Wine and Orchids

Backblip

A slower paced day today. We dropped down towards the north coast, which is the wetter part of the island because of the trade winds (conversely the south coast, which is where the mass tourism is, enjoys desert like conditions). Proving the point our journey was a wet one until we arrived at our first destination, a winery surrounded by vineyards. Our second wine tasting of this trip, and this was a much bigger operation than the La Palma winery. There are 80 grape varieties on the island, of which 20 are unique to it. The wines we tasted were all excellent.

We then moved on to Puerto de la Cruz and the historic orchid garden of Sitio Litre - Tenerife’s oldest garden and British owned for over 280 years. Some wonderful flora, and monarch butterflies flitting around (extra). This North American species is not what I expected, but apparently some get blown across the Atlantic on their migration south. After leaving the garden we had free time for lunch in the port area of the town.

Before our evening meal we had our third astronomical discussion. We have an astronomy expert with us, and he is a great communicator (as well as being a rock guitarist, what is it about rock guitar and astronomy ?). I am finding the history of astronomy and its evolution into astro-physics fascinating.