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July 9, Tenerife, Canary Islands
We had a 9:05AM flight from Madrid (mainland) to Tenerife (island). On the way to the airport from the hotel, Victor wanted to play some of his new songs for me. The three new songs were great - this CD is going to be hot. I can't wait until it comes out. You guys are going to love it. The flight was very smooth - at least until we were about to land. In the beginning I was a little bit concerned that we were flying a little bit close to Morrocco. I know they have a lot of Al Qaeda operatives hang out in Morrocco. But I didn't spend much time worrying about that. I think the flight was almost 3 hours and we gained an hour time-wise. Tenerife has 2 airports - one on the northern end of the island and one on the southern end. We originally supposed to land in the north airport and something was going on there and they requested that we go to the south airport instead. We probably flew an additional 15 minutes to get to the south airport. The winds were very stong and when we started to land, the plane was tossed around pretty badly. Even though I like flying I'm not a big fan of turbulence. And even mild turbulence scares me a bit. The plane was shaking so bad that at one point, Derico and I grabbed hands. We weren't even on the same side of the aisle. I guess we might have looked a little 'iffy' to some of the other passengers. Believe me, I was very glad to be back on the ground. We had to wait almost an hour for our transportation to arrive from the northern end of the island. So I decided to walk around outside the airport and check out the scenery. From what I could see just at the airport, I could tell that Tenerife was going to be one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. The water was ice blue and there is a big mountain in the middle of the island that you could see from any point on the island. I had never been on an island before. I guess I was expecting something the size of Gilligans Island...or Alcatraz Island. This island was huge, I guess,... For some reason I was expecting to always be able to see the other side from any point. I guess this place was the size of a small state. Before our ride arrived, we decided that we should exchange some money. When our ride got here we loaded up the gear and began the long ride halfway around the island to Puerto de la Cruz. That was the city we were going to be performing in. The whole way I couldn't take my eyes off either the terrain or the water. The water seemed very choppy and it was kind of windy. That explains our rough landing. I was somewhat surprised by the terrain. I was expecting something that looked like the Amazon rain forest, but it looked more like Arizona. Everything was brownish, reddish rock. There were no trees. There were just small bushes that looked like tumbleweeds. The whole outer perimiter of the island is very rough terrain. Then there is a middle ring of forest, then the center is rough terrain and the big mountain. When we arrived at Puerta de la Cruz I could tell that it was a tourist town. We were staying at the Semiramis hotel. When we got dropped off in the lobby, I assumed we were on the ground floor and that the hotel wasn't very tall. But we were kind of on a very steep cliff, so we were actuallly at the top floor of a sixteen floor hotel. When I walked int he front I could see that there was a deck on the other end of the hotel and I walked straight to the deck. I was immediately blown away by the view. The hotel was right on the edge of the ocean. It must have been a good 300 to 400 feet straight down to the water. It was the best view I had ever seen from a hotel. If you're ever in Tenerife, be sure to stop by the Semiramis and walk out on that deck. It's breathtaking. What's even cooler than that, was that every room in the hotel had the same view. I'm very much scared of heights so I was somewhat uncomfortable out on the deck. I got Joseph Wooten to take a couple of pictures of me out on the deck. He could tell how uncomfortable I was and he had to make a couple of jokes about it. When I got to my hotel room I opened the balcony door to enjoy the view some more. I could hear the ocean crashing into the cliffs even from the 14th floor. I knew that I would end up sleeping with the balcony door open. From my balcony I could see that there was a pool built into the volcanic rocks that made up the cliff. I later found out that it was a salt water pool fed by the ocean. Kurt and I decided we would walk down and check the pool out. It was amazing. I can't even describe it - I'll eventually post one of the pictures. We had a 4:45 lobby call for a 5:30 sound check. The ride from the hotel to the venue was through a very touristy part of town. We got everything set up pretty fast, but the keyboards hadn't arrived yet so we had to wait on those. Once we got everything set up, sound check went really fast and we turned the stage over to our opening band, Funkfarria. The promoters, Alfonso and Ana, wanted to take us to this fancy restaurant for dinner before the show. The restaurant was incredible and had a great view of the ocean also. There was also a very funny painting in the restaurant that me & Joseph kept making fun of. We even took pictures of it. The painting was of a guy that kind of looked like Thomas Jefferson. He was lying on a bed, but he had one leg hanging off the bed. It was funny, because it looked like a guy from Victorian times trying to be sexy. WE named him Jacques Danger. When we got back to the venue, Funkfarria were finishing up their set. Victor opened the show playing Flamenco again. Of course the crowd went crazy. We had a longer set so we could do more of our show. I don't think Tenerife was used to seeing anything quite like the Victor Wooten band. Our performance was actually part of festival that went on for a couple of weeks. Some of the other acts that performed on other days were the Yellowjackets, Blues Brothers, Kenny Garrett, Roy Hargrove, Robin Ford, Larry Carlton, Michael Brecker and others. This was one of our better shows - everybody 'shined'. After the show a lot of the locals asked if we wanted to hang out at different parties and clubs. But I think everybody was ready to get back to their hotel room for the beautiful view and the sound of the ocean crashing into the cliffs. Like I said earlier, this hotel was incredible. It was very fancy, shmancy. Before we left for sound check, they brought each of us a fruit basket and a bottle of champagne. When I got back to my hotel room I poured a glass of champagne and cut up some fruit, I sat out on the balcony and stared out into the night drinking champagne, eating fruit, listening to the ocean and thinking about my wife. This place has to be one of the best kept secrets in the world. I hear that there are some rock stars with houses on the island that they don't publicize. I hear that Bono from U2 has a house on Tenerife. I can totally see why. I talked to my wife on the phone. I promised that we would come here. I would love for her to see this view. But I seriously doubt that I could afford this hotel. Maybe the next time the band comes, she can come with us.
peace & blessings Anthony
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