Tom in Tenerife Blog 4

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Hi folks!
Well, this is my last blog before I return home in just under two weeks' time. Overall impressions of my time here are that it's perfectly possible to get by with a miniscule knowledge of Spanish since so many of the bars, cafes and restaurants are run by expat. Brits and the ones that are not will figure out what it is you want anyway. The weather on the whole has exceeded all expectations. I've had some rain but I bet it's not been more than 7 or 8 days all the time I've been here so far and even then, if it's rained in the morning, it's sometimes turned sunny again in the afternoon. I think the coldest it's been down here on the coast where I'm staying is 15C and that's first thing in the morning before the sun rises over the peaks behind the resort. I probably should have put myself about a bit more to explore the island but it's been so pleasant just to sit on my balcony or by the pool with a book that I just never did. The local music scene is a bit strange, most of the acts consist of one or two people using backing tapes although I think this is probably due at least in part to a lot of the bars being quite small and not really able to accommodate a band with a drummer and a decent size PA system. Someone also told me there's an issue of residents complaining about the noise but then you see stuff in the local free papers about how resorts are dying on their feet because there's nothing for visitors to do. It seems to me they can't have it both ways. Talking of free papers, there are three or four weekly English language ones plus a glossy little magazine that comes out every couple of weeks and which is really good for keeping you up with what's going on locally. I spoke to one of the performers last night about the infamous multi - storey car park I mentioned in my last blog and apparently nothing's been done to it for at least six years, never mind the four I knew about from my own experience. Eating out isn't particularly cheap here but if you get off the tourist trail a bit the menus become more interesting and meals generally are cheaper. Stuff from the Spanish supermarket and particularly the little greengrocers just down the road from it is much cheaper than at home. Also, it's a constant battle to keep the dust at bay. I presume much of it's generated by the building work going on all around.
I've got a couple of friends staying with me this week so we've been out and about rather more than I usually am as we've hired a car for the week. Last Monday ( 18th Feb ) was the last day of the Los Gigantes carnival. We went over to Icod de los Vinos during the day and then went to watch the Burial of the Sardine procession in Los Gigantes that night. This consisted of a bunch of guys in drag parading the Sardine ( see attached photo gallery by clicking on the "tom in tenerife " text to the top left of the main body of text and then clicking on the blog 4 photo to see the whole gallery ) followed by loads of onlookers through the village to the back of the Los Gigantes hotel where it was ceremonially burnt followed by a firework display. Everyone then returned to the plaza to get ratted and dance the night away. The next day we just chilled out and walked along the coastal path to Los Gigantes for lunch on the harbour followed by evening drinks on the balcony of the flat and a meal in one of the nearby restaurants. Wednesday we went out in the car again up to the Teide national park ( cold, 45F ) and thence through to San Cristobal de la Laguna which is a world heritage site because of its traditional Canarian architecture. Unfortunately one of my friends was ill during this trip with what was probably a norovirus and the rest of us succumbed to it over the next two days which rather put a damper on things. It's taken me a couple of days to recover but I seem to be O.K. again now. In the meantime, my friends have gone back, the rain we had late on last week has disappeared and it's nice and sunny again.
O.K., it's Saturday March 1st and I leave here on Tuesday. The weather is, as usual, warm and sunny, barely a cloud in the sky. What am I thinking? I've just spent hours uploading some pictures into a new gallery. I think the reason I've had such difficulty getting them to go is that the connection between my local server and the Internet as a whole is restricted in bandwidth in some way so 2.5MB picture files sometimes over - strain it. Anyway, they're all up now. If nothing better presents itself I'll quite likely come out here again next winter so I'm now about to do a trawl of the local estate agents for business cards just in case. I'll probably catch up with most of you over the next month or so. In the meantime, all the best.
Tom in Tenerife.

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