Saturday, October 19, 2013

Our one week escape is winding down and we are more than pleased to have discovered more of Las Palmas than we had anticipated.  Our friend, guide and chauffeur, Juliet, has made it easy for us to discover aspects of the island that would have remained unknown to us.

Yesterday was a day to relax, rest, and recover.  After our breakfast at La Panaderia Real we went back to the room and got ready to attack the beach.  You can rent a chaise longue and a beach umbrella for 5 Euros and your rental is good for the entire day.  You can leave the beach and return without having to pay an additional fee.  The beach is spotless and, unlike the beaches of Mexico, there is no one trying to sell you anything.  As a result you can do whatever you are doing without interruption.  However, unlike Mexico, there are no beach restaurants where a waiter will bring you whatever you desire to eat or drink.  The solution here would be to bring your goodies with you and that is not a bad solution.

I lasted all of 75 minutes on the beach and headed back to the room to write a blog post.  Susan stayed on the beach until 2:30 and then came back to the room to change for lunch.  We were heading to La Tabla Caliente, a restaurant that Zhava had recommended and we were in search of one of their specialties – langostinos al champan.

The restaurant has been in existence for 14 years and after dining there I can well understand why it is a favorite spot for both tourists and locals.  The proprietor is most charming and he loves to flirt with the ladies, but it is clear from the outset that it is all in fun.  We started our meal with some piquillo peppers stuffed with shrimp and served in a lovely cream sauce.  Next came the langoustines which we saw him prepare in the center of the dining room.  The flambé of the finished dish was most impressive, but even more impressive was the taste of the dish.  For dessert Susan chose fig ice cream with a dark chocolate sauce and I chose the bananas flambé because I had never experienced them.  By this time the proprietor had left to have his lunch and his daughter had taken over the cooking chores.  The bananas were perfect.  We finished the meal with coffee and our chupito this time was one called Pamplamousse – a grapefruit and vodka liqueur. I believe it is native to the Canaries and might be available at the Corte Ingles.  It was delicious so we will have to investigate,

Our original plan for the late afternoon was to take a cab to La Garita and catch up with Juliet and Stephanie.  However, we received a call from Juliet telling us that Lucy had injured herself playing jumprope snd the school had insisted that she be taken to Urgencias to make sure that nothing serious had transpired.  Nothing had although Lucy has a fat lip and a shiner as a memento of the evnt.

We caught up with Juliet at the hospital parking lot and from there we headed out to La Garita.  Our first stop was the ice cream shop where we all partook of some delicious homemade gelato.  We then made a stop at a seaside cafe for some liquid refreshment and then it was on to El Buly, the neighborhood pizza place where we enjoyed a couple of salads a killer focaccia and a pizza margherita.  When we waddled out we headed for Juliet’s car and twenty minutes later we were back at the hotel.

We were in for the night.  Susan read and i fiddled around on my iPad.  It was a little after midnight when we shut off the lights.