This trip was a long time in the making. By June 2021, the entire roster of Team Hubbard was fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and we were ready to start travelling again. Lydie and Cassie did some fun trips during the summer of 2021 to Puerto Rico (Lydie), the Dominican Republic (Cassie), and Costa Rica (both Lydie and Cassie), but Julie and I had hadn’t left mainland USA since our 2019 trip to Canada. I hadn’t been on a plane since the fall of 2017. #firstworldproblems

Believing that better days were ahead, in the summer of 2021, we reached out to our Spanish friends, Teresa and Diego, to start planning a trip. Heady with enthusiasm, we decided to spend Christmas in the Canary Islands. We jumped online and booked some reasonably priced tickets with SAS, flying from DC to Copenhagen to Tenerife. All through the fall of 2021, we looked forward to our trip in December.

And then the Omicron Variant hit. Our plans unraveled, and our trip was cancelled. But by early spring, we started thinking about rescheduling. We tried to book another flight using the SAS credits from our cancelled trip, but SAS stopped flying to Tenerife. Fortunately, United Airlines has started a direct flight from Newark to Tenerife. The SAS credits would have to sit unused, waiting for another trip. On June 23, we headed to the train station in Baltimore on our way to Newark!

The seven-hour flight to the Canary Islands departed at 9:40 pm. Covid protocols were still in place for the flight, requiring us to wear masks unless we were eating or drinking. We all did our best to sleep on the flight. Cassie forgot to bring an eye mask but was able to improvise.

Soon, we were descending into Tenerife on a gorgeous sunny day. We were finally able to put our disappointment at cancelling our December trip behind us. The last time we had been in this spot was a little more than five years ago. Team Hubbard was back in the Canary Islands! Obligatory photo recreation:

Diego picked us up from Tenerife South, and we all drove back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. We dropped off our luggage, and the girls napped. Julie, Diego, and I decided to have a bite to eat in a nearby square.

After lunch, Julie and I took a walk through the city, and Julie *might* have fallen asleep on a park bench for a few minutes. We wandered our way back to Teresa and Deigo’s apartment, had a coffee, and started talking about dinner plans. Having been away from Spain for five years, we decided that dinner would be Spanish bread, cheese, and cured meats, e.g., jamon serrano. Diego took us to a nearby market, that had an impressive selection.

Fortunately, Diego was there to supervise our selection. (Diego always seems to take care of feeding us.)

When we got back to the apartment, our focus turned to preparing for the night’s festivities. Although we had been disappointed that our December trip was delayed, there was a significant silver lining in that our rescheduled trip coincided with Carnaval. Carnaval in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a big deal. Some years, it’s the second biggest Carnaval party in the world. (First place goes to the yearly celebration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.) Normally, Carnaval in Santa Cruz is celebrated in February, but due to covid the festivities had been pushed back to June. We knew none of this when we rescheduled our trip. Through a happy accident, we were going to spend two nights in the thick of the Carnaval Madness.

Costumes are a central part of Carnaval, particularly group costumes. Catalina had been planning for some time a group costume – Greek Goddesses – for her friends, including Lydie and Cassie. As night fell, the three girls began getting ready. However, the costumes needed last-minute alterations. Fortunately, superstar Tia Teresa was on the job, adjusting costumes on the fly (and celebrating a bit on the way).

Soon, the girls were ready to head out to some of the large, outdoor dance parties.

After the girls left, the adults relaxed a bit. We had already made plans to join the Carnaval party the following night, so we planned to stay in and rest for our first night. After all, we had just arrived that morning. Plus, we are like 100 years old. But we could hear music and cheering drifting in through the windows. Soon, we could resist no longer and headed down to the street to watch some of the parade floats pass by, and we were so glad we did. The elaborate costumes were phenomenal.

The theme for this year’s Carnaval was “Science Fiction,” and some of the floats nailed it. Ack ack!

The atmosphere was incredible – floats blaring high-energy music packed with people in garish costumes dancing.

All down the streets, the crowds danced and cheered.

In fact, the performers on the floats encouraged spectators to dance with them. It looked like fun, but I preferred to maintain a certain professional distance.

Eventually, the parade ended. We took it as our cue to head to bed — at least for the adults. Lydie, Cassie, and Catalina were out until the wee hours of the night, but they are made of stronger stuff than we are. After just one day, our trip was already off to an incredible start!

– Will