Celebration and Mourning: Two Flags

Yesterday was the annual "Day of the Canaries" and in theory a regional holiday and celebration of local culture! This is not Greyrocks' time of year so we have - in 28 years of visits and residence - never witnessed it. But, of course, 2020 was not the best year to do so! If you blinked you would miss it! Apart from the supermarket closing at 2 pm the only two notable features were Bob being given a chocolate bar as a gift in the pharmacy, and Gloria the cleaner sending a WhatsApp message to Ruth with a clip as shown here!

It is the pandemic that did it for the special day. Not only would assemblies not be permitted under our current Phase 2 regulations, but the nation as a whole is in the midst of a ten day period of mourning for its victims, and nothing celebratory is appropriate.
We daily inspect the statistics for Spain, followed by the Canaries and then Fuerteventura, and compare them to UK, France and Italy.
Yesterday the pertinent news item was of a passenger knowingly flying from Madrid to Lanzarote having been with his dying and infected mother and at her funeral. On arrival he was put into quarantine along with thirteen innocents who had been seated near him! This wrecked that island's record of 20 days without new cases and only two existing. It also raises fears that some other idiot will perform similarly for our island! It's a picture to cherish:- here are today's stats:

  

Now the island is "Covid-free"

Yet further good news on our island is that on Wednesday the last remaining patient was discharged from Intensive Care and declared clear of the virus, so that there are no active cases!
This hasn't unfortunately helped our personal planning, as another island that has fared very well is Crete,but Greece is proceeding cautiously with letting in the much-needed tourists for the summer season (or what is likely to be left of it!)
The UK - whose passports and nationalities Greyrocks hold - and Spain - whence we will travel - are excluded from its list of "welcome" nations. Optimistically we have booked a flight for 3rd July! "Watch this space" means more than usual this time!
In the meantime we remain on Phase 2 - (although a tentative  case was made to join the little islands moving on tomorrow). It has meant we can now eat inside at restaurants - and did during the week. We also attended a birthday party on next door's roof terrace with 9 of the 10 permitted guests. whilst still on Phase 2, but more of this to follow!

Racing through the Phases

We suffered a bit of a glitch with the "safety measures" between the last posting and the onset of Phase 1. Our washing machine - which lives in the bathroom  - so up two flights of stairs from the complex entrance - has been under-performing for most of its short life and becoming very noisy. We ordered a new one from the superstore in Puerto and its delivery would be on 9th, but we had not been warned of the Co-vid 19 regulations in place and the masked guys delivering it would do no more than get it up the external stairs and just inside the front door. We spent that weekend with a washing machine in the living room, and on that Monday morning engaged the janitor and oppo to wrestle it up the stairs.

Most welcome after fifty days!

That apart Phase 1 began very well on the Monday (11th). Bob was the first client since lockdown at the opticians and Ruth dropped by at the newly-reopened physiotherapist's eventually securing an appointment for the Wednesday and our cleaner Gloria rang to say she too was back in action and would come early on Wednesday. But the most welcome de-escalation for Greyrocks was the highly-regulated opening of bars with terraces. We agreed that Anno 2011 would be a likely place - given its large beach-side terrace and not too tourist-dominated clientèle. Ruth arrived to find  Bob already well into his first caña and seated with five other British locals we know. It seems that Natalie had - unknown to refusniks - publicised the opening on Facebook and it was about as full as it was allowed to be in Phase 1, with some of the well-spaced tables at full ten-person capacity. we spent several hours there, during which there was a visit by a Guardia Civil vehicle. The occupants found nothing amiss and after doing the turn went away with a wave. Predictably there was a huge cheer! The sun was shining and the atmosphere friendly and gentle.

Not so - we learnt some time later - at all bars that opened! A very popular (surfers') bar was "raided" and closed later that day for several breaches of the rules! These are quite tough and a number of bars have chosen not to open - either because they need the tourist trade - or their outdoor space is insufficient (or both!).

