The Canary Islands

Yes, we did go to the beaches.  They have to import sand from the Sahara to make nice tourist beaches, otherwise the beaches are black sand and very infrequent.

In the very touristy areas like Las Playas de Las Americas on Tenerife, you can eat on the beach, drink gallons of Sangria, and eat Paella until you look like all the other hoards of Germans walking by.

However, like I said above, the natural beaches are black sand.  Most of these beaches for us tended not to have many people on them. For instance, the capital city of Tenerife, Santa Cruz, imported 4 million sacks of sand to the beach at San Andres.  But here, you see the natural tone.

Peaceful, quiet, and secluded were many of the natural beaches nestled in between 100 and 1000 foot cliffs, shoals, and headlands.

Plenty of swimming, especially in the ocean.  Here, there were natural tide pools that had been helped by the barrage in the back.  The water was warm, but not too warm!

Back to the imported white sand beaches.  This one was at Playa de Las Americas.  This is the beach sand cleaner.  This is one of those beaches in the summer that is like pictures you've seen of Rio de Jinero with 10's of thousands of people.  This machine sifts through the sand to pull up all the dirty diapers people bury, among other things.

But this time of year, there's no one else competing for beach and ocean space.

Hey Tristan, the break is quite good.  Although, I think there are one too many reefs for me just too close to the surface.

Most of the coastline, however, is beach-less.  The towns are located up on the first piedmont between the mountains and the sea.  It makes for dramatic coastline!

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