Our host family woke us up this morning for a nice breakfast before we started our day. Araceli had prepared toast, jam, meats, cheeses and coffee for the three chicas. After a quick shower, we headed out towards the cultural center down the road in town. We arrived and were met by Eduardo, Nelson and Ingolf. Eduardo is a young business man and the nephew of Juan Linares. Nelson is a judge in town with a big reputation for being strict with the law. He is quite knowledgeable about all things Tenerife and will be our guide for the day. Ingolf is a native German who moved here 36 years ago and is currently a Spanish citizen. 
We hung around for a few minutes getting to know our new friends as we wait for the girls to show up…always waiting for the girls. After some small talk, the girls arrived and we hopped in three different cars to head out for the day. Catherine, Carla and I rode with Eduardo and Nelson while Bert, Chris and Tong piled in with Pedro. 
The excursion for the day is a trip towards the north of the island where we will eventually end up at Juan Jose’s house/banana plantation for lunch/dinner/fiesta. 
The tour began with a ride through the mountains where Nelson explained to us some of the history of the island. We stopped at a lookout point, took pictures and heard the story of how the volcano erupted in 1909 and left rivers of lava that ran into the sea. We continued on, slowly learning about Nelson’s role as a judge on the island and the current trial that he is hearing that involves some local corrupt politicians. The next stop was a small cove. Punta Teno, where many locals hang out. As we headed to the north, we learned that there were fewer beaches towards this part of the island so the locals find any spots near the ocean to catch their sun. This place was a little crowded since it was Sunday and a beautiful day for laying on the beach or lava rocks or anywhere near the ocean. We looked out over the rocks for a few minutes admiring the scenery including a lighthouse off in the distance before we headed back out on the road. 
Our chaffeurs led us to a small town that was the sea port for the island as well as being the richest city in all of the islands in the 16th and 17th century. The city was so rich that legend has it that the main streets near the center of town were made of marble. Sometime during the 17th century, a volcano erupted, flooded the entire city as well as part of the ocean floor with lava and the sea port was destroyed because the ships could no longer sail into the harbor. 
The citizens moved the sea port up into a different city (Santa Cruz) and now this area is a tourist trap…or at least that is what it looked like to us. We wander around the old city…all of it rebuilt after the volcano…and see that none of the buildings except for a church survived the lava rivers. After a small tour of the city, we head to our final destination for lunch.
Around 3 pm, we left town and ended up at Finca La Gorvaorana, the home of Rotarian Juan Jose (or Johte Johte for short…that is the equivalent of JJ in Spanish). This guy is a member of the La Laguna club and has invited around 30 of our newest closest friends over for lunch. We walk into this banana plantation and see a historic house that looks as if it is out of a very old Spanish movie (JJ tells us that it was his great grandfather house and he has continued the family tradition by continuing to grow bananas on the land). As we make it down to the smaller house where we will be eating lunch, we are greeted by everyone we have met this past week including all of our wonderful host families and some new faces. We kiss everyone on the cheeks and introduce ourselves to all the new people and grab some appetizers because we are all starving. Before lunch, we are summoned to the front steps where we get a group picture. Lunch begins in this small banquet type hall where we are sitting around people who have become extremely good friends over the past couple of weeks (Kayce, some of them might have accidentally been invited to the wedding…and some of them might actually be coming in December…seriously). We enjoy the typical canarian meal with some kind of soup and plenty of papas and carne. After lunch, we are invited out to the patio where everyone has a guitar, some ukuleles and some drums. Juan and some guy who is a famous singer begin with some folk music and some of the old Spanish songs. We all hum along because we don’t know the words. Somewhere along the way “Hay, Hay, Hay…canta no llures” or something like that….I know this song because Josh Ridings used to sing it when we were in high school and it has always stuck in my head. Thanks Josh. We all hang around for a long time singing songs (Bert found some kind of instrument that he could play and he joined right in) and at some point, Chris and Catherine joined in with the traditional dancing (Kathleen, we have pictures) and fun was had by all.
During the middle, we all stopped and a 97 year old Rotarian made some comments and read a poem that she had written. JJ came over once the music calmed down and decided that he wanted to take the group on a tour of the plantation. 
We followed him around through the house and into the fields where we saw the bananas hanging from the trees. He was very proud of his plants and talked about them for a long time. After the tour, everyone began to leave. We said our goodbyes to all of the La Laguna friends and made our way to our cars.
