Canary Islands and Paradise
Christmas was spent making a Peruvian friend to dinner, which, like good Peruvian, came to London with a parachute and with all his humor. But for the New Year holiday was planned and this time would be the Canary Islands.
airline Thomas Cook is in charge of taking us to Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote. From the air I could see that most of the houses on the island were swimming and I was pleased.
The island looked from the air smaller than it really was, while the flight attendant who wore a tan welcomes us to the volcanic island that is part of the Atlantic archipelago situated in northwest Africa.
back on terra firma again I am happy to speak Castilian, the experience is surreal because two years ago that have not been to a English speaking country. At the airport we expect M, we salute you and then contact us with Luis, manager of a car rental company. We make the documents, pay and give us the keys saying - Here are the keys to the "car." And the "car" is a Volkswagen Fox model. In London the same model is called Polo and Peru to the car is called "car." We have rented a yellow duck hilarious and brilliant as to be detected by any of the polular satellite in space.
While my wife is driving on the fast track following the M car, asks me where is the brake? I tell you the answer because I know it's not a joke, in the UK is handled with the rudder to the right. A side of the other cars with normal colors ours is the most exhibitionist of all so I decided to wear sunglasses to go unnoticed.
As we cross the highway I feel like I was in Lima traveling to the southern beaches, but of course here there is more order in the road and less congestion. We arrived
Máguez, the village where we will stay the week. The lovely village of M and J, an English couple who have decided to retire to the quiet life of the island is beautiful and well kept full of balconies and bougainvillea in the garden and the roof.
I guess they had planned retirement to choose between a castle on the outskirts of London and a villa in the Canary Islands and I agree with the decision to keep the villa.
All the island's homes are painted white and wood doors may be brown, green or blue and this is no exception: in the case of doors and windows decided by Brown. Our room is yellow and start to think if the yellow haunts us, but azulísima has a window opening onto a terrace and from it you can see the mountains, M and J also had the courtesy to let us in our kitchen bottle Marquez de Caceres, grapes, sausage and cheese welcome.
It's relaxing to be in a place so quiet after the hectic life in London and I start to feel more at ease, it is also very natural that I identify with the English culture as they conquered us and let us in addition to language, certain odors and flavors that I recognized immediately as a family.
was nostalgic to go buy food at a small grocery store just around the house and not the supermarket for example, where an elderly woman named "Paquita" lovable and very pretty attended us without having to attend any service course customer. Who jointly with his son a boy of 27 years helluva lot of barrel shape that I called "Paquito" Máguez had lived since the age of reason and not felt the need to visit other villages for ten years.
In a small closet is a selection of DVDs, which the majority of films we had already seen and the other did not need to see them. English TV is disastrous as Peru and in this case I can not tell who inherited from whom. It is full of sensationalism, gossip and many reality shows a la "Laura Bozo." I hit a channel where they spend a film in which it operates Al Pacino, but I hear say
- what are you going to hate me bud? - and I think I can not resist any longer and I promise I only watch the news to be informed and turn off the tv.
first thing I ask of food is something that the letter says "seafood in the Roman" and ends up being a good imitation of a sweaty seafood. Together with my wife, facing the sea and next to a bottle of wine, honestly just needed a song huachafo of "I Do not Know Who ..." background for the scene is perfect. From the first day to the last promise me intoxicated with seafood dishes and vanilla ice cream sandwich very similar to D'Onofrio, which I can say that I met fully, so much so that in every town recognized the color picture duck and came running to offer a dose of vanilla ice cream I needed.
I was surprised to discover the work of the artist Cesar Manrique, of which only knew his name mentioned several times by my English friend Alberto. Manrique was an important activity as creator of spaces perfectly integrated into the natural environment of the island. It was a multifaceted kind. Work in architecture, sculpture and painting, made his fortune in New York and returned to his roots, his beloved island. We were fortunate to see almost all tourist attractions as the Water Jameos, viewpoint of the river, a cactus garden, National Park Timanfaya mountain of fire, and all that the island offers. But most important is to enjoy its beaches. Costa Teguise was the first discovery, a beach made for tourists where all the guests spoke English or German, and almost all were more or less red, but newcomers from the cold in London, we join the holidaymakers to form two color flag Peru, with some embarrassment as white skin.
The next day we recommend the beach "Papagayo" south of the island. We drove almost an hour with the promise that we will find fewer tourists here and we will mix with the natives, which is not true since the "red" truly German or English have invaded the island. Papagayo is one of those places you only see on postcards, so take a few minutes to react and appreciate its beauty, the little turquoise bay almost no waves arrive and decide to go swimming. The sky is completely blue, without any missing tag, the pure white sand and the sea at 22 degrees, you can only say thank you to the Atlantic for me to bathe in its waters and let me be happy.
