Virginia and I had breakfast up in the Lido Buffet area this morning. Perhaps because it was early, perhaps because there are fewer passengers on board, it was uncrowded and we didn't have to contend with other passengers for somewhere to sit or be jostled as we filled up our plates. In fact the waiters served us, and I ended up with much more bacon than I needed with my ham and cheese omelette. It was very nice well done crispy thin bacon, and I did eat it all.

Two more gardens on the excursion today, but very different to yesterday. We had an American guide Patricia from Connecticut who was very fluent in Spanish and English. She also overdosed us on botanical information, impressive and enthusiastic. No stickers either today, and like yesterday no one from the ship's company joining us to add assurance the ship would wait for us.

We first saw the Orchid Garden Sitio Litre which had a gauntlet of orchids, an iguana named Nelson with a missing leg resting by a fishpond, a dragon tree, a croquet garden, and a free glass of wine or pineapple juice. The place had associations with Agatha Christie and Alexander von Humboldt (we visited a lookout with a statue of the latter on the way). The roads on Tenerife were much easier for our driver Angelo, but he had to contend with loads of Sunday cyclists.

Secondly we saw the Acclimatization Gardens which had some splendid baobab trees, spreading their tentacles over the ground. As well as bromeliads and delicious monsters (that is a horticultural joke) and giant ferns and strelitzias. Our guide knew the staff there personally.

We were then dumped in Puerto de la Cruz for an hour. Had a small bite to eat in a local Macdonalds, got Virginia a new straw hat in a nearby shop and also water and corn chips in a Super Dino supermarket. A bit uncomfortable as there was a young woman (that a street vendor seemed to know) behaving weirdly. She may have been on drugs, but I think she was touched in some fashion.

Didn't see our German table companions for dinner. We took in the show this evening which included my favourite James Bond theme song, the one from "Live and Let Die". Managed to beat Vam's ghost finally in Fantasian.