2003 Gran Canaria: Along the Beachfront

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Gran Canaria

 

this trip's overview

(about the Islands)

SFO to LHR

stranded!

LHR to LHR

spending Iberia's money

baggage arrives

along the beachfront

visiting el Medico

Isaac's first haircut

R & R

Faro Maspalomas

cockroaches!

San Fernando

All over...

Puerto de Rico & Puerto de Mogán

el penultimo

on to London

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2003 Gran Canaria: Along the Beachfront

Sunday 12 January 2003

We're going to meet Omi Marga and some of her friends for a mid-morning coffee. On the way we stop off at the Sahara Buffet, at the beach terminus of the Avenida de Alfereces Provisionales, just down the street from the Atlantis Uno. We have what might charitibly be called an English breakfast, but the quality is so marginal that I wonder whether we've gotten our 5 €'s worth. Rose likes it. Isaac and Lila like the waterfall.

Once on the beach-front strip, we head to the southern end, where the recreational parachute jumpers aim to land. At this branch of the Café Mozart (there is another one nearer to the center of the strip) we meet Omi's cronies. Some of these, such as Hans and his wife, I know from previous visits to the Canaries. Others, like Ursula, I know from my childhood in Germany. It's always fun to get together with them.

The kids are a little underwhelmed by the adult get-together, and we try to keep them happy by playing in the sand (but it's full of rocks and discarded masonry), toys from nearby vendors (who seem to be annoyed by their customers), and the ice cream.

Finally, we head toward the climbing structure we enjoyed yesterday; the fellowship is ready for lunch. After much on-the-fly negotiations, they wind up at the Italienische Pizzeria Ristorante Da Lorenzo & Massimo (which we find out will be closing - after more than a dozen years at this location - because of the economic downturn). I order the gambas al ajillo (shrimps in boiling oil and garlic) and head to the beach-side of the restaurant, to climb.

Climbing isn't a new skill for Isaac, but these heights are something novel.

The structure is a web of heavyweight red rope woven into a pyramid, hanging from a central pole. Isaac, and other children (from about 3 to 40) are captivated by it's alluring simplicity. Here's our boy, with the IFA Dunmar in the background (for orientation's sake, if you know the area).

Isaac spends a bit of time chatting and climbing with some English girls, and later some German ones (who, despite their youth of around 4 or 5, speak passable English).

Isaac climbs remarkably high, higher than he can downclimb. I come up and pick him off, but only once each day. He's getting better, and starts to tease me, pretending to be stuck and showing off that he can negotiate his way lower just as I'm about to rescue.

Here's a panoramic view of the area, with the climbing structure at left, the Cruz Roja del Mar (Red Cross of the Ocean) in the middle, and beach chairs and the ocean in the background. Most of the panoramas which appear on these pages are thumbnails to bigger versions (for ease of viewing). If I've missed one, please let me know.

Here's another panorama, this one taken from high atop the climbing structure. The Dunmar is at left, the Cruz Roja del Mar at right. Hidden by the beach scrub, at the far right, are the famous sand dunes of the area, to which we'll go exploring soon.

And while we're doing the panoramas, here's a last one for today, of the dining area and surrounding knipes (dives or hole-in-the-wall eating places, in German).

All through the meal we take breaks from the adult-length goings-on. Lila is asleep, but Isaac wants to play and play. Here he is on the see-saw at the structure.

It's getting windy. In fact, now that I mention it, there are some really dark clowds over the next town to the north, San Agustin. Then I start to feel the mist and cool breezes.

We head back to the ristorante, in time to see the rains begin in earnest. We give Omi Marga one of our Ranger hats and a hotel towel and head up the Avenida de A. P. We don't get really wet. Lila is awake, and in my arms, wearing a hat and covered with another towel (and a sweater over a tee-shirt). Our little caravan of pedestrians strolls up the hill.

We get home, take a warm bath, and deliver our pile of food goodies (details later) to Omi Marga. The kids, which had seemed very tired, now are hungry, and so we go downstairs to the Deutsche Gasthaus Atlantis. The rain has made the courtyard into a deep puddle, so we knock on the kitchen door and are let in the back way. Dinner, as usual, is excellent. We share the Tornedaus Atlantis and the schweinehaxe, a traditional farmer's meal.

It's only after we get home that the rain really comes down. The Avenida de A. P. becomes a small stream. Taxis driving up it plow a wall of water which forms a boiling mist up to their windshields; they leave a long wake behind them. This is the best picture I could get. (I didn't drag the video camera out until the middle of the night, when I wanted to capture the winds howling through the area, pummeling the palm trees.

But it wasn't the winds which woke me, it was Lila. She's got a fever. We break out the travel kit, find the digital thermometer and infant acetominophen drops - I thought Rose was crazy to pack it all - grap a fresh diaper, and head back to bed.

21:00 102.2° F (39.0° C)  
22:19 101.4° F (38.5° C) 80 mg acetominophen
22:24 101.0° F (38.3° C)  
03:00 100.2° F (37.8° C) (Monday)
04:15 80 mg acetominophen
09:15 100.2° F (37.8° C)
11:00 101.3° F (38.5° C) 120 mg acetominophen
17:00 96.8° F (36.0° C)
19:45 101.6° F (38.6° C)

We'll see what tomorrow will bring. I'm hoping this'll be a short flu; Rose seemed to have a twenty-four-hour something. I'd really rather not have to visit the pediatrician, although we know from our 1999 trip to Africa that he's just around the corner.

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