Spring Break in the Canary Islands!

I just got back from one of the most AMAZING vacations of my life! I went to the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa for 5 days.

We left Caceres at 1:45am Monday morning. It was me and two other girls, and Steph went on a later flight. We took the 4 hour bus to Madrid, then the 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Gran Canaria. It's the most popular island of the Canaries, especially for vacations.

Our hotel was absolutely awesome. It was huge. We actually had an apartment, so there was a living room with couches and a tv, a kitchenette with a fridge and toaster and sink, two bedrooms with two beds in each, a big bathroom, and a balcony that wrapped around two sides (our apartment was on the corner of the hotel on the third floor). The living room had huge windows that overlooked the ocean, it was a great view.

The hotel also had a big pool, a garden, a pool side bar, an outdoor theatre with shows every night, and a huge dining room where we ate meals. We had breakfast and dinner buffets included in our price.

Our week was really chill. Every morning we would wake up, eat an awesome breakfast, then head to the beach. It was about a 40 second walk to the beach, you could see it from the parking lot of the hotel. There was also a store right next door to the hotel where we bought sunscreen, pop, and fruit to take with us to the beach.

Tuesday was perfect, we spent the whole day at the beach laying out on our towels and swimming in the ocean. Wednesday was really windy though. We started out on the beach, but we were all caked with sand, so we ended up going to the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Thursday I was already very very sunburnt, so I used my common sense and stayed out of the sun and went shopping instead. All along the beach was a market place with souvenir shops, cafes, ice cream shops, bars. The stores had a lot of cute jewelry, sundresses, shot glasses. It was fun to walk around and shop all day.

Every night we would shower and try to get all the sand off. I'm pretty sure we brought half the beach with us into our bathroom, our bathtub was so filthy. We had dinner at the hotel, which was the best food ever! It was cool, because there were so many tourists there from all over the world, so they had food from every country. There was a salad bar, a hot food bar, soup, different kinds of bread and cheese, plus a dessert table. It was sooo good!

Some nights we walked around the beach area and went shopping. But it got kind of chilly at night, plus we were all tired and sunburnt from the beach, so we stayed in our apartment too. I had brought Phase 10 (the best game in the world) so we played that and other card games and ate snacks we bought at the store. The last night we bought M&M's and I taught the girls how to play poker using the different colored M&M's as poker chips.

Friday was our last full day. It was kind of cloudy in the morning, so we stayed by the pool. For lunch we actually went out to eat. We ate at Hooters, which was awesome to have real American food. We spent the afternoon at the beach. Steph and I were the last of the group to go back to the hotel, we didn't leave until after 6:00pm. I didn't want to go! I love playing in the ocean, I was sooo sad... We had dinner at the hotel and hung out by the pool that night, then packed and went to bed early.

Saturday morning we had to wake up at 3:45am because the airport transport picked us up at 4:30. We went to the airport and our flight left at 7ish. It was so sad to leave, I could have stayed there another month!! Our bus from Madrid didn't leave until 5:30pm, so we got back to Caceres after 10. It was a long day of taveling and it was good to finally be home.

Today is Easter, so Steph and I went to mass this morning, then watched the prosession. Ok I should explain these prosessions. They are very very popular in every city in Spain during Holy Week. We got to see a few before we left for the Canary Islands. It's basically a parade. All the people line up in the streets to watch them. It's usually led by priests and alter children, and they are all dressed up in robes that look like the Ku Klux Klan. Seriously. The robes are black or white, and have the long cone-shaped headdress with only eye holes. I was kind of scared the first time I saw it.

After the KKK-looking people, there is the main attraction of the prosessions: statues on top of platforms that people carry. Usually the statue is of Jesus or Mary. Some of them are scenes, like Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, or Jesus on the cross. They are different for each Holy day. It takes a lot of men to carry them, and they walk really slowly carrying it on their shoulders because it's so heavy. Sometimes they set the platform down and rest, sometimes there are more men who substitute in for those who are tired.

After the platforms, there are more children carrying candles, or more priests dressed regularly, or nuns or sometimes important-looking people in suits and ties. I don't really know for sure who they are. Behind them is a band with drums and trumpets. The men carrying the platforms walk and sway to the beat of the drums, so it looks like the statues of Jesus are moving. The trumpets sometimes play a song, but sometimes they just make a wailing noise that is really sad and kind of creepy.

So many people come to watch them. The streets are packed. During some of the prosessions, everyone is completely silent as they pass. My host moms told me that a lot of people are moved to tears during the prosessions. I wish I could have been in Caceres during more of the Holy Week to see the prosessions of Good Friday and Holy Thursday.

This morning the prosession was happy. One statue was of Jesus risen, he was standing on a cloud. The other was of Mary. The prosession came from two different directions in the old part of the city, and Jesus and Mary met in the middle of the plaza. When they finally met, the people carrying the platforms lifted them off their shoulders into the air and everyone clapped and cheered. It was cool.

We went to one of our host mom's family for a huge and delicious meal. It was fun. Tonight we're having some sort of really popular Easter dessert for dinner. We have school off tomorrow, which is good because I still haven't recovered from our vacations. :)