Week of 18th August, 2003

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Monday, 18th August

The boat trip to try to find dolphins and whales to watch today - 8:30 courtesy bus to the harbour, for an 11 a.m. sailing. And the bus went all round the houses, picking up people. Jane and most of the others went shopping to kill time, while I kept an eye on Jenny and bruv's two sons, who had decided to explore the beach near the harbour.

When we embarked, the boat, the "Bahriyeli", turned out to be a 60 or 70 foot two-masted schooner, with auxiliary engine, and a crew of four. Nice ship, and it would have been an experience to sail out, but 'twas not to be. We did the whole trip under power - up to 10 mile/h, according to my GPS.

First, we went out to look for whales - the locals are pilot whales, fairly small, a bit like oversize dolphins. And we found them (if we hadn't, we'd have got a free trip as a second attempt) -
         

Pilot whales are not easy to photograph, at least not spectacularly. The best I got were these two images, and all you can see are dorsal fins and some of the beast's back. I don't think pilot whales leap. The boat in the background is the "Jolly Roger", belonging to the same excursion company, and done up as a pirate ship, as the name implies.

After that we motored north to Masca Los Gigantes, which is a 400 metre tall cliff, rising straight out of the sea

Masca Los Gigantes

After manoevring around some large floating objects, used I think for farming crab or lobster or somesuch, and seeing four dolphins prowling around a work boat, hoping for scraps - too far away for a good photo, unfortunately - we hove to for swimming and lunch

Swimming at Los Gigantes

Then it was time to search for dolphins - and again, we found them -

Dolphin leaping

although I had no luck with the photography - shutter lag in the Fuji digicam. After this, a couple of dolphins did their characteristic play in the bow wave of "Bahriyeli" as we motored off. And since I was on the upper deck, not the fo'c'sle, I didn't see them. That lasted until some twerp on a jetski came roaring out from the nearest beach and cut sharply across the bow. He got roundly shouted at by our captain, but made another couple of passes, as if to say, "Yah, boo, sucks, there's nothing you can do to me..." before tearing off back to shore, having spoiled it all for us (and if you read this, be ashamed, be very ashamed).

The coach trip back from the harbour was baking hot, despite the air-conditioning, and wasn't helped by the fact that we went all around the houses, dropping people off, before the coach broke down. But despite that, it was a good day.

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Tuesday, 19th August

In the evening we went to Los Abrigos, a trip one could walk at a push, but in this climate driving is a better idea. There's a local market here every Tuesday evening, so we had a look around, and picked up some assorted jewellery - plus Katy had her hair braided, which turned out to be a not-very-pleasant experience. Apparently, teasing out the hair for the braids entails quite a lot of pulling, and Katy wasn't enjoying it. She threatened me with mayhem unless I went away. So I did, wanting to try to keep the peace. And very nice it looks, when complete.

After that we went to a restaurant, for a true Spanish-style meal. I had the paella, a rice and fish combo, with added whole shellfish, although I passed on the mussels and shrimp.

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Wednesday, 20th August

The beach at Los Christianos today, and what the attraction is in lying in the baking-hot sun, gently frying yourself, I don't know. I say frying because the assorted jollops you have to rub into your skin to prevent instant burning put me in mind of the oil you might use in a frying pan. Anyway, bruv's wife, Ale, is a serious sun-worshipper, and what Ale wants, Ale gets. I spent my time in the shade under a species of palm tree, with a book, so all was not lost.

We drove down to Los Christianos - it took both cars for the ten of us - and encountered the usual parking problem - no space, not unless you wanted to pay for off-street, underground parking. Oh, by the way, 'libre' displayed outside a car-park doesn't mean 'free' as one might think, it means 'space available'. Jane was lucky, she found a space on the main shopping drag, but I had to park one street back - about a quarter of a mile - in the open, no shade. Air conditioning helps a lot whan you get back, the car cooled off fast.

In the evening, we had the resort's weekly barbeque and cabaret - flamenco, and very good too, although the music, as usual here, was over-amplified. Over-loud backing track, with miked-up live acoustic guitar, plus the dancers with their tap shoes and castanets. Sometimes the backing was too loud for the castanets. Nothing beats the sound of stamping feet in tap shoes, though. And how the stage took the strain of four strong female dancers, total weight nearly a quarter of a ton, all stamping in unison, is something I don't know. You could see the stage bending under the load. Note, I'm not disparaging the dancers, who were all, at the least, comely. None of your stick-insects here - real woman-shaped women, all four

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Thursday, 21st August

The family have gone to a local water park today, and I'm sitting around enjoying the quiet. It does tend to get a little noisy here at times.

