"We will fight them on the beaches.. Brexit and Covid!!

BRST (Bob and Ruth's Summer Time) started on May 15th (and who knows when it will end?) It was "touch and go"  right "up to the wire". The shape of the John Hopkins graph of new cases in Cyprus conveys just how much things improved as the supposed departure date approached!

 We reached the point of feeling secure in setting off, but got tangled up in bureaucracy. Lufthansa - whose connecting flight we had found - sent an email offering to check Covid documents in advance, so we sent our certificates from the Health Centre showing our two doses of Pfizer product (with dates and lot numbers). By return we were told it was the wrong thing! Cursing the idea of two lots of EUR120 for PCR tests just to get us through a two hour layover in Frankfurt, we went to the clinic to book and juggle with deadlines and were told their German clients were all having only antigen tests at EUR40. That was something positive!! 24 hours before flying we submitted to Cyprus our flight and vaccination details and received our Cyprus Flight Passes. Phew! It seemed they were happy with the paperwork! We sent them off to Lufthansa and got the OK and a wodge of paper for check-in, But ....

Looks alright to us!

In between bureaucratic crises we managed to see out our seven month stay in Corralejo in style with some music, some good food and some time with friends.  We had - as a first time in paying for ourselves - booked the cheaper Business Class for a variety of reasons and that got us to check-in quickly with positive results. There were a dozen or so international flights - mostly to Germany and Italy - and the airport was quiet. The first flight was a delight:- a superb meal, plenty of drinks and plenty of info in English. The walk to the next gate was a long one through a tunnel with the travelator going the wrong way and we got our first post-Brexit passport stamps recording an exit from Schengen. "How long have you been in Germany?" "About an hour". So - an expensive beer and a casual walk to the gate, where mayhem was unfolding!!

There were disorganised queues everywhere and frequent announcements. There were people with test results or vaccination certificates but no Flight Pass. We sailed up to a desk and were told we still needed to get a stamp. Whilst there we witnessed a confused and angry passenger from Paris who had none of these and appeared to know nothing about it! He was not allowed to board! We waved our passes, but the employee was confused! It was not the right piece of paper, but she reluctantly stamped us and we boarded. There was a single man in Row 1 (First Class) then us and beyond a handful of others in Business Class. The service was even better and the meal also excellent. We were addressed by name and kept well-watered. 

As we landed in Larnaca the Tannoy said we would be screened for health and would  then either proceed to Immigration or be sent to the Test Centre. Confidently we presented all the accumulated bumph and had the familiar interchange with the nurse. We should never have been given the Pass; we should not have been given onward boarding passes; we should not have been stamped in Frankfurt! He had seen the Spanish certificate and this wasn't right! So at 2.30 am we are standing on the tarmac outside a field hospital waiting to pay EUR30 each for a PCR test! Even the official taking the money thought it all strange, but Hey! The Border official was unfamiliar with UK passports, and then someone had taken one of the suitcases off the belt causing further anxiety for the aged traveller! Our ride was waiting for us as about the last passengers out of the terminal for the night, and we got to the hotel by 3.30. SMS confirmation of our negative status arrived next day!  

So Greyrocks has spent ten days in the new bolthole: two and a half in Larnaca, and the rest in Paphos, where we remain without an exit strategy, whilst we wait to see if Cyprus goes "green" in UK terms before - say - early July. If not it's a long haul to a direct flight to Chania for the planned stay! Thoughtful analysis (!) of the island's good and less good aspects for us will be the subject of the next post. Meanwhile we are feeling pretty clever for exploiting the loopholes left open by the British "culture war"!  

 (Some schadenfreude when we saw that the hotel TV in Larnaca can no longer show UK channels and there is a shortage of HP Sauce! Taking back control?")

We're off!!

 Much water has passed under the bridge since the last post, but it is mostly positive!

The island came off Level 2

After the disappointment highlighted in the last post we were soon restored to Level 2 status, and the curfew advanced and tables could be of size 6 people with the option of eating inside. We were considered to be the lucky island:- the two big ones were having Covid problems, and Lanzarote went the other way and has since suffered a nasty outbreak based on a gym   leaving it in trouble! We took advantage of the lower level and went for tapas inside several of our favourite places. 

And the numbers continue to bring joy! There was a day last week when the total number of active cases was 13!An outbreak amongst quarantined migrants has been the main reason that this is now a bit higher, but as of today no-one on the island is hospitalised with the virus.

