peeking out above the clouds.

Our guide took us to a small cafe that was inside the park, not too far from a cable car run that goes nearly to the top of the peak. We had some refreshments (coffee, tea, pound cake, and cookies), then continued on our sightseeing tour.

Mountain Cafe

We continued making a large circle around Mt. Teide and saw some incredible scenery. The Canary Islands have volcanic origins, and there are some 321 volcanoes on this island alone. Mt Teide is the largest, but numerous smaller one contributed to the harsh and rugged landscape we toured. 

Volcanic activity began over 12 million years ago when the islands formed from a mantle hotspot, similar in concept to Hawaiian Islands. A plume of hot mantle material rose upward, and as the African tectonic plate slowly moved, magma punched through in different places over millions of years. This created a chain of volcanic islands with age progression (older in the east, younger in the west).

Tenerife was formed in three major stages. The first was from about 12 million to 3 million years ago as broad, gently sloping volcanoes formed the bulk of the island from huge quantities of basaltic lava. Then, somewhere between 800,000 to 500,000 years ago, there were massive collapses and landslides that resulted in enormous quantities of rock cascading down to sea level. Calderas formed about 200,000 years ago, and the current-day Mt. Teide took shape roughly 170,000 years ago.

The result is a wildly diverse landscape created from old, mid-age, and newer eruptions. The oldest rock is black and mostly basaltic. It's iron- and magnesium-rich lava that cooled rapidly to form dark, dense rock. Newer rock is reddish brown and is oxidized iron (basically rusting of volcanic rock) caused by hot lava interacting with oxygen. The newest deposits are white/light gray pumice and ash from explosive eruptions. It has a high silica content and is formed from frothy, gas-rich magma, creating a very lightweight rock.

As we traveled around we saw starkly contrasting land formations. Some areas were incredibly sharp, jagged and forbidding. Others looked like freshly plowed earth, although it was solid and very craggy rock. In some places it looked as if some gargantuan earth mover or dump truck had disgorged enormous rivers of different colored soil and rocks.

Mt. Teide Viewed from a Nearby Caldera

Volcanic Rock Formations

Volcanic Rock Formation

Here's a view of how one of the flows expanded out, giving the impression of fresh, brown earth.

Contrasting Lava Flow

As we descended the mountains on the way back to the port we re-entered the clouds and even got into some moderate rain. I was very impressed by our bus driver as he deftly manipulated the clutch, gearshift, engine retarder, and brakes nonstop while descending the steep, twisty mountain roads during our 1+ hour return trip. By the time we got back to the ship, the skies were completely overcast and drizzly. Getting out today and seeing so many contrasting views and scenery made this one of my most enjoyable excursions.

Back Aboard Ship

Our tour group was about 15 minutes late getting back and we were the only group still out at our scheduled "back on board" time. They had all the Viking-themed paraphernalia (pop-up canopy, red carpet, fake trees, etc.) all packed up, with only the gangplank remaining. The ship would have departed immediately, but I learned later that there was a medical evacuation just after we returned that delayed our departure another couple of hours. I got showered and changed, then had a very enjoyable dinner with a friend before retiring for the night.

What's Next?

Our next two port calls will be at Agadir and Casablanca Morocco, but I'll miss both because I signed up for a 3-night "overland" excursion to Marrakech instead. I'll be getting off the ship with a group of people as soon as we dock in Agadir tomorrow evening and proceeding by bus to a hotel in Marrakech. We'll spend the next two days sightseeing there before boarding the bus to rejoin the ship in Casablanca. I'm not planning to bring my laptop, so I won't write about Marrakech until after I return on the 26th. I'll catch up as quickly as I can!

Norovirus Update

The captain told us that we're continuing to make progress. Total infections have dropped and only two new cases were reported today. Nice to have things trending in the right direction.

Until next time,

Jim