Canary Islands

The Africa Mercy in Santa Cruz as seen from the top of a tall hill

We arrived in Santa Cruz this afternoon. Decked out in shorts, sandles, and sunscreen, it was one small step for most of the crew…one giant leap for Scott off the gangway on to solid ground. By the way, they speak Spanish here! It was good to greet people with “Hola” and “Bueno” again.

This island was formed by a volcano so it is very tall and steep, and rocky. Just out the window at the top of the steps I climb in the morning is a large, relatively vertical hill. I decided to climb it. An hour later, I was through the town and up on the top of the hill. I appreciated observing the people and the culture in this place. In many parts, I felt like I was in Mexico again from the artecture, the spoken language, and the way that the houses were built so close to each other, and into the hillside. Today was a good day.

It was announced that we will be in Santa Cruz until Thursday morning. This gives us a chance to get the vessel ready for the final stretch of the journey, and an opportunity to take a day of rest on land one last time. This means that we should float into Liberia in a mere eight days! It will be a radical shift. Tomorrow is our last day of unrestricted water usage before we begin our rationing of water to arrive in Monrovia with as much as possible. Because we will need it. Besides, I imagine that any water that we do not need will end up coming out of a public water spicket in some neighbourhood with a line of people waiting with plastic buckets. Filtered water is still needed in Monrovia. Before this begins, I will take one last marathon shower tomorrow, and thoroughly enjoy it.

Here are my travels thus far. Blyth, England. Rotterdam, Netherlands. Santa Cruz, Canary Islands, Spain. Next stop: Liberia.

Here is where we current are parked for the moment.

"X" marks the spot.