I am a Traveller - You are a Tourist - He is a Holidaymaker!

After our three days we took the bus down to Maspalomas - as we have done several times now -  for a lazy break based on a tourist complex. We were happy to return to Vista Flor - this time 60 per cent Scandinavian in occupancy - but at least they are generally well-behaved! We didn't do much - but that was the idea! Bob rented a bicycle for a few days and went for some rides up and down the coast. Ruth sometimes took the bus to meet him at strategic points. On one occasion he spotted a Paleo pal:- Fred (as in Zygos) had said he would be there, and  he was! It was very warm most of the time and Ruth used the outdoor pool on four of the days, but the wind was strong and gusty - preventing beach and sea activity. Both the world economy and global climate change have done yet more damage since last year. At commercial centres there are more closed businesses (especially at Faro2 which is reduced to just three restaurants), and at the big beach the wind and tides have swept away vast amounts of sand to greatly reduce beach depth. Various attempts have been made to reduce this erosion, but the effects don't look impressive!

Whenever we mentioned where we live there would be a remark about Fuerteventura being "quiet", and we were - once again - struck by the fact that the Gran Canarian resorts are different from Corralejo (although perhaps not too different from Caleta de Fuste!). In Maspalomas there is no sense that it is a functioning town, the timeshare menaces are still very present and active, restaurants all seem to have the same menu (often with pictures and/or translations into Finnish, Russian, etc), and Spanish is rarely heard! On the other hand there are some nice touches which come from the island having been developed for so much longer:- like the well-established Botanical Gardens, and substantial bus network.
We flew back on the Saturday and encountered rain at Las Palmas airport! We even managed to co-ordinate with Eileen who was picking someone up at the airport, so we were home  in super-quick time, with just two birthday-related activities ahead of us - Bob's registration with the Spanish Health Service, and the hosting of the tapas evening!
The former involved a bus trip down to Puerto del Rosario, bearing many, many documents. We found the right place, pulled our queue number from the machine, and waited half an hour or so. Then it was in to the fray, use Ruth's increasingly fluent Spanish, show the white paper from UK (S1), the green paper, the passport copy and off we went smiling!  We celebrated with tapas at our favoured bar near the port, seeing the new Olsen service (fast to Las Palmas), and in delightfully sunny weather. Then we did the business at the couriers to send off passports for Indian visas, had a beer and got the bus back! Jobs done!
... and then there was the party.. read on!

Hard Times for Some

As it happened our party day was also Election Day in Spain. Not much sign of it in Corralejo - some posters and a PP rally (the nasty ones!) - partly because of the Canarian parties. We had intended to locate a red rose to show our allegiances, but forgot - and that just makes worse the depression over the loss of the last significant socialist government in Europe!
Midweek we flew very, very cheaply to Las Palmas for the significant birthday! We stayed as before for three days near Canteras beach. They were preparing  the Belen sand sculpture for Christmas, but already in place was this magnificent opus for the elections. If you can interpret the precise message you have done better than us. Seemed in the right spirit, though!

 On the birthday itself we wandered down to the port area and saw that the Cunard "Queen Elizabeth" was visiting. Huge! Pleasingly it had deposited around the area - albeit for a very short time span - loads of pretty infirm pensioners! Greyrocks felt less decrepit!
We had some strong winds, but it was also frequently very hot. We checked out Galia :- the lovely French restaurant we had in mind for birthday dinner! It was closed and shuttered. Crisis and very sad! Later we came across the (former) owner, but couldn't ask the main question! He offered us a steak at another restaurant he is associated with. We declined and went instead to Triana at the other end of the city . Whilst wandering round looking for a place for lunchtime tapas we found La Travesia,,  saw its menu and booked for the evening. It is a charming old-style tapas bar, and treated us magnificently:- serving the craved duck magret beautifully cooked, and then bringing free flan with sparklers, and the punters sang Cumpleaños Feliz! And then half of Greyrocks was on a State Pension!
We atyed another day and then headed for Maspalomas.

Birthday Bashing

Half of Greyrocks is now on a state pension! Bob's birthday happened by design in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - see next post - but just before we left Fuerteventura we held an event to celebrate it (and Ruth's almost forgotten 60th) with Corralejo chums.

We invited about 70, and about 50 turned up at some point in the afternoon or evening. Mike at the Casbah next door to the Rock did a buffet, we added some nibbles and Eileen made the cake. Pete and Dave took the request for some live music very seriously, and in fact played for hours. They had previously met a tourist called Mandy, and she did some numbers, as did our local Mel.

..and here is the slide show..

A good time was had by all!