We hope you all had a good New Years Eve in whatever tier you found yourselves.
Ours did not go quite to plan. We naively assumed that downtown Santa Cruz would be filled with happy revellers eating and drinking in the numerous bars and restaurants, much like every other day but perhaps with more people. Our only concern was if all the restaurants were full so we set out at 8pm to find almost everywhere closed!!! The only restaurant open was doing a special five course New Years Eve dinner, all the tables inside were reserved but they said we could eat on our own, outside, in the middle of the empty high street. Then it pissed with rain! Fortunately the umbrella over the table kept us dry, the picture, was taken from our table, most of the time the street was deserted. Still at least we did not starve.
The rain also put pay to our planned adventure today, we were going to do a spectacular walk in the mountains which entails being dropped off by 4x4 taxi but the taxi driver called it off due to the weather! Wimps these Spanish, a little bit of rain and the place grinds to a halt.
The Spanish Government have now banned all travel by UK citizens in and out of the Canaries until at least 19th January, so I am pleased to say we will be forced to stay here.
On Sunday we are moving across to the other side of the island to a nice little seaside village which we found a few days ago. We think (never too sure with Air BnB) we have booked the dark blue house in the picture for a week which means we will be there for Three Kings Day on 6th January. We have been perplexed that all the shops in Santa Cruz are busy and have not started their sales. It turns out that in Spain presents are given on 6th January to commemorate the gifts given to Jesus by the Three Kings. It is a bank holiday, we will make sure we book a restaurant table just in case. According to Wikipedia “Spanish children typically receive presents on the 6th, rather than on Christmas, though this tradition has changed lately, and children now receive presents on both days.” Sounds expensive.
In 1968 the Sunday Times sponsored a round the world yacht race. In those days when the yachts left harbour they were “lost”, the only way of monitoring their progress was when they radioed in their positions. The race was notorious for a chap called Donald Crowhurst who radioed in false positions and instead of turning left at Cape Town and crossing the southern ocean turned right, crossed to South America, waited till the other boats “caught up” and then took the lead. It is assumed he realised the enormity of his deceit and committed suicide by jumping overboard. I mention this sad story to emphasise how things have changed in 50 years. Since waving them off three weeks ago we have been following the progress of the Talisker Atlantic Rowers, they all have GPS trackers so you not only see where they are but even which direction they are pointing! The solo rowers have to sleep and when they do the boat just drifts and from the comfort of our living rooms we can see they are pointing in the wrong direction. Picture at the top of the page.
The leading rowers are likely to finish around 15th January, however I am particularly following a chap called Frank Rothwell who is hoping to raise £1m for Alzheimer’s Research. Frank seemed a bit of a character at the start, he was last to leave (I presume they draw lots) and once alone and waiting the starting gun he stood up and sang “I’m a Wanderer” and another song to the crowd who joined in.
I looked up his web site, he has sailed a boat across the Atlantic a few times but not rowed before, he has had prostate cancer and is 70! I put a few pounds in his Just Giving Account, those of us with dodgy prostates need to stick together.
He has now rowed 871 nautical miles, only 1929 to go, it is estimated he will arrive in Antigua on 4th March, my birthday, although I don't suppose he knows that.
We also watched a documentary about four middle aged, quite well off ladies who used to meet on the school run and suddenly decided to have a go. They had not rowed before and it took three years preparation but they did it in 2015, some people are just amazing. If you are bored with the Christmas TV try watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwVrYWHjqLI&feature=emb_rel_end) it is quite uplifting although I would be interested to know what the four women did after their adventure, I think settling down again would be difficult.