Yesterday, we waited for the employee of the car rental company for 1 hour. 4 calls later, we finally concluded that it was better to take a taxi and go directly to the rental office. Manual car, Louis will have fun driving it. I'm not going to practice manual driving here. Especially not today with all the tight curves that we will take on the way.
We left Marie-Andrée at her wonderful hotel, Santa Catalina, which we discovered when we came in March. We then went to the boat to see if everything was ok. Fortunately, the dry air in the region prevented the spread of mold, which is usually my first task on the boat. Louis set up the bimini and sprayed himself on the dock while I made the bed. Then, Marie-Andrée and I went to her hotel to wash up quickly before supper. We wanted to take away the feeling of feeling sticky. It did good.
We then went to a restaurant near the marina. We didn't want to go to our favorite restaurant because although she is still working there, Vanessa, our waitress in March, is off on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Octopus as a starter and garlic prawns, then steak with bacon and mushrooms for Louis and black rice with prawns for Marie-Andrée and me (we had a black mouth: it was perfect). We had a dessert resembling a chocolate lava cake and a semblance of a mojito smoothie. No calories at all, but at 3 it was reasonable. Oh and the “drinks” were perfect. They know how to receive in Spain/Canary Islands. They don't calculate ounces.
Then, return to the hotel for Marie-Andrée and on the boat for us. Sleeping pill to help us sleep the first night. You have to be in good shape to start the journey.
We slept very well. Woke up at 9am. We needed it. Cloudy and windy. Hot, but manageable hot. We each give ourselves a task to do: Louis removes the lower forestay/baby stay to change it. He took it to the store and they will make him a new one by tomorrow. I put lemon oil to prevent the proliferation of mold (just in case) in the bedroom and the bathroom and we go to find Marie-Andrée at the hotel. We're having an afternoon on the road today.
We want to take Marie-Andrée to a place we visited by scooter in March: Tejeda. We will enjoy the winding road with air conditioning. We stop at the restaurant where we met chickens the last time. We were starting to get motion sickness. Salad (as in March) and succulent roast pig that we shared for all three. When it is very hot, we eat less. It's 36-38 outside, we're hot. We quickly stop at Tejeda. The panorama is magnificent, but it is hot.
We quickly get out of the car a few times to take pictures, but we return quickly. We go towards Maspalomas to see sand dunes, but it is so hot on the road. We get out of the car, the wind is so hot. None of the three of us have experienced such a hot wind: I thought it was like the air from a clothes dryer, Marie-Andrée like an oven and Louis like a sauna. Amazing! We quickly returned to the car to see that it was 42.5 degrees outside. We even had 45.5 but we didn't get out of the car at the time, we were driving.
We stopped in Maspalomas to see the sand dunes. Marie-Andrée stayed in the car, she was not so interested given the temperature. So we went out Louis and I to follow a small alley to the dunes. Gorgeous! The sand burned our feet through our sandals, but it was worth the climb. Quickly back to the car because we're cooking.
Return to the hotel to enjoy the superb saltwater swimming pool and “drinks”. I lack water in my body so one is enough ;)
I take a few minutes to write to you on my deck chair. What a beautiful day we had! Hot, as you have no idea, but beautiful. But don't worry, if you want to come and check it out in July, even for the locals, it was a very hot day. We saw men building a stone wall in this heat, we told them that their wall was superb. Their courage was well worth a compliment.
Oh and weirdly it was 45.5 earlier and a few minutes later, going down the mountain a bit, it was a mild 38 when we went to the dunes. All is relative!!
It's time to wash off and go to dinner!
We're sending you heat from here!
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We were walking on a street/walkway on the edge of the ocean and found a small pizza restaurant there. Great, that's what we wanted. Back to our respective "apartments" and sleep. Tomorrow will be another big day. We have great activities planned before setting sail.
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