1. Hills are your friends -- so my son-in-law says and every cycle trip I had to remind myself of that 'truism'. Make no mistake, I do not like hills. The Portugal tour a year ago helped me to tolerate hills -- mountains, but not even that was like Tenerife. There were no flat stretches of road more than about 200m. The hardest one for me was the road by the banana plantation. On the first day, Monday, it nearly killed me and I had to rest at the top to stop my legs from shaking and feeling like I was going to collapse. Yesterday, I did it twice, along with other ascents and the second time felt better than the first. I had jokingly said after Monday that if I did that ride every day I would be in shape fairly soon. Well, I certainly got a good start on that. I will miss that the bicycle won't be part of every day when I get home. OK, hills are the kind of friends that (slowly) grow on you.2. Dried fruit is a true treat. For each lunch and supper, there was a lovely selection of prunes, dates, figs, raisins and apricots. Most of the dates and figs I have encountered were smooshed together or so hard that you could barely get your knife to chop them. Those were only distant relatives of the beautiful looking and very tasty items offered beside the cheeses. What a lovely combination. And sometimes, the fruit was rehydrated in a syrup or sauce to accompany a meat dish or support some fruit compote. I shall be adding this to my menus.
3. Bananas are big business. I have never seen plantations of this fruit under burlap. Some of the fruit is grown in the blue plastic bags and some is just out in the open. Plantations are in irrigated terraces surrounded by concrete walls to protect the trees from wind and banana thieves!
4. Volcanos make amazing islands. All of the Canaries are volcanic and the last eruption on Tenerife was about a hundred years ago. Congratulations to the builders on this island for using the natural materials. Our resort had amazing walls built of the black igneous rock. The paths were done with patterned concrete to emulate the walls.
5. Palm trees are fabulous. About 4 years ago, Kieran became fascinated by palm trees and would watch them excitedly. Now TovaElise is discovering the fascinating interplay of light and movement of palms swaying in ocean breezes. There were actually date palms at the resort, but no one seemed anxious to pick and enjoy them.6. Time with family tops everything, and going to an all-inclusive resort makes sure that everyone can be pampered. Thanks RIU BuenaVista for putting us into a great villa. TovaElise is almost 6 months old and a happy, healthy girl growing astonishingly. She is strong standing on her legs easily. Most of the time she sits independently. Her grip is very strong and you know it when she grabs! She laughs easily and does not make strange, though when she gets tired, only Mom will do. A wonderful time!
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