Trip back to England

The past 2 weeks have been really busy at work and with travel. Friday I came back to the UK for a while. I managed to spend the weekend at home but didn't take any photos. We ended up doing shopping, most of which was unsuccessful. (I brought a new sim for my phone and after 2 days of it not working had to get a new one.) Still I had a nice time with my parents though we probably all had a bit too much to drink.

Sunday I came to Oxford where I'll be working for the next month. (And got my first experience with the replacement train buses.)
My apartment here is ... interesting. Thankfully I move to a new one on Saturday for the final 3 weeks! I am hoping it's better.

Still its good points are it is very pretty outside and in a nice part of Oxford, near the shops and some good restaurants and pubs.

View out my window 

Near the river.

The bad points are it seems to be falling apart. The water heater is in the bedroom and makes really loud noises throughout the night that have me jumping out of bed. (Now I have ear plugs so fingers crossed.) The TV and DVD player don't work. I can not figure out how to get the shower how to work. And last night the toilet stopped flushing. The letting agency got someone out to look at it today while as I was work. And I came home to this.

Missing a handle. 

The pipe seems to have replaced the handle.
And I am hoping (and a bit worried if) the plumber just has a twisted sense of humor.

"You can blow down pipe to flush". 

 I am not exactly sure what to do about this yet. :/

Updated: It does work but you feel like an idiot doing it. 

Los Abrigos

For the last day of my trip, I had seen a lot of adverts for a restaurant in Los Abrigos, along the coast on the southern most edge of the island. So I booked a table. It may seem odd to spend an entire day around going to a restaurant but why not? 

And it turned out great. Once I got there. Sunday buses are always an issues and my first bus never showed. So I scrambled to get another (I love mobile data) and caught the second one on time. And the nice bus driver (I had many lovely bus drivers that day actually) let me know when I needed to get off.

Los Abrigos

The town, well village really, reminded me of Padstow in Cornwall. And Sunday was the last day in their week long festival. Which was a bit like May Day but more religious.

Celebrations.

Service.

The gathering turned out to be a service of some sort. I took a few photos and people watched. I felt really sorry for the priest and was amazed he carried in for so long. It must be a really important service because it was another super hot day. He must have been melting.

Giving service

They love having these statues and carrying them out for festivals, which they also love.

Idols.

Virgin Mary (who later on nearly took a header)

Not everyone was interested in the service. This guy was determined to keep fishing, no matter what. Though I doubt he caught anything, given the number of people jumping into the water and the number of boats.

I will fish!

There were lots of flowers around and it was all very colorful. And from what I can tell, alcohol soaked.

flowers

Part way through the service, a group of boats showed up, loudly hitting their horns and yelling on the loud speakers. They were part of the parade but the timing wasn't the best. The poor priest had a hard time competing.

Boats arrival.

Religion meets carnival.

Decked out.

The sign helped informed me that this was for San Blas and the Virgin Carmen. Which honestly didn't help at all. I later found out it is to bless the fisherman and their boats.

San Blas

After the service finished, they took the statues to the boats. One was on wheels. The others were carried by pole bearers.

Sailing to the boat.

Virgin off for her trip.

The little guy tried to help. So sweet.

They put the statues on the boats. Which were docked 2 deep. This seemed like a very tense time.

Off to the boat.

nearly...

They then proceeded to stuff as many people onto the boats as possible. Which did not seem like a great idea. I had a table booked and decided that was probably for the best. Though I was curious how many people it would take. Frankly it was chaos. But everyone seemed to be having a good time.

Everyone on board. 

There were also lots of smaller boats joining in. Again with no regard for the maximum limit of the boat. (My favorite was the moored little dingy. I thought it was so cute that some one had gone to the effort of mooring it.)

Moored dingy.

Precarious.

Nothing say festival like a flashing virgin Mary

After some confusion and interesting maneuvering, the boats set off to visit one other sea ports and fishermen.

Ready. 

Briefly going in very much the wrong direction.

