As we so late back and not eaten properly we decided to eat at our place and headed straight down. They had a Canary night with starters and mains as their specials. I went for the chick pea stew with mixed meats while Claire went for the Canary cheese salad starters. It was quite an unusual mix of meat in my stew, judging from the bones I had, guinea pig, seagull and rock pigeon. For the mains, I went for the spiced pork with Canary potatoes while Claire tried the rabbit. Again I had lots of meat but the Canary potatoes 
didn’t have the usual rock salt on them and were a little cold. Claire's rabbit was actually rabbit legs with similar Canary potatoes to mine. Unfortunately, I think that they used the front rabbit legs rather than the larger rear ones. If not they had used young bunny rabbit. What is the name of a young rabbit? Never 
mind, it was a little late for us to eat anyway and the local Tenerife wine was excellent. To be fair, we have been very impressed with the overall quality of the food and wine over here and they have all been reasonably priced. We have found that mostly the food has been prepared fresh and cooked in house using good quality produce. Tenerife is certainly worth considering for winter holidays at least because of their lovely climate. The added benefit from England is that it is almost due south with the same time as at home so no jet lag and you are not wasting your time going east or west. It is actually 15 degrees west of London and so should be an hour behind us but they keep the same time anyway. I hope that I don’t leave it another 23 years before I come back next time. I would love to try the Canary islands cruise when we visit again. A couple that we talked to yesterday recommended the cruise and stay option.
To be honest, Claire and I had a lovely day taking it easy, we seemed to get on all day without arguing. It was really
nice to relax and not be in a hurry for once. We chilled out and had a drive to Arona, which is only abou
t 3 minutes drive away, for lunch. They have lots of choice for lunch and different shops and supermarkets etc. We tried the place that we had Sunday lunch in but it was closed so we ended up in a little English run place and I forgot to take a photo so don't know the name. The supermarket was the highlight, they had Siglo Rioja for E5 a bottle and I had paid E6.70 in our local one. I can't remember what they charge back home but we rarely buy it there. We also got some more oranges as we have an electric squeezer in our rooms so we have fresh orange juice every morning. As we were on a Claire day we also had eggs, bacon and tomato this morning. Claire really likes staying in becaus
e we have BBC1 and 2 and ITV on our TV so she can keep up to date on all her soaps.
We found out yesterday that the north and south of the island have very little difference a year in rainfall; the reason its so much greener in the north is because the clouds gather there and the trees take the moisture directly from the air rather than relying on the rain. They keep as much as they can and rele
ase the rest into the soil around them so its easily available if they need it again but this irrigates other species to grow. The difference between the two sides is remarkable. I saw a nature program once and they couldn't understand how the plants survived and reproduced as it hadn't rained for over 20 years. 
They obviously got the moisture from the dew in the morning or directly out the air.
Talking briefly yesterday about the flooding trouble in Queensland because its been on all the international news channels. Well I watched one last night and they have had even worse floods in Rio in Brazil where over 350 people have lost their lives. It makes you wonder how many real people in some unreported countries are loosing their lives all the time without anyone else knowing. It's strange, but I suppose natural that we all have so much more empathy for the people closest to ourselves. Hope you are OK up there, Geoff and Denise?
We have
had such a nice relaxing day today that Claire has decided to have a similar one again tomorrow. Our flight is not until about 8pm on Saturday so we asked about keeping our room after 10am but they wanted E40. No thanx! We will have our driving day on Saturday with our stuff locked in the boot. I want to do a west island tour as they see the fewest tourists there. When we rented the car from Gold rentals we had to buy a full tank of fuel and bring it back empty but that’s difficult to judge. Luckily the car has a readout of how many kilometres you have left in the tank. Probably normal but its the first time Ive seen it. I wasn't happy with my car key at first because its so big and you don't have lots of pockets with you on holiday. Then I discovered this little button on the fob and it lets the key go inside the fob. Once inside, when you press the button the key jumps out. I’ve got a flick key! Well, enough of this waffle, I'm sure you all have some work to do.
Before I start, I just wanted to wish all our friends in Queensland the best of a bad lot. We had a lot of rain when we were there last year but nothing like they are receiving this year. It seems to be part of an ever increasing pattern around the world at the moment. It must have been around this time last year that we were having, “Brecky in Brissy”. But I guess that we would have been OK up Spring hill. Its 
bad enough loosing your property but its another thing all together loosing your life. Best wishes to everyone affected throughout Queensland, our favourite state.
