Well, we made it to the weekend! Now we can finally kick back and relax. The best way to do that is to do some pool-side lounging. We've been getting morning rain pretty consistently here, but the sun was shining brightly by 9:30, so we got out our towels, staked out a few good sun-loungers and soaked up some rays. It was wonderful. So nice, in fact, that we even got warm enough to try the pool again. This time, instead of 'freezing', 'refreshing' was the operative word.
We're both making our way through our novels quite quickly. I think I've got the twists in the latest Dan Brown novel all figured out. Fiona's having some issues with 'The Number One Ladies Detective Agency' - the writing style and her tastes are not in total agreement. It's nice to be able to prioritise things like reading - something that for us, at least, tends to get shoved way down on the to-do list when things get busy at home.
After lunch we put on another coat of sun-screen (finishing the bottle we brought with us) and headed out into Puerto del Carmen. We walked the entire length of the esplanade into town, past several mini-golf courses (a local obsession, it seems), some beautiful sea views and more Germans than you can shake a stick at. We stopped at a cafe on main street for a sangria. Fiona's description - super tasty! When she asked for it, the waiter asked if she wanted a glass or a litre. At the time it seemed like a silly question, but after tasting it we probably would have ordered the litre - each.
When we started walking back we soon realised that we had stumbled into the middle of a local cultural event - just like we did in Nimes last year. This time around, instead of a full set of Roman gladiatorial games, we got to see a genuine Carnival parade. The people in the islands seem to take it very seriously as some of the costumes and floats were very elaborate. The music was great and large crowds of people lined the streets to watch. Equally large crowds of people in all sorts of costumes followed the floats. A bartender at one of the street side cafes was painted head to toe in red, with a convincing set of horns and a tail, beckoning people into his establishment. This went with the general flavour of the parade, as it was definitely one of the smoking-ist, drinking-ist parades I've ever seen. All of the groups had a person pushing a cart, pouring drinks for the crew members. I'm having a hard time convincing myself they were all non-alcoholic.
We found a good spot for pictures, managing to get up above the crowd. We sat there for a couple of hours as the parade went by, and then saw the rest of it as we walked back to our hotel. We cut across the beach for the last part of the journey. A small flock of little birds called sanderlings kept running away from us as we got closer. It was quite humorous to see.
Despite the early emphasis on relaxation, we were completely bushed by the time we got back to the hotel. Dinner was uneventful, although it seems we now have the rotating buffets figured out. Although the menu changes every night, our only real concern is trying to figure out where they've stashed the pretzel buns - sort of half-pretzel, half-dinner roll that combines the best of both. They try to hide them, but we always manage to sniff them out.
Counting on a big day on Sunday we went to sleep quite early. No late night clubbing on the islands for us.
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