My wife would have had a nude beach and of course I have refused, for surely years in a Catholic university in faraway Peru should I have become a kind of monk from Opus Dei and that makes me laugh, because I consider myself a fairly modern mind open.
At lunch we go to a restaurant that they recommended. It has a huge terrace and tables are white dark to protect from the sun. I ask a seafood paella is not only delicious but huge. The boy is beautiful and gay, is super-talkative and does his job with the smallest detail, we gossip and things of people tells us about his life. Is a Cuban, Fidel hates: it was invited to Iceland and never returned to Cuba. Moreover, it can not return to Cuba unless of course you change the system. I say - why do you sound like English, boy? "- And answers that had a boyfriend in Barcelona and the summers spent there with him, I love the accent and hit him. And indeed he sounds more English than I know many English. We said it was his last day of work and returning to the cold of Iceland.
The sun goes down like a ball of fire and touch the blue sea, my wife says that once it touches the sea disappears in 30 seconds and is accurate as she predicts.
Before leaving we talked about the poet Reynaldo Arenas, the Cuban loves the movie they made about the poet's life and of course me too.
Nobel Laureate Saramago lives on the island. His novel The Gospel According to Jesus (1991) catapulted him to fame but because of a controversy in Portugal the government grain submission to the European Literary Prize that year, claiming that "offends the Catholics." As an act of protest, leaving Saramago Portugal and settled in the island. In 1998 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Portuguese-language writer to win the award. He currently divides his time between Lisbon and the English island. In the morning I hear about the teacher in the local radio about the bomb that exploded Dec. 30 at the airport of Barajas, Madrid, so I have confirmed their residence, after much asking people to give where you live, drive to meet in the village people pointed us to his residence, the villa is great and my wife tells me to wait in the car. Low and
while walking to your door all the things I tell him and the many more good things to ask him, touch the door and a woman who comes to education all the board and ask the teacher.
-José has come out with some friends, "he says, his voice warm atmosphere. I say goodbye and head back towards the villa. On the road to the moonlight-morning I think I miss the nude beach and have to deal with all the ceviche I ate as a kid.
After two days I'm on the plane to London, I think how nice vacation and in the history of Cuban decided to Iceland instead of an island in the Caribbean or Spain, and is also simply a bored even in paradise.
airline Thomas Cook is in charge of taking us to Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote. From the air I could see that most of the houses on the island were swimming and I was pleased.
The island looked from the air smaller than it really was, while the flight attendant who wore a tan welcomes us to the volcanic island that is part of the Atlantic archipelago situated in northwest Africa.
back on terra firma again I am happy to speak Castilian, the experience is surreal because two years ago that have not been to a English speaking country. At the airport we expect M, we salute you and then contact us with Luis, manager of a car rental company. We make the documents, pay and give us the keys saying - Here are the keys to the "car." And the "car" is a Volkswagen Fox model. In London the same model is called Polo and Peru to the car is called "car." We have rented a yellow duck hilarious and brilliant as to be detected by any of the polular satellite in space.
While my wife is driving on the fast track following the M car, asks me where is the brake? I tell you the answer because I know it's not a joke, in the UK is handled with the rudder to the right. A side of the other cars with normal colors ours is the most exhibitionist of all so I decided to wear sunglasses to go unnoticed.
As we cross the highway I feel like I was in Lima traveling to the southern beaches, but of course here there is more order in the road and less congestion. We arrived
Máguez, the village where we will stay the week. The lovely village of M and J, an English couple who have decided to retire to the quiet life of the island is beautiful and well kept full of balconies and bougainvillea in the garden and the roof.
I guess they had planned retirement to choose between a castle on the outskirts of London and a villa in the Canary Islands and I agree with the decision to keep the villa.
All the island's homes are painted white and wood doors may be brown, green or blue and this is no exception: in the case of doors and windows decided by Brown. Our room is yellow and start to think if the yellow haunts us, but azulísima has a window opening onto a terrace and from it you can see the mountains, M and J also had the courtesy to let us in our kitchen bottle Marquez de Caceres, grapes, sausage and cheese welcome.
It's relaxing to be in a place so quiet after the hectic life in London and I start to feel more at ease, it is also very natural that I identify with the English culture as they conquered us and let us in addition to language, certain odors and flavors that I recognized immediately as a family.
was nostalgic to go buy food at a small grocery store just around the house and not the supermarket for example, where an elderly woman named "Paquita" lovable and very pretty attended us without having to attend any service course customer. Who jointly with his son a boy of 27 years helluva lot of barrel shape that I called "Paquito" Máguez had lived since the age of reason and not felt the need to visit other villages for ten years.