Whilst walking down to the coast on our first day, I picked up a trip brochure where all the trips were 10Euros each. Claire had a look when we got back and compared to the ones in the brochures in our apartment seemed a real bargain as they started at around 70 Euros for both of us. We both thought that the Wednesday one looked best for us visiting Teide and a boat trip and lunch with wine. Can't go wrong for 10E each, can you? You didn't need to book, just wait at one of the pick-up points and our hotel was on the list. We decided to go for it as I really want to experience climbing to the top of Teide again.
We waited outside our apartments which is the Albatros Parque in Golf Del Sol. We were the first pick up at 08:20am so 
we had the choice of seats. I think Claire tried most of them before we decided. Anyway, the lady that got on with us turned out to be our tour guide and she told us that we had to sit through a presentation about mattresses and wool bed products first and that is where we got lunch and why the trip was so cheap. To be honest, we already read the small print and knew that; we also knew that lunch was a German sausage and potato salad so Claire made egg mayo sandwiches and we took fruit, more wine and water. I also took my i-pad and Claire took a book so we were prepa
red to be a little bored. What we hadn't bargained on was not getting to our first tour spot until 3pm. I'm really proud of Claire not moaning too much; good job we took the wine gums chum.
We changed bus 4 times altogether but we only had two drivers all day which happened to have appropriately names. Our first driver, “Focker” drove us all around Los Cristianos picking up everyone else and then onto the factory that our hard sales, sorry, presentation took place. Unfortunately, this took place on the other side of the island in the north. Several buses dropped off hundreds of suckers, sorry tourists and we were herded into different cells that actually had locked doors. We had toilets in each cell and a small balcony so your only chance of escape was to scale the walls from the balcony. We had coffee, and water on the tables and they brought a glass of wine each before starting a 2 hour hard sales presentation. They were selling foam mattresses and woollen bedding. All very good quality, but with a very good price attached. Claire said that she hadn’t ha
d such a good time since our time share experience in Las Vegas.
We finally got our sausage 
and potato salad and were herded into different buses where we went our separate ways according to which trip we were on. Our new driver's name was Jesus. Funny that because that's exactly what Claire said. At last, we were off, heading up the mountain. Once on the right road, I was disappointed to see that the first sign said 54km; I didn't tell Claire but did keep saying, “Its just around the next corner”.
It was quite a nice drive as I could look around as I was not driving. Drivin
g through the clouds and above. Looking over the blanket of clouds and up to the top where they have the observatories. Trouble is there were reflection
s from the window as once through the clouds there is bright sunshine. Not hot though, they had the aircon on in the bus. I guess they think we are Brits and like the cold. They also had the tanoy system on full volume and kept making announcements in 4 languages. At one time she said what sounded like, “massive penis”. Once she read it out in English it turned out to be, “huge pine needles”. It reminded me a little
of the “four candles” sketch. Next stop Teide; not quite, we stopped at the Teide restaurant as I guess they have a deal with them. By 3pm we were driving past the base station for Teide. We didn't even stop, never mind go up. That was it, we were on our way back down towards the south again to catch our pirate ship. Claire wanted to skip the boat and pay extra for a taxi from Cristianos back to our place but unfortunately they took us to A
mericanos for the boat trip. In actual fact, we enjoyed the boat, it only lasted around an hour and we saw lots of dolphins just the other side of the fish farm, and they made fresh 
sangria for a Euro. They only charged 1 Euro for a plastic cup of wine and the plastic cups were really big. We also saw a new space age looking boat for whale watching, with large viewing windows above and below the water line. It seemed to lift up on ski's when it took off. Claire was wearing her newly bought woollen kidney warmer while we were on the boat; it came in useful 
quicker than I thought.
After the trip we were herded into 
buses again to another meeting point where we all got on our respective buses for our journey home. Of course, being first on, we were last off so we got even more value for money that anyone else. After almost 11 hours we arrived back at our place at around 7pm. Boy, did that Focker Jesus get a good tip! Claire said that she would have had much more fun staying in bed all day reading. She also said that what exactly what she was going to do tomorrow.
We didn't get off to a flying start again, even though we were up early. Claire really likes the boiled eggs here so she started with them again. Also I had trouble with the blog again; it crashed literally as I pressed the post blog option and although it was still in the drafts there was a problem that I couldn't solve. I ended up going back to reception later and doing it all again minus a few of the pictures so we were late starting. The traffic was awful and we ha
d to queue up to get onto the motorway for ages. We had intended going to Las Americas and Los Cristianos for the morning and spending the rest of the day by the pool. We arrived in Americas but drove around for ages looking for a parking space before parking miles out. We started to walk back into town and I realized that I hadn't brought any money or credit cards.