 All of Spain is off the State of Alert and furniture has gone off the pavements, 

This happened on Monday, and there is an on-going dispute between the Canarian government and Madid over measures that the former wishes to retain p principally a curfew and restrictions on visits from the Peninsula. Table size can now be 10, and  -hallelujah - licences for street music are now being issued. With more customers now allowed inside and on terraces the special measure of spreading tables into the street has been rescinded. Tours are now being organised. It all feels like the "beginning of the end" 

Greyrocks is off on its Migration

Ironically, therefore, we are off on our summer excursion. This follows a worrying period in terms of Cyprus and Covid. We have been monitoring this and as numbers grew there was a suggestion that their heavy lockdown would be partially retained. We got cold feet. But the tax and Brexit rules do mean we have to go, and - in fact - we are assured that we will face only light restrictions and  - as far as Cyprus is concerned - our vaccination certificate will suffice and get us the Safe Pass needed for some activities, Unfortunately Lufthansa don't like the certificates and we need antigen tests tomorrow to get us through a two hour transit in Frankfurt. Watch this space for the account of the journey and arrival in the early hours of Sunday.

....but we are very "off" this new enterprise!

Finally a rant about the latest craze in town! The picture fails to convey the luminous lime colour of these "Link" scooters to be seen in random locations around Corralejo! They operate along the lines of the push-bike available to rent from point to point in many cities in Europe, except that those must be returned to a rack. These are left wherever the paid (or on offer free) time runs out! There are some rules but these are largely ignored and Greyrocks predicts a nasty accident and/or a drumming out of town!

Enough of the grumpy! Off to finish the packing!

Here is the Covid-19 news: Good, mixed and pitiful!

 

No "friends and Reflex is closed!

On Monday and again today our island press announced a day with no new cases, and yesterday just one. Along with a whole tranche of recoveries this brings the active cases down to 52, The pressure is off for the hospital and deaths sit at 13, with no new ones for weeks! A huge sigh of relief :- especially as on Thursday there were 30 plus new cases! This had put an end to hope that the restriction level might come down, as otherwise it might have done. Fingers are crossed for this week's review. Never mind: Level 2 is tolerable - for Greyrocks anyway! We have had two Sundays when Yiannis has played and sung by the beach at Anno 2011. .Unfortunately yesterday we were there again (celebrating our second vaccinations). We asked if the rule infringements of the more recent afternoon - mostly but not entirely young Italians dancing, moving around without masks and over-occupying spaces   - had escalated after we left and were told it had, it was noticed, and that there could be no more live music for the time being!! Such a shame: we were getting on very well with him, practising our Greek, and teaching a member of staff the word "malaka". (This was apparently appreciated by Yiannis)

Good news also on the vaccination front. The explanation for the lack of arm-twisting necessary to get Ruth "done" at the same time as Bob became clear when we saw that the rule for cohorts was years of birth not actual age. On this basis our neighbours (one older and one slightly younger than us) were seen the following week for AZ injections. Unknown at first to us the next oldest cohort was invited - initially through Facebook - and another couple of friends asked Ruth to help them get an appointments. So quite a chunk of Monday morning was spent using the contact number, trying to catch the instructions (in very fast Spanish) and then dealing in Spanglish with long ID numbers, dates, ages and times! Eventually we succeeded and they are off for first jabs today. We needed a drink but it was a MOTH day!

Moving towards the bad end of the news continuum: There was - here in Corralejo- a party with 84 guests busted at 3 in the morning 10 days ago (and eight other smaller ones as well!) We were intrigued as to its location and are still looking for some of the evident landmarks as we wander round town. No luck so far! Here is the Guardia Civil video!

A panic has now gone round the Greyrocks household over the data from Cyprus:- destined to be our Schengen-free bolt-hole in a couple of weeks. It's not too bad on the deaths front, but a tough lockdown has been imposed in response to a surge in cases. and it will last over Orthodox Easter -  which starts on Friday. We are not keen to spend our two weeks in those conditions - even if fully vaccinated, so Plans B to G are being made for the summer migration! 

Desperately sad was the news from our cleaner - a star amongst cleaners - when she came on Sunday. looking less chirpy than usual and dressed in black. She is from Colombia, and her older sister had died there during the week from the virus! This is the closest we have come to Covid death (two "degrees of separation") RIP

But there can be no tragedy to match in scale that in India! With eight wonderful holidays in Goa under Greyrocks' substantial belt we know it isn't the real India, but we follow the news with interest and pick up the vibe when there. Back in January 2020 when we were last there we were appalled at the sectarian populism of Modi. It seems it is this that has made him tolerate mass religious and electoral crowds. The ultimate death toll is blood on his hands.   

