By the end of Thursday about the only place you could fly to from Fuerteventura was Spain. This was fine for the girls (with tickets to Madrid on Sunday), but there was then a problem. In due course Ryanair e-mailed to confirm the cancellation and the earliest they could offer for Madrid-Gatwick was Tuesday 27th, which meant they would have to fly to Madrid on the Monday night, so we did it, and bought them new tickets for that flight. So nine days extra in the sun for them when they should have been starting a new term at Brighton, and for us - instead of a clear run at a summer shut-down for the apartment - some unexpected guests. In the end we handled it - but not helped by us going down in turn with the cold and cough Chloe brought over.
Out in the town there was a fair amount of chaos too, with thousands of people stranded on the island, At first they were taken to Caleta de Fuste to be nearer the airport, but that was then full and many were put up at Papagayo. Even those on "flight-only" were put up on full-board (but no booze) so as to avoid later claims for subsistence. Yet more folk wandering around town, spending no money, and no new ones coming in! It was a bit grim. Chloe and Charlie were the lucky ones. of course! We set them up for Uni work, kept their spending to a minimum and helped them over formalities.
An interesting event of the final week was our extra radio show. Bob had been working for weeks on a playlist that wa more serious than the froth Ruth often played in her weekly afternoon show. Auntie Val (she who must be obeyed) offered us an evening slot, so we developed this into a set of two tracks by each of some favourite artists (Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa, Little Feat, Ian Dury, The Band, Neil Young....). Mike at The Casbah offered a pizza prize, and we formulated a competition. Bob remained silent throughout, and we had at least three listeners! Oh well! Pearsls to swine, perhaps!
In the final day or so the girls helped with the cleaning because we would be leaving 24 hours or so before them. We spent the final afternoon in good sun with Chris and Eileen, had a simple meal with girls at The Casbah, and that was it! We left the girls with a list of instructions on Sunday 25th.