Garachico and then on

Back in Garachico on the Sunday, we looked forward to the arrival of our friends Sue and Mally on Tuesday. They planned to spend a week with us so we had postponed planned visits to El Tiede and  La Oratava so that we could go together.
The centre of La Oratava is a historical gem with streets of historical buildings, some dating back to the 16th century.

We also managed to get Mally (a notorious late sleeper) to rise early enough to catch the one daily bus from Puerto de la Cruz to the cable car at the base of EL Tiede's summit, Unfortunately the only time slot available was 20 minutes after the one return bus of the day left at 16.00. As it turned out, the cable car was later stopped for the day due to strong winds. I would have left the other 3 to make the trip in any case as cable cars are not my idea of fun. Instead we enjoyed a picnic lunch and a walk around the weird rock formations and the bus journey itself, which took us above the sea of clouds, was worth making.

A trip to the neighbouring town of Icod  with a visit to the overpriced  museum and the excellent butterfly house, a couple of swims in the saltwater pools and a very good meal in our favourite local restaurant and their visit was over and we were waving goodbye and promising to do it again soon.

 Once more on our own, we walked steeply uphill one day to the next small village with amazing views of Garachico en route.

Then it was time for the rigger and his co- workers to arrive and shorten our roller reefing  gear. They did an excellent job and the company in France who carried out the original work of fitting the gear have agreed to foot the bill.

Sunday was my birthday so another walk was in order. This time up a gorge, down the mountainside (unfortunately too much road work on this section) then along the coast. Then back to Garachico in time for another meal at the favourite place (with free lemon liquers thrown in as a treat).

Monday saw us in the capital, Santa Cruz, where we had to sign out from Europe. Although we planned a brief visit to La Gomera and a few weeks on El Hierro, neither island offers signing out facilities. Signing out was straightforward but unfortunately at some point in the morning I lost our shared mobile phone. Hours of revisiting places and practising my improving Spanish proved pointless so we had lots of people to inform via messanger and e mail and we have now invested in a pay as you go phone with no data. Data on the phone would be too expensive after El Hierro in any case but none the less it is frustrating. Still we have a laptop and a tablet and internet cafes now and then.

So goodbye Garachico, you restored my faith in Tenerife but we were lucky to escape cockroach free since they were around on the pontoons and we had to spray ropes and wires and 2 managed to make it on board where they met a very swift end.