A yacht adventure through Spain’s celebrated archipelago brings natural diversions and cultural revelry…
By Doug Wallace
Just a few more minutes, please. I’m on the long boardwalk of Las Canteras Beach in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and I don’t want to leave. There are simply too many men with no shirts on. But the cruise ship terminal calls. So, roller bag in tow, I head for the Windstar Star Pride, my home for a week of exploration of the Canary Islands off the eastern coast of Africa. I’m hitting four of the seven main islands, plus the Portuguese island of Madeira, each promising a cultural stew of Spanish and African heritages, volcanic oddities, cloud forests, renowned wineries and perfect beaches. I can check my first beach off the list.
The Star Pride hotel manager, Andreas Pitsch, greets me at the gangway, as he does the almost 300 other passengers, instantly becoming everybody’s best friend. The ship is one of three Windstar motor yachts recently released back to the ocean after a mechanical refurbishment that also increased guest capacity from 212 to 312. They actually cut the ship in half and inserted new suites in the middle, also adding new, more fuel-efficient engines and more eco-friendly tech. Though a bit longer, the ship is still able to tuck into tiny harbours that larger cruise ships can’t reach.
And we have a bonus VIP guest: The president of Windstar, Christopher Prelog, is actually on board this week, something he does each year to stay in touch with operations and crew. “I spent quite a few summer vacations in the Canaries – Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura – but I had forgotten how beautiful it was,” says Prelog, who is originally from Austria. “Coming here has reminded me of my childhood. There’s so much central European influence in these islands, which creates this unique atmosphere. Every island has its own identity. Travel is such a big educator.”
A lesson in lava punctuates the first stop, on the island of Lanzarote, which still bears the marks of eruptions of the Timanfaya volcano in the 1730s. We hike the lava fields of Los Volcanos Natural Park, hearing about how all the different-looking rocks and lava came to be, shoved along with the flow or spat out or wrinkled into terraces. The geology is so interesting, the three hours fly by, thanks to our astute guide, who is, unsurprisingly, a surfer. Lanzarote’s beaches are top surfing attractions and Olympic-qualifying windsurfing hotspots. And despite having a dry desert climate – rainfall here is a rare event – the island is famous for its wine, notably mineral-forward whites from the Malvasia grape. Vines grow out of little holes dug into the volcanic soil, ringed with stone supports to protect them from the wind.
More rock formations await on the island of La Gomera, also volcanic, yet much more verdant, the upper reaches of the island’s mountains covered with dense forests of laurel, beech and fir trees. A winding cliffside highway bus ride into Garajonay National Park shocks us all into silence, and it is hard to look down, but I do. Frequent pit stops at mind-blowing viewpoints overlooking the deep, lush canyons help to quell the queasiness, and my pictures all look like I’ve been on a Game of Thrones cinematic tour.
Back on the Star Pride, we compare notes on the past couple of days, with some braving camel rides or touring through volcanic tunnels, and others wine-tasting or whale-watching. Everybody seems to have found an excursion that plays to their passions. People get to know each other quickly – this is a casual bunch. Various cocktail parties and flag-hoisting sailouts bring everyone together, as does a big barbecue one evening on the pool decks, complete with a whole barbecued pig. The entire crew surprises us with a fully choreographed line dance.
I see Prelog each evening chatting with the guests, he and his gregarious wife both quite stylish and quick with a laugh. He actually started out as a white-gloved waiter with Seabourn Cruise Line, eventually becoming a vice president there, before joining Windstar in 2016. “Windstar is different in terms of its personality and how it interacts with the guests,” he says. “Some cruises are very formal, regimented – we are none of that. And you get a personal experience with the crew because of our size. There are all these elements of connection – like the line dancing. It’s a highly social environment.”
Ports of call offer plenty of cultural engagement
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the biggest city on the biggest Canary island, and one of the capitals, along with Las Palmas. Once we dock, passengers exit and scatter. Some I don’t see for a couple of days, as we are overnighting here, so there’s no rush to be back on the ship at a certain time. Some tour the city or add in a tour of the region, while the adventurers go directly to Mount Teide, Spain’s highest peak, and float up the cable car to the top, hitting almost 12,000 feet – dizzying by all accounts. Dinner and stargazing on the mountain is also an option, with fingers crossed that the weather co-operates.
I spend a morning at fifth-generation family winery Bodegas Monje outside Santa Cruz, where I enjoy a lunch of wrinkled potatoes with mojo sauce, which doesn’t sound very exciting, but it is. Swirling some of the estate’s crisp white wine, we watch the chef create two herb- and pepper-based sauces and then reproduce them ourselves over more wine. Lunch is always more fun when you’re charged with helping to make it yourself. We are also treated to the winery’s newest star, a red wine that is aged under the sea for five months. The ocean’s cool environment apparently makes for an ideal cellar, the increased pressure speeding up the chemical reactions of the maturing process.
Five hundred kilometres later (I discover that I am bad with nautical miles), we make shore at Funchal, the chic capital of Madeira, our final stop before Portugal. The island looks and feels very much like they took the best neighbourhoods of Lisbon and transplanted them here, within all the palm trees and a ton of rock. We wander the limestone- and basalt-tiled streets, popping into 15th-century landmarks and buying trinkets in the boutiques. I manage to experience the grilled limpets, honey cakes and passion fruit pudding, culinary specialties all.
I also manage to stand face-to-chest with the famous bronze statue of hometown hero Cristiano Ronaldo outside the museum dedicated to him. And I leave part of it just a little bit shinier than it was.
DOUG WALLACE is an international travel and lifestyle writer, photographer and custom-content authority, principal of Wallace Media and editor-publisher of TravelRight.Today. He can be found beside buffet tables, on massage tables and table-hopping around the world.
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