Eduardo and Nelson took us back towards town. We stopped at some place high above Los Cristianos and watched the sunset into the ocean and marveled at a wonderful two weeks that have already passed by on this trip. We were taken back to our host families where we had dinner. Catherine, Paquita and I went out for a nightcap in town while the others went to bed. We visited a small little restaurant called Magic where we solved all the worlds problems over a couple of drinks. We also practiced some language training as Paquita is working on her English while I am still working on my Spanish. We hung out for a while and decided to call it a night a little after midnight…
We hung around for a few minutes getting to know our new friends as we wait for the girls to show up…always waiting for the girls. After some small talk, the girls arrived and we hopped in three different cars to head out for the day. Catherine, Carla and I rode with Eduardo and Nelson while Bert, Chris and Tong piled in with Pedro. The excursion for the day is a trip towards the north of the island where we will eventually end up at Juan Jose’s house/banana plantation for lunch/dinner/fiesta. The tour began with a ride through the mountains where Nelson explained to us some of the history of the island. We stopped at a lookout point, took pictures and heard the story of how the volcano erupted in 1909 and left rivers of lava that ran into the sea. We continued on, slowly learning about Nelson’s role as a judge on the island and the current trial that he is hearing that involves some local corrupt politicians. The next stop was a small cove. Punta Teno, where many locals hang out. As we headed to the north, we learned that there were fewer beaches towards this part of the island so the locals find any spots near the ocean to catch their sun. This place was a little crowded since it was Sunday and a beautiful day for laying on the beach or lava rocks or anywhere near the ocean. We looked out over the rocks for a few minutes admiring the scenery including a lighthouse off in the distance before we headed back out on the road. Our chaffeurs led us to a small town that was the sea port for the island as well as being the richest city in all of the islands in the 16th and 17th century. The city was so rich that legend has it that the main streets near the center of town were made of marble. Sometime during the 17th century, a volcano erupted, flooded the entire city as well as part of the ocean floor with lava and the sea port was destroyed because the ships could no longer sail into the harbor. The citizens moved the sea port up into a different city (Santa Cruz) and now this area is a tourist trap…or at least that is what it looked like to us. We wander around the old city…all of it rebuilt after the volcano…and see that none of the buildings except for a church survived the lava rivers. After a small tour of the city, we head to our final destination for lunch.Around 3 pm, we left town and ended up at Finca La Gorvaorana, the home of Rotarian Juan Jose (or Johte Johte for short…that is the equivalent of JJ in Spanish). This guy is a member of the La Laguna club and has invited around 30 of our newest closest friends over for lunch. We walk into this banana plantation and see a historic house that looks as if it is out of a very old Spanish movie (JJ tells us that it was his great grandfather house and he has continued the family tradition by continuing to grow bananas on the land). As we make it down to the smaller house where we will be eating lunch, we are greeted by everyone we have met this past week including all of our wonderful host families and some new faces. We kiss everyone on the cheeks and introduce ourselves to all the new people and grab some appetizers because we are all starving. Before lunch, we are summoned to the front steps where we get a group picture. Lunch begins in this small banquet type hall where we are sitting around people who have become extremely good friends over the past couple of weeks (Kayce, some of them might have accidentally been invited to the wedding…and some of them might actually be coming in December…seriously). We enjoy the typical canarian meal with some kind of soup and plenty of papas and carne. After lunch, we are invited out to the patio where everyone has a guitar, some ukuleles and some drums. Juan and some guy who is a famous singer begin with some folk music and some of the old Spanish songs. We all hum along because we don’t know the words. Somewhere along the way “Hay, Hay, Hay…canta no llures” or something like that….I know this song because Josh Ridings used to sing it when we were in high school and it has always stuck in my head. Thanks Josh. We all hang around for a long time singing songs (Bert found some kind of instrument that he could play and he joined right in) and at some point, Chris and Catherine joined in with the traditional dancing (Kathleen, we have pictures) and fun was had by all.
During the middle, we all stopped and a 97 year old Rotarian made some comments and read a poem that she had written. JJ came over once the music calmed down and decided that he wanted to take the group on a tour of the plantation. We followed him around through the house and into the fields where we saw the bananas hanging from the trees. He was very proud of his plants and talked about them for a long time. After the tour, everyone began to leave. We said our goodbyes to all of the La Laguna friends and made our way to our cars.Eduardo and Nelson took us back towards town. We stopped at some place high above Los Cristianos and watched the sunset into the ocean and marveled at a wonderful two weeks that have already passed by on this trip. We were taken back to our host families where we had dinner. Catherine, Paquita and I went out for a nightcap in town while the others went to bed. We visited a small little restaurant called Magic where we solved all the worlds problems over a couple of drinks. We also practiced some language training as Paquita is working on her English while I am still working on my Spanish. We hung out for a while and decided to call it a night a little after midnight…
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