Angry, angry seas …

Grey, miserable seas!

Today, being our last full day, we decided on a leisurely start. I really didn’t fancy any breakfast, so Captain Clarke went down for a small partaking – I obviously don’t know what he had to eat, but a guess would be eggs, (probably a cheese and ham omelette), sausage, bacon and beans followed by some fruit, (he likes to eat healthily!). I sat on our balcony contemplating the very grey sea I could see in the distance. Something, or someone, seems to have upset the gods of the seas today. When Captain Clarke returned, we decided we would walk into town for a final time and have a wander around. I would get a coffee in a bar somewhere which would suit me for breakfast. And so, we wandered down to town. Once again we passed the bar ‘El Camino’ and once again it was not yet fully open – clearly they don’t do early! We resolved to return there for lunch.

Angry, angry seas!

As we arrived in town, two things became immediately obvious; one, we had sen the best of the weather this week, and two, the sea really was very angry indeed! We had previously taken pictures of the lovely sunny beaches where people were happily sun bathing and swimming in the beautifully clear waters, but now the seas were raging, the beaches were closed and the few people that were out and about were carrying umbrellas! What a change in just a few hours! We wandered down to our regular bar where I ordered a ‘cortado’, (not the best I have had here, it must be said), and Captain Clarke a gin and tonic, (this seems to be his preference pre-whisky time!). On the way we passed a number of electronic shops which, of course, I was drawn to.

As the day progressed, so did the sea roughness!

A number of the electronics shops appeared to be selling ‘GoPro’ cameras. These are a very popular camera for taking action photographs and I own a ‘GoPro Hero 3’ which I have suspended below ‘Dave the Drone’ for taking pictures. It appeared now though that the ‘GoPro Hero 4’ was available. For the photo techies amongst you, this is a camera that takes full 4k video at 60 frames per second! I decided to enquire of the price, (big mistake!). The first shop in which I enquired offered to sell it to me at exactly the same price as I can buy it in the UK – clearly no bargain there. I decided, more out of interest than anything else, to ask in another and see if, like the perfume previously, there was any difference in price. There was! The second shop I enquired in offered to sell it to me at a significantly discounted price. The third was discounted but not by quite as much and the third at a  similar price. I explained to Captain Clarke that I was tempted to buy one. His view was that for the sake of a few pounds it was probably better to buy one in England and benefit from the ability to send it back if anything was wrong. I pointed out that the ‘few pounds’ was actually well over £100 discounted and was well over a third of the total price discounted. On that basis we decided to enquire more seriously.

There were some big rollers!

We went for our coffee, (and gin), and then returned to our favoured store. I spoke with the proprietor and told him that he wasn’t offering sufficient discount, (even though he was by far the cheapest, but I didn’t share this with him), I told him he had to get the price to below €200, which would have been less than half price in the UK. After much troubling, (and mention of his family and children), he agreed. I decided to make the purchase. Just before I did, however, he told me about a ‘very special deal’ he could do. He had a Pro 5 Hero that came with all the accessories you could ever need, it had a screen on the back, (which the GoPro 4 Hero didn’t), it had a remote control and could connect to your phone wirelessly … and he could do the whole lot for €250! We decided to look at it. Everything that he had said was true – it had all the accessories, (and some), the screen, the remote control, connected wirelessly, etc., etc. We decided that it was too good a bargain to miss and purchased immediately. We returned to the hotel to charge our new purchase.

The view from our balcony this morning

Upon return to the hotel, I decided to look at it again. It seemed an amazing deal! I Googled the camera to see what others thought of it and then came to a small learning point – the ‘GoPro 5 Hero’ is not yet released. What I had missed was that he had never said ‘GoPro 5 Hero’, just ‘Pro 5 Hero’. The packaging looks the same, the fonts etc., are the same and, to be fair, it does produce 4k video, it does have everything that the ‘GoPro 5 Hero’ will have when it comes out, but it is not a ‘GoPro’ camera. Having given serious regard to my options, I came to the conclusion that at no time had he pretended it was a ‘GoPro’ camera and he had never said that it was. It really was a case of ‘caveat emptor’ and I had fallen for his patter wanting to believe it was a ‘GoPro’ camera. Deciding that there was nothing I could do about it, I charged it up anyway and later we walked back to the town to take some video. In actual fact it takes superb video, (which I have no idea how to put on here!), so I don’t think I was completely done. I am merely the proud owner of a perfectly functional, very well made, camera that no-one has ever heard of!

Tapas for lunch!

On the way to the town, Captain Clarke and I once again passed ‘El Camino’. This time it was fully open … and full. We were obviously not destined to go there this time. We continued walking until we came across a small tapas bar, the name of which I do not recall. We wandered in and sat at at the bar. The lady and, I assume, her husband, were in the middle of what can best be described as ‘a domestic’, but they did manage to serve us with half a smile, (although grimacing at each other!), some very tasty tapas. ‘Croquetas de Pollo’, ‘Tortilla’, ‘Aceitunas’, ‘Jamon Serrano’ and a little ‘Pan’. Captain Clarke washed this down with a local beer, I a tonic water. One thing we must remember about Tenerife is that the portion sizes, even for a tapas, are often exceptionally large!

Ready for Dinner

And so, we returned once again to our hotel for a little relaxation. Captain Clarke only managed a very short siesta as time had marched on and it was later than we had anticipated. Once again the rain had arrived, (in some style), so for our evening meal we took a taxi into town. I should explain about another taxi driver from yesterday. He asked how come we speak Spanish, so we explained that we had lived in Mallorca 25 years ago. He immediately told us that he has never left the islands. He and his wife are afraid of flying and would never dream of getting on plane. They once got a boat to Fuerteventura but it was a complete nightmare and they would never do that again! He seemed to find it hilariously funny that he had never left the islands, although his sons had been all over the world! Very strange!

Hunger setting in!

For dinner we decided to go to a restaurant that we hadn’t been to before but that had one an award on Trip Advisor for being ‘exceptional’ this year. Called, Cafe Mika, we eventually found it on a small side street. I really wasn’t hungry after my tapas earlier, but Captain Clarke was a little peckish. I had some ‘Langostinas al Ajillo’, (prawns in garlic), and Captain Clarke had a fillet steak in roquefort sauce with chips. If I was to be brutally honest, I didn’t think that the food was as good as we had enjoyed elsewhere. There was nothing wrong with my prawns, but there was nothing exceptional either. Captain Clarke’s chips were not really cooked enough and his steak was just OK. I declined wine on this occasion so Captain Clarke only had the one glass and the price of the meal was as much as when we had had dinner, a bottle of wine, coffees and brandies elsewhere. It wasn’t expensive, nothing is in Tenerife, but it wasn’t exceptional either. I don’t think we will return to that particular restaurant.

This morning really is our last. Captain Clarke and I are about to visit the restaurant for breakfast for the last time. Once packed and ready to depart, we will take our little hire car back to Tenerife North airport and commence our journey home. We fly from Tenerife to Madrid first and than from Madrid back to Gatwick. It is, of course, an Iberia Express flight, so my expectations are not high. This may well be my last entry for this particular trip, but should anything eventful happen on our journey home, you can rest assured I shall report on it here! Will we come back to Tenerife? Definitely! We are already looking at a booking in February. Would we stay at the Hotel Botanico again? Certainly! Would we fly with Iberia Express again? Never!!! Enough said!