I made a slight mistake in the matter of equipment when I packed for the trip. The belt pack battery charger is OK, I brought it's mains brick, but the AA charger, which also accepts 12 volts, is a problem. I checked voltages and connector polarity, and all was well, but I didn't (more fool me!) try to plug things together. So it turns out that the AA charger has a 2.5 mm coaxial connector, while the belt pack mains brick uses a 2.1 mm coaxial connector, and doesn't fit. So I can't charge the NiCads, and will have to buy expendable cells. I could, of course, buy a local style plug-top NiCad charger, but it'll be redundant when I get home.

There seems to be very little amateur radio activity on the island, so I probably needn't have packed the TH-D7, and the IC-Q7 is also almost redundant - the only thing that I'd be likely to use that for is Tenerife Reina Sofia Airport radio, which, like all aviation traffic, is conducted in English. There doesn't seem to be any classical music available terrestrially - thank $DEITY for Maestro on WorldSpace.

Later: I changed my mind about ni-cad chargers, and sprang for a cheap, 4xAA plug-top charger, with 4 1800mAH NiMH cells for Euro20 (about UKP14) It's the local plug style, and will be redundant in UK, but needs must... It's also completely unintelligent - it doesn't switch off when the cells are charged. No matter.

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Friday, 22nd August

Bruv and family fly back to UK this afternoon, and we transfer to our second resort, in the north of the island, at Puerto de la Cruz. Katy tried to persuade us to go through the middle of the island, into the National Park that surrounds Mount Teide, the dormant volcano that built the island, but both Jane and I didn't want to drive from A to B via halfway-up-the-mountain, over roads that, from the map, bear a distinct resemblance to the tracks of a snake with colic - that's lots of sharp corners. We compromised - Jane will get her look at the Pyramids of Guimar (just off the main road around the island) as we go eastabout to the north coast, and we will make a separate excursion to Teide later.

Later: And so it proved, although I missed turnings twice during the trip to Puerto de la Cruz, where the second resort is. An easy enough trip, although Spanish signage isn't up to UK standard in either clarity or frequency. The clarity is a matter of what you are used to, but frequency? Getting to the Pyramids of Guimar would have been much easier if the signage had been more frequent, and visible.

Again, no biggie. The Pyramids are stone stepped edifices, all same the Egyptian one at Saqquara, and the Mayan style in central America, but these are a bit smaller. The astronomical significance is still there, though - three of the Guimar pyramids, numbers 2,3 and 4, mark an alignment that indicates Summer Solstice sunset -

         

Here they are, seen from the south, at about local midday, with the Sun directly behind me.

Guimar is the headquarters of F.E.R.C.O., an organisation set up by the late Thor Heyerdahl to finance archaeological research, and on the site are descriptions of Heyerdahl's exploratory voyages - particularly the Ra expedition from Morocco to the West Indies. There is a full-size replica of Ra II here

(the original Ra II is in a museum in Norway), and models of Heyerdahl's other vessels, Kon-Tiki and Tigris, with explanatory text. Another display discusses the Moai staues on Isla de Pascua (Easter Island)

In the evening, we looked around Puerto de la Cruz, which has lots of shops and is built on the side of a hill, with steep slopes and long climbs - the resort is about halfway up. Phew!

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Saturday, 23rd August

More exploring of shops in Puerto Cruz today. And Jane has seen lots of things she wants to take home - mostly for other people. I must admit that some of them are attractive, but they're not things I'm particularly interested in. Then we went to a local fish restaurant for our evening meal - paellas, and the special of the day fish meal for me. A whole fish, served with Canarian potatoes (think new potatoes, boiled in their skins and rubbed with salt) and salad. And very nice it was, too, but the fish was served unparsed, so I spent half my time extracting the bones.

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Sunday, 24th August

Back to Santa Cruz, in the north-east corner of the island, today for the market. We went by cars, and it would have been easier if Jane (who was leading) hadn't turned the wrong way on the seafront. On realising this, we parked up, and Jane stomped off in a huff, leaving me behind. I eventually caught up with her after an exchange of text messages, by which time she'd found the market - exactly where we'd have ended up if she hadn't turned the wrong way.

Then we went back to the swimming Lido we'd walked past on the way to the market, and spent the afternoon sunbathing - or at least they did. I sat in the shade, with a book. I agree with Noel Coward, in his song "Mad Dogs And Englishmen" -

"For the sun is much too sultry,
and one must avoid it's ultry-
violet ray..."
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