Gran Tarajal

Last night we set out around 7.30pm for an internet café session then a meal out. We have in the past tended for lunch out rather than dinner as we like to have large meals earlier in the day. However, after missing the excitement of the Spanish football victory we decided to head into the town a little later to see what the atmosphere was like in the evenings in Gran Tarajal.

We did our blog updates, checked our mail etc then headed to the front to find a restaurant. We often stop for a beer on the seafront in the early evening so we had an idea of where we wanted to go and had waited until Tuesday evening thinking that many restaurants close on Mondays. There were many families still around at 8.30pm, some even still swimming in the sea, which shows you just how pleasant the temperature is here in the evenings. However, the restaurants were mostly closed, those which were open were full of families, but they all appeared to only be eating ice cream and the menus were really snack food. It appeared we hadn’t been missing a busy evening atmosphere, that here as in Graciosa, the main trade was lunchtime when the tourists were out. In Graciosa, the evenings were quiet because there was little accommodation on the island and the tourists all left on the last ferry. In Gran Tarajal, I am not sure the reason, I suspect it may be that the people out are local families or Spanish tourists who perhaps have less of an eating out culture or less disposable income.

So, we went to the trusted Fisherman’s Cooperative for our meal, where we had lunch when we arrived. There were only about 4 couples in here too, but at least they were serving a full menu, most of which is about 14 varieties of fish, though it is very difficult to recognise the Spanish names for them (the English menu “translation” just provides the Spanish name and my dictionary does not extend to Red mullet etc). So I’m afraid to say that we both had the tuna steaks again, mostly because they were so good last time we came, but this time with a garlic prawns starter, both of which were delicious. We had a bottle of house white and managed to get a half smile out of the Spanish waitress by asking her the correct pronunciation for the word for wine bottle. I think this and our willingness to attempt the Spanish brought her round though, because she had had quite a stern appearance at the start. Furthermore, by the time Kevin started on a brandy, I asked apparently incorrectly about a desert, which meant passing the dictionary over for her to understand, which she could hardly read but she was quite amenable by now, she read it back to me, though obviously it sounded to me like I had just said then disappeared off. I assumed she’d gone for a menu, but actually she came back with a small earthenware dish and a big smile (to sort of say you’ll like this), actually she was so encouraging that she dug a spoonful out and handed it to me nodding enthusiastically. Kevin arrived back to the table quite amused by the sight of me being hand fed desert by the waitress. It turned out to be a butterscotch/toffee sauce with fudge-like pieces topped with what appeared to be clotted cream! It was absolutely lovely, though probably about as bad for you as possible, luckily I managed to persuade Kevin to try some to offset some calories.

After that feast, we headed back to the boat for some fresh air and more Gin Rummy. I managed to score some back on Kevin last night, though I think he might have been slightly sabotaged by brandy and wine, but I’m still counting it!

Today, I have been busy doing some personal admin jobs, whilst Kevin has been glued to his Patrick O’Brien. It’s been quite a hive of activity around us with more Optimist dingy sailors in the marina and a mast fitting next door but one to us plus all the rigging resetting that entails which we have been watching. I wasn’t quite so sure when the riggers took an angle grinder to the gooseneck (joint to fix to mast) as part of their fitting “procedure” but at least it is not our boat.

We head off for Morro Jable (southern point of Fuerteventura) tomorrow for a couple of days before we make for our next island of Gran Canaria, so I think tonight will be a fairly quiet night in.