Erin in Tenerife

  I went on a walk this morning to the top of the hill that blocks our view of the airport. In the picture above, our house is in the second row of red houses on the left, third house in from the end. Got it? I was proud when I found the house, but weirded out that I could see my bathroom window. It's a whopping mile long walk, roundtrip, due to the winding route and you have to watch your step because people take their dogs off leash to do their business. There isn't much vegetation, but it's best to stick to a path to avoid the many varieties of cacti. I slipped on some loose rock and caught myself hard on my hand to discover the volcanic rock is pretty sharp to land on. I dusted off red dust from my shorts as I found my feet again. The view is beautiful with the rising sun. I had been trying to take a picture of this "shrine" when I slipped. Someone placed rocks so they could prop this stucco image of Mary overseeing the city of San Isidro. Finding myself on my

The days have been heating up on the island. The strong winds that brought over the “calima” from the Sahara have come to a standstill, my curtains don’t even move except when I turn on the ceiling fan. On the one hand it is very uncomfortable to have over 90 degrees and no breeze. On the other hand, no wind makes it easier for the firefighters to control the huge forest fire on the other side of the volcano. You can read about that fire here . Our first outing was to a beach that our neighbor Nuria recommended called “Las Teresitas”. We found out later it’s one of the “famous” beaches on the island. It is a huge beach with lots of free parking and the sand is yellow. It is Saharan sand that they shipped over from Africa. Native Tenerife sand is black and extremely hot! So, the sand is for safety as well as aesthetics. They had to build a wave breaker a way out in the ocean to keep the sand from washing away. I dipped my feet in the crystal-clear water. The water is much colder than Ec