And they are off.

And peace reined once more for a while. So (after changing as I was super hot - no one paid any attention), I headed to lunch. :) My restaurant was very nice and had a lovely view.

Great view for lunch

The food and wine was great and I ended up chatting to the Irish couple sitting next to me who explained the festival and some more cool places to visit while I am here. We had just finished when the boats came back. They love the loud speakers and once they returned it was basically time to start partying.

And they are back

They had to get the idols off the boats again and back up the hill. It was at this point we heard loud yells and I saw the Virgin Mary nearly meet her end which would have been a very bad omen I am guessing. (Never trust very drunk pole bearers. It is unlikely to end well.) They managed to save her and get them all safely up the hill. Though how is a mystery since some of them coming back down were having great difficulty walking in a straight line.

Up the hill

I felt sorry for the priest. The poor guy look exhausted and over boiled.

Preist just wants to go home.

The music then started. And I decided it was time to go home. The buses once again took their time, but thankfully my second bus driver was as sweet as the first, told me where I needed to get off and even drew me a map of how to get to the next bus stop. Which I would never have found without the map as it required some death defying trips across a motorway roundabout to get to. It took about 3.5 hrs to get home and I was exhausted when I made finally it. You save money on the buses but not time.
Monday was a bank holiday here so I could sleep in (Yippee!) and Skype friends, before spending the afternoon working. (Well you can't have too much fun after all!)

Kayaking with dolphins

On the Saturday, I booked diving and sea kayaking in Palm Mar, just south of Playa de Las Americas. I was the only one so for the morning dive I had the 2 instructors all to myself. We went a little deeper (14m) than you are supposed to go as a beginner (12m) but that was fine with me. I couldn't take any photos and honestly it was to murky to see much. But I did see some sting rays and an octopus. :) However I think having dived the Barrier Reef, I may be spoilt for life. 

Getting out was a mission. We dived from the beach which is stones and has a sharp drop off. Getting out with tanks and weight belt, plus my legendary grace and balance ... never going to be described as elegant or particular effective. Some people on the beach were watching and laughing. I dare them to do any better! 

Palm Mar beach

After lunch, Paolo took me sea kayaking. A family had booked the use of some kayaks but went off on there own. We headed out to look for dolphins but they didn't want to come and play that day.

Around the fishery again.

Good view.

It was insanely hot on Saturday. I ended up dumping my cap in the water a few times to cool off. Thankfully I had loaded on the sunscreen so I didn't get kayakers leg. (I saw an example of this while in Virgina. Not a style I want to try. Though I appreciate Kenny showing this style off so I could avoid it.)

Calm waters

We wondered/paddled around, chasing glimpses of dolphins but they were much too quick for us. (Though it is amazing how much quicker you can paddled when you are trying to get somewhere. Or not show your partner exactly how useless you are at this.) There were only 2 lone dolphins and they were babies, which apparently is unusual as they are usually in pods. I think these were 2 teenagers off on a joy ride and didn't want to get caught out on their own. The adults are more curious than the babies so we only caught glimpses as the dolphins fished around the nets (spoiling their dinner I bet).

Checking out the cliffs.

Dolphin!

It was around this time my waterproof camera decided it did not like the heat. So the photos became increasingly washed out. (I think it is time to save up for a new one.)
We checked out a sea cave which on my own, I would have avoided. Thankfully Paolo knew what was safe.

Sea cave

If it had of been down to just me, I would either still be out there or would have never managed to get out in the first place. I would like to think I managed to pull my weight in the paddling department, but I can't delude myself to that extent.
We were out for about 2-3 hrs and that is a lot more upper body than I have done in a while. It was a lot of fun, but I still ache now, 3 days later. 

Sailing and whales

Last weekend I took a trip down to the south part of the island to do some exploring. When I got up Friday morning, it was raining in La Laguna. :( But it sort of cleared up. I have been getting the buses around, which are cheap but take some time. It took about 2 hours to get to the south of the island.  

