Ben Abroad: There and back again

Blog 20

A monument in Artenara

Our Pensione in Santa Cruz

View from the campsite

The past 9 days were spent enjoying the company of my dad, Graham, in the Canary Islands. I was granted 9 days as time-off and began these after working last Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I met my tearful father at Gran Canaria Airport. Dad had just completed the Camino de Santiago, walking 400km of the twelve hundred year old pilgrimage and would holiday with me before fetching Anna from London- she has spent the last 3 months in Wales with my aunt and uncle.

Other than the first two nights camping, dad and I had no plans. Even the plans we did have were thwarted. Camping was a 12km walk from a remote town called Artenara. The bus route-hitch hiking was unsuccessful- there was so infrequent that we only arrived after 8 at night. We were told that there was not one hotel in the town but a peculiar man moved about his tools and charged us to sleep in his spare single mattress room. Dad was slightly cautious but we accepted since we had no other options. Dad had had little sleep the previous evening and we both slept surprisingly well.

We bought coffee and supplies for lunch and began our walk. It was very pleasant under the pines of the meandering mountain road. It was a battle at the campsite to even use the 2 man hammock that we had with us. That night, the wind picked up and it was a very disturbed sleep- we wished for the single mattress of the previous night! Sleeping two people in a hammock is no easy task.

We speedily descended a steep dusty mountain path the next day to find no coffee shops in the town. We snacked and caught a bus to a larger town where we made great use of our 15mins on the internet, booking a hotel for the next three nights in the south of Las Palmas. We arrived at what dad called “time share deluxe” but had a great room- close to the pool, kitchenette and aircon. While in Maspalomas we sought an elusive KFC, swam, cooked and walked a fair amount.

On Monday we caught the Armas Ferry from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, to Santa Cruz, Tenerife. We had secured a car for the next three days but had to get to the south of the island to collect it. We hired a cute Fiat Panda which dad drove to Las Americas, remembering to stay on the right hand side. We rented a room that was in a complex highly populated with loud young Britons. They warned us about the night security man but we didn’t think he would have issue with us. Well at 2 am we were rudely awoken when the man came in with his torch shouting ‘NO’, ‘WATER’ and ‘BALCONY’. We tried to tell him he was mistaken but he yelled for us to keep quiet and then left. 2 minutes later he was at the door like a dog with his tail between his legs, apologizing.

After shopping and searching for another misreported KFC, we travelled north along the island’s west coast. We arrived at a quaint coastal town of Puerto de Santiago which had a fair in town that night. We dozed and swam on a beach with black sands and that night we could see the fire on the mountain which was becoming an increasing problem for the island of Tenerife.

We had booked to go up Mount Teide in the cable car the following day and then spend that night in the Refugio up top. The plan was to see the sun set and rise from Spain’s highest mountain. The mountain is in fact a volcano. After shopping for our curry dinner we planned to create, we arrived at the cable station where our view of the volcano was largely impaired by the smoke from the fire. Upon arriving we were informed that due to the fire the cars were not running for the rest of the day and perhaps longer. We were really annoyed particularly since we had asked to receive an SMS should there be any reason the cars don’t make the 1200m accent. We decided to follow a suggestion of going to a beach town we had not visited in the south of the island, seeing as we would have to return the car there the following morning. The drive should not have been more than an hour but once on the road we were prevented from going further due to the fire and had to go north, through the capital and then south again, taking about 2,5 hours. The town was worth it though and we had a delicious Rogan Josh with chips at a seaside restaurant. Unfortunately we couldn’t cook in the apartment.

After returning the car we returned to Santa Cruz by bus, found a beautiful old pensione with a balcony and high ceilings and began preparing dad’s bags for his flight the next day. After a shwarma lunch and semi siesta we walked to the port in time to see Africa Mercy returning from dry dock in Las Palmas. She left two days later than planned leaving dad and me anxious since he had some things in my cabin. Dad came aboard as my guest and we had dinner, a tour of the ship and even the engine room! So fortunate! After that we had Thursday night ice cream and dad met some of my friends on the ship and then it was time to leave.

Yesterday we went out for lunch with friends before saying goodbye to dad at the tram station. He has arrived safely in London.

I am so lucky to have such a father and to have had a holiday alone with him.

Thankfully I am off this weekend and I may get on with chores such as cleaning and emailing. Hopefully work will be in the galley once again when return on Monday.

I hope to get some more photos from dad and upload them soon.

As for prayers, could you please pray for peace and clarity over the uncertainty of what 2013 holds for me.