"Pass the shoehorn:- another island needed!"

 A sigh of relief throughout Fuerteventura this morning as we are the only island in the archipelago to change CoVid status after yesterday's meeting. There had been a hope that it would happen last week as Easter specials were removed, and indeed our Cabildo formally complained that the metrics did not support remaining at level 3 (red), but it was not to be! Thus, this week has involved outdoor eating and drinking, yet more arrivals of surfers/"diginomads", and even fewer sightings of police to attempt enforcement of the regulations. Greyrocks has nervously interrogated the data for fear of the post-Easter surge and miraculously it hasn't happened! ICU is empty of CoVid cases, deaths are at 13 and active cases 61. We move to Level 2 (amber) joining Lanzarote. On a rather dull day we can look forward to tapas inside!

We have also had ten days to absorb the significance of vaccination. With our TIE cards and the prospect of being fully jabbed by the end of the month we have turned our attention to a summer plan. Two positive rumours have been around concerning the travel opportunities for UK citizens with residency in an EU country. Both proved false! The Schengen website states:

Well, that's all pretty clear!!

We spent a sun-free afternoon trying to optimise the migrations and using the Schengen Stay Calculator.  Positioning stays in both Crete and France in months of decent weather whilst meeting the more arcane aspects of the180 day lumps is a recipe for brain-ache! Huge compromises have to be made, and we became (yet more) incandescent about Brexit! The wrong people are being punished for it!  But, then again!

There is no getting away from it: we can't have the long Cretan stay and two spells in Montpellier unless we are in one of them in mid-winter! We don't want to be more than six months here because of taxation. So: enter from the only slightly dodgy side: Greek Cyprus!

We were last there in January 1992, when we decided that it was not the best choice for mid-winter sun and our Fuerteventura fate was sealed. Now, however, it comes into its own as a place in Europe outside the 90-day rule (along with Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria) We're primed to give it a try this May! Subject to progress in CoVid recovery of course!

"Millennialisation" and "wrinkly patience pays off!"

 (A translation of one of four different messages around town:- some  of  which were in Italian -

"Stupidity knows no bounds, but the stupid need to obey the limits")

The Holy Week is over with schools re-opened on Monday. (The UK reader may know that here the festivo days are Thursday and Friday - with normality returning on the Monday) We went out that day and the town was eerily quiet!  Local tourists back at work and/or school, surfers hunting surf as we currently had nothing of interest, Germans gone down South, digital nomads online making up for days of indolence, furloughed locals skint after Easter, long-staying Brits all disappeared even a few days after the deadline, and all that was left wandering the streets was our tribe: wrinkly resident  - either EU nationals from the rational 27 or Brits (hopefully not Brexiteers) with the magic TIE or pending its arrival! Greyrocks went for an alcohol-free beer at Anno and the only folk there were of that tribe!

Just before we got there we were in the pharmacy when the Spanish mobile rang but we were too slow to disinter it! The number was a local landline looking official but calling it got us nowhere. Then yesterday morning the Health Centre called again to offer Covid vaccinations: on request to both of us! We agreed a time and this lunchtime were "done" efficiently and with goodwill! Dose 2 in three weeks, which may well beat what we might have had in UK as a full package, so "stop your crowing, Daily Mail!"

An infantile waving of flags aimed at Number 10!

This means that in a period of eight days we have achieved the status of welcome residents for at least ten years and partial Covid immunity (Pfizer of course).

Not that the residency thing was plain sailing! We heard that our cards were ready and Lorraine said she had a group appointment for the Monday morning (early as usual), so we considered an overnight in Puerto as in January, but the data was bad, so instead of a hotel we booked Dave Windows for a 7 am pick-up! The clocks had just gone back so -apart from a beautiful full moon - it was very dark. We arrived ridiculously early and discovered the usual cafeteria was closed for holidays! Another one was nearby so we killed a good hour there with various Brits, including someone exactly Ruth's age who had had her first jab in Caleta! Then Lorraine wanted to check documentation before we hit the police station! Oh dear! We had the main form and our passports but not the green A4 that would be forfeited! Later we realised we might have "got away with it", but at the time we stormed off and no-one was talking to anyone else! We got the 9 am bus back home and "nursed our wounds". The bus was almost as full as it is allowed to be during the crisis! Not our finest hour!

