Greetings from Gran Canaria, we have moved onto the next island.
Our first job today was to fill the car with petrol, this sounds easy but somehow we managed to spend almost an hour trying to find a petrol station. That difficult task completed we returned the car a day early to the wrong place (the airport not the port) and were surprised to get a refund. Most car hire firms leave you feeling robbed, CiCar do not, they quote a slightly higher charge when you book but there are no extras, you get full insurance, two drivers and unlimited mileage included. The car was new and everything worked as it should, it is not CiCar's fault that a Fiat 500 can't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
Flights to Gran Canaria leave every 30 minutes and turned out cheaper and of course quicker than taking the boat. The flying time is 15 minutes yet they managed to provide free in flight refreshments, admittedly only a chocolate biscuit and some water but still quite a challenge for the stewards if the flight were full.
We are staying in the big city for the next few days so have not hired a car yet and will get about on foot. There is a nice beach and promenade a few hundred yards from our apartment, it seems much nicer than those on Tenerife, I think it might be because only half of the people are tourists, the rest live and work here, the local council have also put in a good infrastructure. One interesting area on the beach was run by the Red Cross for wheelchair users to be able to go for a swim. They transfer the visitors to a waterproof chair and Red Cross helpers (don't know if they were volunteers or paid helpers, they did seem professional) wheeled them into the sea.
We have a small but quite nice apartment for the next four days, we have bought tea, coffee, eggs and bread from the local Spar (how civilised they even have Spars) but we can't find anywhere which sells real milk, UHT only. We had exactly the same problem in China, hopeless for making a nice cup of tea, I will have to stick to beer! No great hardship when the tempreture outside is 36 degrees!