By the time we had walked back to the car, driven home, picked up my money, queued up to get on the motorway again and this time fo
und somewhere to park in Los Cristianos it was lunchtime. I knew I wouldn't like these two places. Why does one start with a “Los” and the other “Las”? I guess that one would be female and one male, but which way around? The Scottish use the word “Lass” for a girl so you would expect that Las was male but I have a feeling that its the other way around.
We walked down to the beach and along the promenade but it was much like any other tourist beach lined with café bars and so called restaurants. Each one had its own tout trying to encourage you in for breakfast. What's that about? After mid-day and everyone is still 
eating breakfast. There was a couple of seats with pedals on by the sea so that people could exercise and pose while people watching. It was a little overcast so nobody was on the beach they were all looking for breakfast I guess. Having got to the end we headed inland a little to see if there were some more local places rather than the tourist ones. 
After only a little walk our luck was in, we found one called “La Taverna Dorada” which only had a few tables of locals, all of which had a carafe of local wine in the middle. We couldn't understand what the plate of the day was only that it had pork in it but at E7.95 worth a try. Its not the price, its not wanting tourist food all the time; I don't mind grabbing a Burger King when there is no choice but not when we have. I would rather pay twice as much for something decent, its just that locals rarely pay tourist prices and expect more otherwise they move on.
The lady spoke good English which surprised me because most the locals don't. She brought out our carafe of local red wine and we had a lovely time relaxing on the corner watching people walking past. She even brought out s
ome 
snacky biscuits to nibble on while our lunch was being prepared. It was Pork, a really nice pork steak with vegetables and croquet potatoes. She even brought out the German mustard. It all seamed a little German to me and as she also spoke English I said to Claire my suspicions. She had already sussed that it was actually a Belgian restaurant frequented by locals. How the hell did she know that, she was sat right next to me and I thought that I had been observant. Once we had finished our main the lady cleared away our stuff and we sat and watched people a little more whilst finishing our wine off when she brought us both a slice of German coffee cake. What a bonus, and
all in the already low price. She even brought us a peach schnapps each with the bill; you wouldn't get that at the tourist café’s.
There were lots of van parking along the road and delivering stuff on those hand wheely things. Some were going backwards and forwards with a couple of boxes on each time, whilst others just once with a load so large they needed a periscope. It was so relaxing just sitting there watching other people work and criticising them in your head, whilst sipping on your wine. Every now and then you would see some that looked like they had come off the set from 1 million years BC or just got off the boat from Magnetic Island. I took some pictures of these two brothers that looked almost pre-historic. Somehow they looked just a little too familiar!
Another lazy day taking it easy, only venturing out for lunch. Today we headed up the volcano to San Miguel. The reasoning being that we might get even better local food away from the tourists. We walked aro
und for a while and eventually found a nice little hotel restaurant called Hotel Rural Cuatro Esquinas (www.hotelrural4equinas.com). They had a local water painting exhibition. Its a lovely little place with 7 rooms available and tables set out in several little cobbled squares.
so we settled for Doradoes. The menu looked great so we decided to eat there, Claire choosing home made croquet potatoes while I had a local dish of chick peas, meats and sauté potatoes in a stew. I bit like the one I had at our place but much nicer. Claire chose the Veal stroganoff for her main and again I tried something local. All I knew was that it was Goat. When it came, it was a bowl full of b
ones in a stock with garlic and peppers. There was a little fat and gristle along with it but quite disappointing except for the lovely stock and the Canary potatoes that came with it. We washed it all down with another local wine which was great. They have 30 different varieties 
of grapes growing on the island, more than any other country. We really haven’t been able to complain about the wine here, its all been lovely except for one cheap bottle of white which was too sweet for 
Claire.
erfect for our winter. Anyway, that’s about it we fly back tomorrow. We have to be out our room by 10am and our flight is not until 8pm so Claire asked how much to extend it. They wanted 40E until 4pm or 60E after 4pm. Sod that, so we are leaving at 10am sharp. We can lock all the bags in the boot and have a tour day in the car. I wanted to have a little look at the north east of the island so that is where we will head. I don't think that I will get chance to do a blog until we get home though so see you when we get back. Hope its not snowing again. Goodbye beautiful Tenerife!
