A Ship, a Virus, and a Very Unusual Holiday: Tenerife’s Latest Spectacle

On a dusty hill overlooking the Atlantic in southern Tenerife, tourists and locals have gathered with binoculars and phones. Their focus: the MV Hondius, a small cruise ship anchored near the Granadillo commercial port, now infamous as the “rat virus boat” after three passengers died from hantavirus. For holidaymakers like Amy Byres and Emma Armitage, visiting from Sheffield for Byres’s 22nd birthday, it became an unexpected attraction. “We had time before our flight,” Armitage said. “It was either this or the pool,” Byres added, noting they followed the drama on TikTok throughout their trip, between whale-watching and quad biking.

The scene at the dock, however, was far more somber. The remaining 149 passengers and crew were finally evacuated Sunday, ending days of cabin confinement. Spanish passengers emerged in blue ponchos, face coverings, and small plastic bags of belongings—their luggage destined for decontamination in the Netherlands. Many had not been outside since lockdown began after a Dutch couple and a German passenger died. The cause, hantavirus, is not new and rarely spreads person-to-person, but global fears of another pandemic surged. World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeatedly stressed this was “not the start of a Covid pandemic.”

The evacuation, coordinated by Spain and the WHO, involved boatloads of passengers boarding coaches with plastic-covered seats and hazard tape. Yet questions remain: WHO recommends 45 days of isolation, but cannot enforce it. The UK and Spain imposed hospital quarantines; other nations rely on self-isolation. No PCR tests were conducted onboard, and hantavirus can incubate for up to eight weeks. When pressed, Tedros insisted the plan would not cause further outbreaks. But as passengers scatter across 23 countries, Tenerife’s latest attraction leaves a troubling wake.