We'd never run out of gas if Tri was around

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Geo: 28.1248, -15.43

We started the day with a bad breakfast at the resort and then headed off to Punto de Jandia, the westernmost point of the island. It was a little bit like Sagres in Portugal, but this time Mary and Yvonne weren't around groping each other. We almost ran out of gas returning to civilization - it was touch and go at times; we even shut off the A/C to conserve gas. It was getting warm inside because we didn't want to open the window and increase the aerodynamic drag.

We managed to get back to Morro Jable and fill up, but not before a little drama. The on-board computer would give a read-out of the remaining range of the car. I think at some point we were down to only a couple of kilometers when we took the wrong turn-off - it would have been funny if that one little mistake caused us to run out of gas. We thought of things like "What if we didn't stop at that place yesterday?" or "what if we found the hotel right away and didn't drive back and forth 3 times?". But we finally made it to the gas station. It's times like this that we wished Tri was around - he's renowned for being quite the "natural" gas plant!

Off to La Pared and its neat black sand and pebbly beach. Off to Playa Sotaviento - full of kite surfers. Just another beach! Vega de Rio Palmas - despite being in an arid area, palm trees are still able to grow here because they are in an old riverbed that still has moisture underground.

We stopped for lunch in Pajara at Restaurant La Fonda, on their patio at the foot of an old church. I wanted to have some Galician octopus, but they were out. I went for the grilled calamari instead; overall, the meal was pretty tasty here. After a couple of cortados, we headed back to Morro Jable to catch the ferry for Gran Canaria.

Not much happened on the ferry - I noticed a few attractive Spanish women on board. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come in Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria. Maybe all the Spanish hotties are hiding in the bigger cities! I did a little journal writing and noticed that I'm spending way too much money!

I'm used to eating a granola bar for breakfast and grabbing grocery store or fast food lunches, so that's how I budgeted for this trip. With the exception of a few splurge experiences, we haven't been going top-end for any of our meals, but it is starting to add up. It's not really a bad thing - stopping for sit-down meals makes me relax and chill out, something I never do when traveling alone.

Las Palmas - we arrived at the dumpy, industrial port and hopped into a taxi for Hostal Alcaravaneras. It was even dumpier than the port. The shower curtain in the common bathroom was pretty nasty, and the bulkhead was so low that there was no way I could climb in there without bending at an unnatural angle.

Minutes after checking in, B&H came knocking on my door. "Let's go for a walk!" I don't think they were overly impressed with the accommodations ... they wanted out! I can't say that I was either and though I prefer not to, I have stayed in some pretty skuzzy places before. The receptionist guy wasn't all that helpful - I noticed a sign posted at the desk saying to watch out for pickpockets at one of the plazas. When I asked him about this he just kind of went "Uh .. well .. umm ...yeah ... well ... it's not so bad." Great ...

We headed for the beachfront promenade - there were a few Spanish hotties out. Things are slowly improving ... it's a nice spot for a walk, with lots of cafes and restaurants, and people out strolling and jogging. There was a sand-sculpture exhibit done up with a Nativity theme. Pretty cool. Except that my knee is absolutely killing me!

Though I earlier thought our small meal aboard the ferry was sufficient for dinner, I realized that I was still hungry and had to stop for a kebab. I asked Ben if he wanted one and he said no. I told him that I knew he would want one as soon as he saw me eating it, but he maintained that he wasn't hungry. So as soon as we sat down and ordered, he turned to me and said "Yeah, I'm gonna want one when yours comes out, so I might as well order one now." It was only an average kebab, but Ben loved it. Hopefully we'll get a chance to sample some better ones before the trip is over. It's the perfect midnight snack!

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Photos

a
Read the cockroach excerpt from the hotel info package. Sorry, but that doesn't make me feel any better about them!

a
The scrambled eggs were pretty weird and tasted like they were synthetic. There were numerous pastries but they were all pre-packaged and bought in bulk. It all looked pretty bad, but I managed to find a shortbread-like thingy that was fairly decent. The sausages had a strange flavour and the bacon was swimming in oil.
They did have some really great, freshly-baked multi-grain bread - I kept cramming it down my throat with loads of Nutella. They had some decent sunny-side eggs that weren't all synthetic-tasting. I had a massive breakfast - the whole while, I was thinking "This tastes like crap. So why am I still eating???"
While eating, we could hear the sound of the fatigued elevator cable creaking. But it's alright - even if it were to snap and plummet nobody would die, because it's only one story high. We relaxed for a bit - despite bursting at the seams with Nutella, I was able to down three cups of various types of coffees (espresso, regular, cappuccino).

a1
A Filipinos cookie!

a2
A piece of salami somehow got into the elevator shaft. I was trying to lick it through the glass, though you can't see that from this angle.

b
Taken at the tip of the Jandian peninsula.

c
The overdevelopment of the Canary Islands means that cranes scar the landscape. It's always a catch-22 - if a place is worth visting, eventually it will become touristy. And if it wasn't touristy at all, there'd probably be nothing worth seeing.

e
Going crazy - this happened a few times on the trip where I opened a bottle of water, only to find the seal broken, but unsure if I had opened the bottle earlier, or if it had been tampered with. Whatever happened to my flawless memory? I'd say that I miss those days ... but I can't seem to remember them ...

e2
"You must re-fill - only 4 kms left!"

f
Woo hoo! We finally managed to fill up and get some gas!

g
The Canaries are famous for kite-surfing, especially here at Playa Sotaviento.

h
I have absolutely no idea where this picture was taken so it's just another beach!

i
See previous!

i2
Mary's favourite sight from the Baltic trip. Because she always trailed behind me, the joke became that her favourite sight was my butt because she was staring at it for about 90% of our trip.

j
Everytime I see a cactus fruit, I feel that I need to pay homage to John's infamous cactus fruit-grabbing incident. We all still wonder what would first possess a man to grab a cactus fruit with his bare hands, and what would further possess him to rip it off the cactus, then place it gently down on a ledge. Most people would let go as soon as they felt the pain of dozens of little needles piercing their skin ... but this is John - and well ... he's John ...

j2
Just another beautiful view!

j2
A church in La Pared, maybe?

k
A rare treat in Europe - ice with your Coke!

k2
I started with a fish soup - filled with rice and fish flakes, it was a little bland and oily. The garlic aioli and bread were awesome here.

l
My calamari was even more awesome, stuffed with gooey cheese (at least, I hope it was cheese ... but maybe it was its rotting innards ... ) - perfectly cooked, tender, and flavourful. I didn't expect it to be so huge. I just wish that they had better sides than fries and a crappy salad.

m
Ha's fish wasn't anything special. Ben's mushroom steak was tender.

n
The church across from the restaurant patio.

o
This lookout was a lovely, romantic spot. But what was the couple inside thinking? Probably "When the hell will these people leave so that we can continue making out???"

s
Mmmmm ... coconut yogurt ... We picked up a few things at the grocery store - this yogurt, apples, pistachios, and bananas. All we did was eat all day so we wanted to have a light meal for dinner onboard the ferry.

zb
More Filipinos cookies!!!

zc
Arrival at the run-down industrial port of Las Palmas.

ze
One of the sand sculptures in central Las Palmas.