Tenerife

hello! so it's been some time . . . right now i'm sailing to Benin - super exciting! I'd like to share just a little about our time in Tenerife. We had 6 days of vacation and it was wonderful! Tenerife took my breath away for the first couple days . . . and then, like with almost any location, it became normal . . . however, coming from corn fields, seeing mountains like that, everywhere, was just incredible - beautiful - there really aren't enough good words. almost every day i slept in (i love sleeping in:-) and everyday i'd walk into town (a twenty minute walk) at least once, sometimes up to three times. The streets were narrow and full of shops, bustling with people on the weekends and more quiet on the weekdays. It was fun to see mercy ships people everytime you went out . . . you really can't get away:-) one day five of us went to the other side of the island to a place called buena vista - we jumped off a cliff into the inlet of water and scuba dived - super cool. tony and jeff then proved their manliness by jumping off a super high cliff - they only sat and pondered the death defying move for about half an hour - but they are still heroes to us:) we had dinner at a town called puerta de la cruz on the way back and i saw, for the first time, a black sand beach. interesting. i wouldn't want to be went and have the black sand all over me - so much more noticeable . . . no me gusta, but it was cool to see. there was also a nice normal colored sand beach (twenty minute bus ride away) with the clearest water - we played a little beach volleyball and swam - the water was fresh and cold enough to feel amazing after you've baked in the sun. other highlights - a smoothie place called Viva Maria's - spectacular smoothies - fresh, made before your eyes, cheap as heck - good. Roma's, a small icecream parlor, famous to mercy shippers was visited more than frequently in those six days. sometimes i had it twice in one day :-) yum! the other great feature about Tenerife was this sea wall that you could climb onto right as you stepped off the ship. This wall was freakin' awesome! The first time i went up it was at night, walking back from town - the moon was covered by clouds and everything was black, so black! my eyes adjust after a few minutes and there was black and then a tad lighter black just above it. it was amazing - darkness intrigues me for some reason. the second time i went up the water was an indescribable blue - gorgeous, and the wind was moving and the water was alive! the waves had white crests and it was sunny and . . . wow. that is a good memory :-) Most days i would sit on the wall and just think and enjoy His creation. highly recommend the wall. well - that's about all the good stuff - i do need to request a favor from someone. as you know, i've struggled with the whole getting pictures on this blog - and my friend suggested i have one of you from home, who can download the program with no problems, put my pics on here for me . . . i would email you a few every now and then and then you'd proceed to stick them on this blog . . so if you are interested in that email me - etang03@yahoo.com adios amigos! emilia