My dear Jocelyne!
It is not only a pleasure to write to you today because I feel ill.
I have been in Tenerife, Canary Islands, for one week, studying the social systems and especially rehabilitation for patients in wheel chairs. It was interesting. The weather in Tenerife varies by only a few degrees all year round and thus can be called stable, warm, and windy, mostly sunny. So the weather makes it easy to live here.
The island itself is not so fertile though, as there are mostly rocks, mountains, and volcanos. The inhabitants manage to make the weather work in their favour, growing plants – although conditions are not easy. So we can say that the island is very fertile wherever plants grow and water is available. In the northern part of the island, there are moist winds for most of the year, bringing humidity that lets plants grow naturally. So there are forests and woods. The stony part is in the south. In the centre, there is the biggest mountain in Spain – Monte Teide, more than 3.000 metres high.
The people in Tenerife are nice and warm-hearted. They know what they want and do their jobs. The water of the ocean is not warm, only about 22 °C – after all, it is the Atlantic. It is nice to have a boat trip around the island because the cliffs and rocks are so attractive to look at, and one might see many whales and dolphins.
Further inland, it is a special experience to behold the relicts of the last volcanic eruption in 1908. The lava is cold by now, of course, but still rough – the lava stones can be as sharp as knives. One has to be very careful.
There are plants you can find only in Tenerife. There are very many plants in Tenerife. And such beautiful ones!
(Date of trip unknown)