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

Wednesday 15 January 2003

Today was a day for rest and relaxation; a funny concept when one is on vacation. Shouldn't every day be for R & R?

As usual, we started with a breakfast at Omi Marga's upstairs in 401. We're in 303. It's interesting to me how the food tastes different. Today we had tuna fish; different. I always thought most tuna was caught somewhere in the vicinity of Thailand, and it all tasted the same. This train of thought will probably make more sense tomorrow.

For the first time on this trip I connected to the Internet. Before I left I found out about a free Internet Service Provider (for Spain only). I made a new network configuration with their dial-up and server information. Now I get a chance to try it. There's a long time as unfamiliar dial tones are heard, then the familiar modem negotiationg, and then I'm in at 42 kbps! Yes! I upload these web pages and start downloading email, all 500 messages! I'll read all the back-and-forth on the mailing lists to which I've subscribed this evening, after all have gone to sleep.

Here you can see me sitting on the floor, watching the progress of all the up- and down-loading. Lila is presumably figuring out what wire on which to tug.

Lila has been getting more sophisticated daily. She's been working on gentle manipulation. Here she's convincing me to open the bathroom door to see what Isaac is doing in the bathtub. She's making eyes at me after brute force banging on the door didn't work. Making eyes didn't work either.

We stroll down the Avenida de Alfereces Provisionales to the beach. Isaac spends some time climbing in the rope structure, but the nor'easter winds and the driven sand chase us away after only a quarter-hour. To be sure, I was a bit older as I learned to cope with sand dunes and eye irritation. Here Rose and Lila check out the Ocean Atlantico while we're being sand-blasted.

We decide to have a late lunch. Rose tries the al mojo de ajo (shrimp in a boiling mixture of garlic and oil) while I venture into the paella. This restaurant has a huge paella tray with the day's dish on display. Here you see Isaac and Lila enjoying after-dinner helado (ice cream).

Isaac really, really, really likes his.

Lila is less exhuberant [here], but more methodical. On her tray you can see the remains of peas and saffron-colored rice.

We head back toward Atlantis Uno, but via a round-about way. From the top of the switchbacks I turn and take this panorama [click to see the full-sized image] of the beach-front commercial district.

We make it home, but not before Isaac spots a mini tren (miniture train) driving tourists around, probably between commercial centers. Anything train-related is interesting to Isaac, so we'll have to make a point of finding out how to ride the train. Once home Isaac watches a Wallace & Gromit DVD, then everyone takes a nap, and around 18:30 we wake, just in time to don a formal kilt and run downstairs to get into Heinz's car.

He drives us to the nearby town of El Tablero, which seems a throwback to a Gran Canaria of decades past. I remember unfinished sidewalks, vacant lots of rocky dirt, and an entire settlement where no English (or German) is spoken.

Tomorrow we're planning on visiting the lighthouse and recreational area near the lighthouse, the Faro Maspalomas.

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