On Thursday we did a big shop in preparation for Christmas as we are not sure there will be anywhere to eat on Christmas day so Mrs Lucas has been given a special dispensation and will be allowed to cook in. I find supermarkets in other countries fascinating, it is a window into the cooking and eating habits of the country you are visiting. Last year in Antigua we were amazed to find a whole aisle dedicated to different flavours of soup. Here there were very few frozen vegetables, lots are grown on the island so everyone eats fresh veg. Iberian ham is a big thing, especially at Christmas, you can buy a whole leg and they also had three staff slicing hams at a counter although they all moved out of shot when I asked if I could take a photo. There is of course an awful lot of fish.
I also spotted bottles of red wine at €1.40 a bottle, that’s £1.64 a litre! Cheaper than beer in the UK. At that price I had to buy a bottle, we will use it to soak some pears in although I might try a glass in the name of research.
I understand the British Government are asking you all to avoid doing anything risky at the moment in light of the nurses and ambulance drivers being on strike, no such constraints here in La Palma so being reckless adventurers Gill and I hired e-bikes and went cycling.
We cycled 15 miles to the south of the island, had a very large and filling lunch and then cycled back again. There were some significant hills which, with one exception, the electric motors managed with ease and some great downhill runs, very exciting. When recovering from this adventure sitting by the beach in 26c heat drinking a well deserved cool beer we could not remember why we ever stayed in the UK at Christmas!
The picture at the top of the page shows a bay famous for it's salt water swimming pools in the north of the island, despite it being warm and sunny the Atlantic rollers were quite large yesterday when we tried to visit so the pools were closed, we have been for a swim in the sea (Gill swims, I don't sink) and it is quite warm, just a bit rough.
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