First Thurs Club meal out: Tapas Oscar

After a day of abstinence and rest we decided to resume eating out! Until Phase 2 this would mean on a terrace and so the range was limited to those for whom it was deemed worth opening, and also thinking about eating early as the evenings are still a bit chilly! So during this phase the "Thursday Club" had a great feast at Oscar's starting at 4 pm, we went as a couple for a late lunch at Marquesina and and a second trip to Oscar's on our way home from somewhere , and the said club met on Wednesday evening at Domingo's resorting to fleeces as time passed! When the wind direction changed Greyrocks also made trips to the bar-restaurant at La Galera Beach, where the weather was glorious. The eateries are not permitted to have menus on tables (or anything else) so boards are used with some cutback on what is available, but it is still a delight to have this freedom.

Even during the two weeks of Phase 1 there were amendments to the rules. As recorded before the surfers had been incensed by the restrictions on when and where they could take to the waves, so midway these were relaxed considerably, and larger shops which were not due to open until today found ways round this. Everyone has been waiting for places like the Chinese "sell everything" markets to open their doors. Greyrocks' own deprivations were printing paper and a doorbell, neighbours needed a toilet seat, but it could have been so many household items! Midweek our nearest such shop re-opened early by cordoning off sections to meet a maximum floor area of 400 square metres. Clever move, that! Sports fishing has been added and finally - and less welcome - was the national ruling on face masks which came int force on Thursday. So far we are not aware of anyone being found wanting over this, and the street patrols seem much less prevalent!

The move to "the new normal" here feels entirely timely with our continuing good health record. There have been no new cases of the virus on the island for ten days, and at some stage in the last few days the home-based case became a recovery with little fuss meaning we have only the very extended stay in ICU for our only case!

There will be more on travel in and out in a coming post - including Greyrocks' "escape plan", but for now here is a new promotional video for the island aimed at visitors from other islands and the Peninsula when Phase 3 arrives and makes this possible. Meanwhile it's "Welcome to Phase 2"

"Strange times, indeed!" - Phasing for dummies!

There were six days during which the town's children were allowed out on the streets for an hour's exercise with one adult. but otherwise it was just the solo shopping trip. Then - on Saturday 2nd May - a form of liberty came into force with the national phase 0 for all! The rules were certainly much simpler than the arcane Canarias proposal that had been widely publicised but fell on stony ground! The practical difficulties with this one were first that a kilometre doesn't get you very far, and enforcement was going to be nigh-on impossible. This seems to have been overcome by having little or no enforcement! Second - and crucial for Greyrocks and friends - is what to do if you are a mixed couple in terms of the 70 years-old boundary. Those with children have been complaining that the specified hours for their release from home coincide with the hottest part of the day.

Others, though, would be happy to be out and about at that time, for the "surfistas" (unless over 70 - as per Jimmy Buffet!) have to stop by 10 am! As they are not supposed to drive to their chosen spot they have been visible in large numbers from our balcony, and this video shows up to 800 enjoying themselves on the first Saturday from Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas!

"Off you go!"

By 10.10 am on that Saturday we had met four other British neighbour couples with at least one "oldie" triumphantly promenading round town, and seen many others of various nationalities. The "out of range" partner is nominally the carer, which has irony in some cases! Bob has had some long bike rides on his "new" one, and Ruth is working up to another attempt to get in the saddle! Alongside this new freedom to roam came the news that four turtles had been found on the beach near Corralejo and were helped back to the open sea by conservationists from the  south of the island!
Phase 0 has also included the limited opening of hairdressers and some other very small shops, and -to our great relief - takeaway food services. This latter has meant a let-up in home cooking, whereby Ruth has never been so active in the superbly designed kitchen, and has been self-actualising and Googling aplenty - resulting in a burgeoning freezer! But with so many good restaurants and tapas bars the attraction has been diminishing! A cooked chicken from Fuerte Pollo covering numerous meals for two, and a Chinese from Lemon Tree delivered to the Thursday Club have been very welcome!

Lest it seems that Greyrocks is celebrating the end of the strictest lockdown without regard to its health benefits we can also report that the infection data - which we peruse intently each morning -  show just how "safe" is the island! Today there is just one active case! The patient is in the UMI (ICU) of the hospital. Bizarrely at one stage this week it looked as if absence of sufficient UMI beds would prevent us moving to the next stage of deescalation, but an exception has been made and we are due to do so on Monday!

We await a Canarias version of the exercise timetable - due to be issued today! Watch this space for news of Phase 1, which 51 percent of Spanish residents can enjoy from Monday.