Macaronesia is a group of four island chains in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. We had previously visited one group, the Azores, part of Portugal, on our 2019 Atlantic crossing, mentioned briefly in my previous blog post about our travels in 2019.
On this world cruise, we will visit the other three, starting with our visits to Cape Verde and the Canary Islands before entering the Mediterranean (we will visit the final group, Madeira, near the end of the cruise before crossing the Atlantic back to the US).
Cape Verde
Cape Verde is the only of the four that is an independent nation, a former Portuguese colony that is part of Africa. We visited Mindelo, a city of approximately 70,000 on the island of Sao Vicente on a Sunday and most businesses were closed. We still enjoyed walking the waterfront and around town looking at various buildings and squares before heading to the beach.
We found a wonderful place to spend several hours relaxing, with live music and Portuguese beverages and Portuguese-influenced food. There were a mix of locals and cruise ship passengers at this establishment, and from the reviews I read many locals consider it to be one of the best restaurants in the city.
After our leisurely lunch we walked the beach before returning to the ship, sandblasted (it was quite windy) but happy.
Canary Islands Stop 1 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The Canary Islands are autonomous community of Spain and feel very Spanish. They are a popular tourist destination for Europeans and the British.
Our first stop was Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the island of Tenerife. Tenerife is the largest and most populous of the Canaries, and Santa Cruz is the capital of the island and co-capital of the island chain (along with Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). It is a city of a bit over 200,000 people. We found it to be a city filled with people enjoying life! While there were other tourists (there were two cruise ships in town along with other tourists), we observed locals doing similar things to what we did, which is the way we prefer to travel; spending time running errands, walking in the park, having relaxing meals, and watching their children (or in our case other people’s children) play in the park. We also visited a great free art museum.
I can honestly say that thus far, this was my favorite stop of the trip. I would like to return some day. This is the first time that we stayed on shore until (almost) the last moment, returning less than an hour before the ship sailed.
Canary Islands Stop 2 – Arrecife
Arrecife is the capital of the island of Lanzarate. It was much smaller and had a much different look and vibe to Santa Cruz. The city is much smaller, with approximately 65,000 people. With one exception that we saw, all of the buildings are seven stories or less, and mostly white, due largely to the influence of local artist César Manrique. We had less time on shore so did not have a chance to get out of the tourist zone, but it was still a very enjoyable day.
We walked the waterfront, and then found a place for more wonderful Spanish tapas and beverages.
We had a final round of beverages at the “Jolly Roger” bar in the marina, near where the cruise ship was docked, before returning to the ship, once again near sailing time.
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