Another good day exploring scenic Tenerife, Canary Islands

Bob and Denise came over in their rental car and picked us up around 9:00am and we set off on a scenic tour heading south through the center of the island of Tenerife.

The island itself is only about 80 x 50 kms (50 x 30 miles), but it's so diverse. And, the highest point in Spain is located on Tenerife... the Teide Volcano, at 3,715 meters (12,188')

Really enjoying Tenerife

We had no idea what to expect, and of course Tenerife is only one of the eight main islands that make up the Canary Islands. But so far, we would definitely come back! 

You hear about British people coming here for package holidays, so we were afraid of it being a little too much like the south coast of Spain and Portugal with "full British breakfast" being available everywhere, but this is not at all the case based on what we've seen so far.

Fun first day in Canary Islands

I've always wanted to come to Canary Islands. I remember that my grandmother took a vacation here sometime back in the 1970's or 1980's and I remember that it seemed so exotic to me back then. Unfortunately, we're only here for three nights, and only the island of Tenerife, but so far we like it!

Our super cheap Ryanair flight went fine. It departed exactly on time, and arrived 20 minutes early.

Scenic drive to Agadir Airport

Google maps was correct, it did take four hours to do the 216 km (134 mile) drive to Agadir Airport yesterday. But we broke it up and did two hours in the morning, then stopped for lunch for an hour, then another two hours in the afternoon.

And, it was a fairly scenic drive!

Day trip into Essaouira

We got out onto the main road here in the village of Ounagha to wait for the local bus to take us into Essaouira. There were quite a few locals waiting as well, so we figured it must be coming soon. And sure enough, after ten minutes or so, it showed up.

It was pretty busy though. Ruth managed to get a seat, but I stood the whole way. The guy came by to collect fares and give us a ticket. Cost was 7 dirhams ($0.92 CAD, $0.68 USD) for the twenty minute bus ride.

Our upcoming weekend away

We didn't do anything yesterday! Not often that we have such a lazy day, but I guess it's okay to do that every now and again.

We had planned on going into Essaouira, but decided to put it off until today. There aren't a lot of campgrounds between here and Agadir that get half decent reviews, so we'll go straight from here to Agadir Airport on Thursday.

If you don't show up early you may not get a site.

On Sunday, we drove a few more miles south, to the village of Ounagha where we found the pleasant Olive Tree Campground.

We are actually trying to visit nearby Essaouira, but Essaouira is not motorhome friendly. In fact, there are no campgrounds at all within walking distance to Essaouira.

Reflecting on our Mauritania trip

Now that our Mauritania trip has come and gone, I wanted to give you some more information about it and our thoughts about doing these types of trips.

We don't often do "group" tours, preferring to organize and research and plan things on our own. But there are some countries that we want to visit that are better done with a group, being led by someone who has done it many times before.

Nice day exploring Safi, Morocco

Saturday morning we did the walk into the town of Safi. 

Safi isn't much on the tourist radar, although there are a couple of things worth seeing. The old walled medina dates back to the 11th century, and there is a Portuguese cathedral which was built when the Portuguese occupied the town between 1488 to 1541. And, it's the Moroccan capital for the ceramics and pottery industry, as well as having the largest sardine fishing port.

Headed further south

Now that we are on a schedule to be at Agadir airport by next Thursday, we figured we had better move on. 

We didn't get going until 11:00am, but it was only an hour and a half drive to our next destination.

January Expenses

January 2023 was our most expensive month ever!

We spent a total of $8,990 CAD ($6,715 USD) for the month. Far more than we have ever spent before. In fact, the previously most expensive month ever was February 2021 when we did Kilimanjaro. 

Change of plans!

Actually, it's not really a change of a plans, but that we were able to solidify plans that we didn't think were going to happen.

Last September when we got together with friends Bob and Denise they had mentioned they were planning a trip to the Canary Islands in February. We thought we might be in the area, and we had even played around with the idea of taking Max on the ferry to the Canary Islands.

A nice view of the sea at Oualidia, Morocco

We actually slept quite well in the parking lot at Casablanca airport. I think we were pretty tired though, so that helped.

First on the agenda was to get some food. We had left the fridge totally empty and turned off, so we needed to do a decent grocery shop. 

Back in Morocco!

Tuesday evening, we flew back to Morocco. We are now back in Max, and thankfully he was sitting in the Casablanca airport parking, just as we had left him ten days ago.

But I need to catch you up on some stories from the last couple of days.

Dirty. Uncomfortable. Amazing!

When we left you yesterday, we had just boarded the iron ore train in Mauritania, Africa headed west from Choum to the Atlantic coast at Nouadhibou.

The train travels at between 35 to 40 km/h (22 to 25 mph). With a distance of 400 kms (248 miles), and several short stops along the way, it should take around 12 hours to get to our destination. But certainly none of that is written in stone.