I managed to get to the boat at Costa Adeje in time to sit and have a coffee before we set off. The Blue Jack is a small boat and only takes 11 people out at a time. It was more expensive than some of the others, but they have 50+ people on board. No thanks.

Staking out my spot.

I ended up sitting right at the front of the boat. A perfect spot for one. I felt a little guilty blocking the view but there wasn't anywhere else to sit so tough.

Sailing away from shore

First we headed out to the fishery nets. I was a little confused by this (not very scenic) but the dolphins hang out there. Apparently they love sea bream which are grown in the nets and patrol for escapees (to just bite their way into the nets!).

Dolphin.

Happy swimmers.

After the dolphins decided to go off for a swim we headed further out. Some boats had spotted a pod of pilot whales. Because we were on a sail boat with the sail up and no engine, we just glided up to near them. They didn't seem to care and came to investigate and play!

Pilot whales

Racing us!

<Insert Jaws theme tune>

They came right up to the boat. They were about 3-5m long and not shy.

Saying hello.

Popping out from under the boat.

 I did jump a few times when one surfaced the other side of me.

Whale below

Surfacing.

Off for a dive...

... and back up for air.

I should point out that none of these photos are zoomed in. This one really made me jump! I was sitting right at the front and looked down just as he/she came up to say hi.

Hello!

After scaring me.

Had enough playing now.

After about 20mins, they decided we weren't interesting any more and swam off. It was so cool. Then the crew came round with drinks, which included Cava. As I was on vacation (even if it was only a couple of days), way not!

Cava with a view.

I look a little nervous in this shot as they were putting up the sail behind me and I was a bit concerned with going over board.

Happy (but nervous)

Shortly after, while we were sailing along the coast to our next stop, the weather clouded over. At least it stopped me from getting sun burnt. Although I did manage to burn the bottom of my feet. We couldn't wear shoes on the boat, and the floor was hot! I was walking very gingerly for the next few days.

Sailing.

Not the best weather.

We stopped in a cove for lunch (very tasty sandwiches and they made me some especially with GF bread which was very sweet) and a swim. I went in briefly and the water was warm but there wasn't a lot to see. It was too murky. Still I had fun sharing my lunch with the fish.

Fish lunch.

While we were there another boat pulled up. It was one of the larger boats and so crowded. I was very happy I was not on that boat! And by the looks on the faces of the others on my boat, so were they. On the way back the weather cleared up a little of course, so I still got to top up my tan.

Headed back to port. 

I was lazy (and surprisingly tired for having not done a lot) and got a taxi to my hotel in Playa  de las Americas. The room was nice, though the electrics were ... ad hoc.

Plug?

While lounging around, I got a knock at the door and a very nice lady handed me a surprise bottle of Brut and some chocolates. I am not entirely sure why but once I established it was for me, from the Hotel (not some pyscho who had seen me in the lobby and was trying to find my room number by following the wine - too much Criminal minds, I know) and it was free, I happily took them off her.

Surprise!

Apparently it was a "thank-you for staying with us" gift. Given that they were giving me free wine, I decided to over look the fact they assumed I must be a man (despite booking with my own name, which is decidedly not male). I enjoyed this over the 2 nights I was there.

Mr. Harris?

For the evening, I had done some research and found the "best restaurant in Playa de las Americas" according to Trip Adviser and booked a table. I was glad I did because it was packed and they were turning people away. I wasn't too impressed with Playa de las Americas. It was super touristy (not my thing) and made me appreciate living in La Laguna instead. I took a few photos before going for dinner.

Fountain

Main concourse.

Sunset

Bit like Vegas

The Hard rock was very popular.

My restaurant, Imperial Tai-Pan, was lovely. The sushi was really good and I got to feed my addiction to Hot and Sour Soup. It was bit more expensive than other places (a lot more than anywhere in La Laguna) but good sushi is worth it. (Though I think I paid more for 2 bottles of water than the sake.)