The Canary Islands

Moss and lichens grow on mostly everything.

Flowers were in bloom all over the place.  The canaries are called the Islands of Enternal Spring.  Something is always in bloom.

This was up at about 3000 feet in the Anaga Mountains.

Goats were staple to the traditional Canarian way of life.  I found the stewed Carne de Cabra the finest meat on the island!

This was in a flower garden in Garachico in the Teno Mountains in the west of Tenerife.

This is in the same garden.

Up in the mountains on a trail through the Teno Mountains, someone had fun, or maybe that was just by coincidence.

This was up in the dry Las Canadas near Mt. Teide.  It was dry by the rest of the islands standards, and high.  Here we are at 7000 feet where they only get about 12 inches of rain a year.

Near the edge of the crater rim in Las Canadas, the rainfall picks up again, just enough for the pines that are on the other side of the caldera wall to grow.

And crazy pines they are.  The Canary Pine is shaped by fire.  Many fires sweep through the understory.  It's my guess that the fire twists and contorts the budding of limbs as the fire burns up the tree.  However, the trees always live.

Two of two cows that we saw on the islands.  From where do they get their milk?

This bush we saw all over and just as the fern buds are symbol of new zealand, this is the symbol of the canaries.

The same bush again....

Of course, they have palm trees.  Lots, date palms, beach palms, and on and on... But mostly just below 3000 feet.

This was up in the Baranco de Tilo.  It was about as close to a rainforest as you can be.  Although this was an abnormally dry year and there was no water running the bottom of the cayon.

One exotic bush after another...

Almond trees blossomed in the 5000 foot vilage of Vilaflor on Tenerife....

This was familiar cactus.  A real prickly pear...  I think they use the berries to make a chutney jam.

In the Anaga Mountain on Tenerife, the wine industry is just starting to take off.  They have an interesting means of vinticulture, they just let the berries grow on the ground.  Here is a terrace of vines near Taganana on our walk to Arfur.

This small beach cabin was only accessible by a two hour walk down a barranco from the city of Arfur in the Anaga Mountains.  Reeds grew in all the barrancos where there was water...

In the same barranco, flowers blossomed.

They were like cinquefoil or buttercups.

Last Pictures...  Oddities and Surprises...