In a small closet is a selection of DVDs, which the majority of films we had already seen and the other did not need to see them. English TV is disastrous as Peru and in this case I can not tell who inherited from whom. It is full of sensationalism, gossip and many reality shows a la "Laura Bozo." I hit a channel where they spend a film in which it operates Al Pacino, but I hear say
- what are you going to hate me bud? - and I think I can not resist any longer and I promise I only watch the news to be informed and turn off the tv.
first thing I ask of food is something that the letter says "seafood in the Roman" and ends up being a good imitation of a sweaty seafood. Together with my wife, facing the sea and next to a bottle of wine, honestly just needed a song huachafo of "I Do not Know Who ..." background for the scene is perfect. From the first day to the last promise me intoxicated with seafood dishes and vanilla ice cream sandwich very similar to D'Onofrio, which I can say that I met fully, so much so that in every town recognized the color picture duck and came running to offer a dose of vanilla ice cream I needed.
I was surprised to discover the work of the artist Cesar Manrique, of which only knew his name mentioned several times by my English friend Alberto. Manrique was an important activity as creator of spaces perfectly integrated into the natural environment of the island. It was a multifaceted kind. Work in architecture, sculpture and painting, made his fortune in New York and returned to his roots, his beloved island. We were fortunate to see almost all tourist attractions as the Water Jameos, viewpoint of the river, a cactus garden, National Park Timanfaya mountain of fire, and all that the island offers. But most important is to enjoy its beaches. Costa Teguise was the first discovery, a beach made for tourists where all the guests spoke English or German, and almost all were more or less red, but newcomers from the cold in London, we join the holidaymakers to form two color flag Peru, with some embarrassment as white skin.
The next day we recommend the beach "Papagayo" south of the island. We drove almost an hour with the promise that we will find fewer tourists here and we will mix with the natives, which is not true since the "red" truly German or English have invaded the island. Papagayo is one of those places you only see on postcards, so take a few minutes to react and appreciate its beauty, the little turquoise bay almost no waves arrive and decide to go swimming. The sky is completely blue, without any missing tag, the pure white sand and the sea at 22 degrees, you can only say thank you to the Atlantic for me to bathe in its waters and let me be happy.
My wife would have had a nude beach and of course I have refused, for surely years in a Catholic university in faraway Peru should I have become a kind of monk from Opus Dei and that makes me laugh, because I consider myself a fairly modern mind open.
At lunch we go to a restaurant that they recommended. It has a huge terrace and tables are white dark to protect from the sun. I ask a seafood paella is not only delicious but huge. The boy is beautiful and gay, is super-talkative and does his job with the smallest detail, we gossip and things of people tells us about his life. Is a Cuban, Fidel hates: it was invited to Iceland and never returned to Cuba. Moreover, it can not return to Cuba unless of course you change the system. I say - why do you sound like English, boy? "- And answers that had a boyfriend in Barcelona and the summers spent there with him, I love the accent and hit him. And indeed he sounds more English than I know many English. We said it was his last day of work and returning to the cold of Iceland.
The sun goes down like a ball of fire and touch the blue sea, my wife says that once it touches the sea disappears in 30 seconds and is accurate as she predicts.
Before leaving we talked about the poet Reynaldo Arenas, the Cuban loves the movie they made about the poet's life and of course me too.
Nobel Laureate Saramago lives on the island. His novel The Gospel According to Jesus (1991) catapulted him to fame but because of a controversy in Portugal the government grain submission to the European Literary Prize that year, claiming that "offends the Catholics." As an act of protest, leaving Saramago Portugal and settled in the island. In 1998 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Portuguese-language writer to win the award. He currently divides his time between Lisbon and the English island. In the morning I hear about the teacher in the local radio about the bomb that exploded Dec. 30 at the airport of Barajas, Madrid, so I have confirmed their residence, after much asking people to give where you live, drive to meet in the village people pointed us to his residence, the villa is great and my wife tells me to wait in the car. Low and
while walking to your door all the things I tell him and the many more good things to ask him, touch the door and a woman who comes to education all the board and ask the teacher.
-José has come out with some friends, "he says, his voice warm atmosphere. I say goodbye and head back towards the villa. On the road to the moonlight-morning I think I miss the nude beach and have to deal with all the ceviche I ate as a kid.
After two days I'm on the plane to London, I think how nice vacation and in the history of Cuban decided to Iceland instead of an island in the Caribbean or Spain, and is also simply a bored even in paradise.
