A Different Kind of Beautiful

We spend 10 months of each year in the main port city of a developing African nation.  These are places that many would consider dirty, ugly, unsafe, and overwhelming.  From a certain point of view they are right.  However, there is beauty there that we have not found in developed nations.  This beauty is not something that can be adequately described to someone who has not experienced it; it is visceral. 

However, this is not a post about Africa.  Though the Canary Islands are closer to Morocco by far than the European mainland, they belong to Spain and are decidedly Spanish in both culture and development.  We will spend, in total, about six weeks here while the Africa Mercy undergoes quite a lot of technical work (replacing hospital flooring, installation of a new CT scanner, new walk-in refrigerators in the galley, etc.). 

The Canary Islands are a shocking visual and cultural change from Africa, in both positive and negative ways.  As we try to do in each country we visit, we take the good and leave the rest.  The Canaries are beautiful with some wonderful architecture, cheap coffee (yeah!), cheap bread and cheese, and lots of parks (which are free - an even bigger yeah!!).

Here are some photos of our exploits so far: