Hissed off

A strange day for the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox.

Initial plans were to visit Palm Mar, then Las Galletas, then walk along the Costa Silencio. It all started well - the developments at Palm Mar do not seem to have moved on since last year, but friends tel us that they are very nice and also expensive. After a vrief tour, we moved on.

Las Galletas is a nice fishing town. It is istill predominantly inhabited by locals - not the inevitable incomers that have invaded so much of soutern Tenerife. Fishing boats were still selling their catch direct from the harbour wall as we went by. Much of the urban renewal that was evident last year has come to fruitition and there are nice clean walkways and boulevards where last year there were bulldozers and piles of rubble.

Costa Silencio was next on the agenda, and after a few moments we realised we had vistied this last year. This is a quiet tourist village with a wide spectrum of properties ranging from grotesque 1960's Gulag-style apartments to exclusive very attractive developments of fine houses with gardens and underground garages.

We then started to head back and GF took a turning earlier than planned, and decided to follow it to see where it went. This was a mistake. The road ran parallel to the autopista then looped under the road and up a gorge on the other side. The inquisitive side of GF's nature got the better of him and he followed it across a small bridge over the barranco and off between the banana plantations.

GF mentioned earlier in the week about the damage the winter rains had caused to the roads, and the huge potholes that spread like a rash across the Island. Driving between the plantations, GF found the mother of all potholes. There was no way to avoid it so we bumbed our way through. An ominous hissing became immediately evident. The confluence of wheel rim against tarmac, under the influence of both gravity and momentum had proved too much. Air was rapidly leaking from the tyre so GF had to stop. Fortunately all Patricia's cars are well maintained, so there was a spare in the trunk... though it was one of these confounded "get you home tyres". With the wheel soon fixed we abandoned plans for any further exploration and went back to the complex. GF explained what had hapened to Jose, and bBy late afternoon, Jose had knocked to say everything was fixed.

The other stange thing for the day was GF's whizzy new phone. It has sat there quietly fro the last 10 days... but today it started to make strange noises. Examining it, it has become clear that it has started downloading GF's email from work... a temptation to which he will not succumb!

[File under: Diary]