Later in the morning things felt better and we went online to see what would be involved in "flying solo" on this card collection.  With some Spanish and a bit of nous we got an appointment for the next day at a civilised hour!  This meant we could take the bus (nowhere near Covid capacity) and visit a shop before arriving early at the police station. There was no queue; the officer at the door followed us in and went behind the desk and found the cards and checked our fingerprints. We were out before the appointment time! It was beautiful day and we had tapas near the port and came home on a safely spaced bus! Job done! 

   

Wholly confusing in Holy Week

Today we enter our second week back in Level 3 (red traffic lights) This change was not unexpected as the figures for Covid cases on the island (and in particular our northern municipio) had been getting worse, the hospital - which has only 6 ICU beds - had declared a crisis, and there was dread regarding upcoming festivals. Fathers' Day here is celebrated  by date (in fact Saint Joseph)  and of course Easter is a movable feast. This year they occurred just ten days apart - thus forming a puente of potentially calamitous family get-togethers ad general cavorting! 

Having begun a campaign to encourage inter-island tourism and compensate for the loss of many international visitors, our "autonomous" government banned all non-essential movement, and subsequently allowed it with testing. Meanwhile our town's demographics have gone wild as laptops, skateboards, bare midriffs and hallucinogens replace the Daily Mail, mobility scooters, elasticated waists and happy-hour booze, owing to the "90-day rule" exodus of retired Brits and the rising popularity of the island on both digital nomad and surfer circuits (see last post)

Much anger is being directed at "young people" over their non-compliance with health measures - particularly masks and parties, so the fear for this week up to Easter is fair, but in advance of that things are slowly improving. We may be back to Level 2 next Thursday if folk behave themselves!

The difference between Levels 2 and 3 is significant for Greyrocks! It's not the table size or the curfew., but the fact that all eating and drinking must be outside. So it was a chilly game of Scrabble on Sunday, and a list of favourite places we can't frequent as their terraces are not inviting!  But the council has put in place permission to extend terrace seating way beyond the registered area. Also on Sunday we saw a remarkable site in the "cobbled street". Oscars - famed for great local food, competent service and a cavalier attitude to closing time - had expanded in three directions and the majority of the tables were occupied! 

Meanwhile council workers were attaching posters to lampposts (including English text) as part of a series called "I'm complying" focused on mask-wearing.  It is quite hard-hitting, but has our support! Let's hope it works!

   

And still it's up and down, in and out, can and cant!!

 Just a couple of weeks ago there was optimism about a return soon to some sort of normality here on our "lucky" island. Bars were staying open till gone midnight if they wished and tables were being pushed together to accommodate up to ten.  How things change! Yesterday our little and modest island featured in the Canarian press for being in top position for "7 day Accumulated Incidence" of Covid. It was also the anniversary of the commencement of the first "lockdown".

The graph tells the story! But it doesn't include Lanzarote, which has - presumably as a result of the very heavy restrictions over the past month - lost the title of Plague Island, and passed into a lower level than us. The only blemish to its achievement is the death yesterday of a 49 year-old resident:- the youngest on either island by a long way! Fuerteventura basked in its Level 1 glory for about ten days. but then with Carnaval Season approaching the tables were separated again. 

There were several dramatic breaches, but the crossed fingers have worked in part and despite the run of terrible figures last week we have so far stayed out of Level 3. But Easter looms and tomorrow the archipelago government meets to decide the restriction fate of each island. At the very least there will be the special "enhancements" which started yesterday, We are still on Level 2, but back down to four at a table and a 10 pm curfew.

The good news is that licences have been granted for outdoor live music - with no dancing!! So far Greyrocks has seen Eric at Anno on two Thursday afternoons and Yiannis (Greek!) at Anno on Saturday and has caught glimpses of some street musicians. Bob saw work going on in Rock Café, but it will be a while before it can open with or without bands.

One of five installations in the High Street 

Our municipio is regularly the very last in the Canarian Carnaval calendar, so whilst other places have long since got over their "non-events", illegal parties and Covid surge we have had to wait. The date arrived and our event has been the stationing of appropriately colourful "booths" celebrating carnivals past in photographs. They are in the fully pedestrian section of the High Street, so double up as slalom obstacles for young cyclists and skateboarders! 

By the end of the month any Brits who were here on 1st January will have to leave as a consequence of Brexit (for which we suspect many voted!) unless they have Spanish resident status, so we expect quite an exodus just before Easter. The Canaries are still regarded as high risk by Germany. Testing requirements for entry from mainland Spain have been tightened and so the overall tourism picture is very uncertain.  However, there is a campaign to encourage inter-island tourism over Easter:- centred round an online video full of "holy" references. It's worth a viewing.