Madrid - Tenerife 23 Nov, 06 - 21.35

The flight from Madrid to Tenerife is around 2 and half hours,
excluding the 1 hour delay.
With a project such as this, there is so much to do, its not often you get the time to consider the magnitude of the challenge. Flying over the Atlantic, there is nothing but blue sea below for miles around. Looking down knowing that I will be trying to cross that soon in a 23 ft boat,
seems like watching a car crash in slow motion
The trade mark feature of Tenerife, Mt El Tiede, the worlds
tallest volcano at over 3000 meters high popped to the left of
the plane, just before we touched down at Tenerife North
Airport, Puerto De La Cruz.
Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, the others being
Lanzarote, Fuerte Ventura, Gran Canaria (the capital), Las
Palmas, La Gomera and El Hierro.
While its geographically closer to Africa (just about 40 miles
across the water from Lanzarote to Senegal), it is a part of
Spain. The reason being, I assume, it would be of considerable strategic interest if Spain were ever to go to war with the Western Sahara.
These days however, it has become a gateway to the EU for refugees from Africa, who make the risky journey across the strait in small over
crowded fishing boats looking for a better future.
On arrival, the impression is that Tenerife just
discovered capitalism last week. What remains of a beautiful islands is largely a construction site with a volcano in the middle, reduced to little more than a cake decoration.
Going by the tourist brocures, the place to be seen at right now is the large Aquapark resort and 500+ room hotel.
I have not yet figured out why anyone would build an Aquapark on an island. An indoor ski resort, like in Dubai, would have been the more logical thing to do.
We you drive down from the North of Tenerife Gran Canaria is visible
across the water which disappears as La Gomera appears towards the South. Another 45 mins on the 6.15 ferry to the final destination,
completes exactly 12 hrs of travel time from Madrid to La Gomera.
Pavel Rezvoy has been on the island since yesterday. The rest of the evening was spent discussing the project plan and the to-do list for the next few days.
TODAYS PHOTOS -
1. View of the Atlantic from above

2. El Tiede as seen by air approaching Tenerife

3. Tenerife as seen from the air