Tenerife Monday 6 July
The plan is to visit the Volcano at some stage, so part of the deal involves getting a permit to go up it. This means that you have to travel to the capital - Santa Cruz - (40kms away) and get a permit a from a mysterious office hidden in one of the streets across from the harbour. Bus to town and then local bus to the harbour. In fact the bus system is great in Tenerife. There is a 'Bono' bus ticket that you buy for 12 euros and this takes you in to town (at a reduced price) and also covers the onward trip on the local buses at no additional charge.
After breakfast we all set off. Arrive at the bus station and there is my squash colleague, Neil plastered up on the wall (he is a photo model). Then I get off at the relevant stop and the rest of the family head out to the 'golden beach' or Playa Las Teresitas San Andres - the only one on the island! My business doesn't take long. They are very helpful and speak great english. They explain that my 1 passport is not sufficient to get the permit. I need photocopies of all our passports as well as the originals. Sadly I don't have these so I head off to Las Teresitas. Arrive there and there his a 3 km expanse of beach covered with people (in various states of undress - did I mention that bikini tops are purely option in the Canaries - makes for some wonderful sights but also some frightening ones!). After walking the whole length of the beach twice, even I was getting bored and I still hadn't found my family. It was around 3pm and getting on for home time. Finally hidden under a tree behind a deck chair, there was Lauren.
On the way back, we stopped at the airport and joy of joys, we were able to pick up the remainder of the bags.
To celebrate, that evening we walked in to town and have a Tenerife meal of Mojo Chicken while guy had sardines. With all our bags we finally feel as if the holiday has truely begun!
Tenerife Sunday 5 July
Late start with breakfast at around 10am and the news from the front desk that a bag has arrived. The bad news is that it has to be collected from the airport (around 35km away) as we are foreigners (as in South Africans not Europeans) and they want the bags to be checked by customs. They have Fiona's name on the bag (although who is to say who's bag it is) so Fiona has to go to get it. We place our bets as to who's bag it may be although secretly we all hope that it is our own!
Fi bravely heads out at around midday and returns about 3 hours later with....my bag. It turns out that the customs were a little suspicious that a 'girl's' bag would be filled with all sorts of wires and mens clothes - also she looks pretty suspicious at the best of times! Usually this would have been the best option but by now we have replaced all of the chargers and electrical stuff that we need to survive.
In the afternoon we walk up to the botanical gardens to view a couple of Canary plants and all sorts of plants from other parts of the world (including South Africa). The kids have a great time and make friends with the turtles in one of the ponds.
In the evening the kids go to play soccer and we make dinner and try some Spanish wine (which is pretty good at the price - how we South Africans expect to compete when we must bring our wine all the way from South African AND pay duties, I have no idea. Certainly we never saw any South African wine in the Canaries!)
That evening we get the news that another bag has arrived - in fact that it was there while Fiona was battling her way through customs.
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