Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Yesterday John, Gary and David and I went ashore for a laundry run and to do some Internet stuff and
generally have a look around.
Las Palmas is a very European place very much like Mallorca but newer. Not really too much to see. It
would be really nice if it was sunny and hot but it is actually fairly windy and cool. The German tourists,
hardy sorts them, don’t seem to mind though.
Had a nice dinner in a restaurant called the Happy Cockerel and hit the bunk around 10:00pm.
Went for a wander hunting a Geocache with John this morning.
Found it part way up a cinder cone on the North side of the beach.
So I have done the second thing on my “bucket list” which was to walk on a volcanoe. Number one was to
sail on a square rigger which is currently underway :-)
After finding the cache we walked North down to the little town of Las Colorados. The surf there was
incredible. There was a blow hole that would stream water and spray for a good 10-15 seconds after the
wave passed.
We then walked back along the coast and had coffee and a croissant in a little cafe on the promenade.
An interesting phenomenon here is the use of Santa Claus in decorations. They are all little stuffed Santas
climbing ladders into the apartments. In one narrow street we saw 5 of them! There are also the three
Magi doing the same. They look kinda like looters after a power outage or something.
After picking up my laundry I headed back to the ship and then went over to the Danmark to take a look
around. The Danmark is a bigger ship than the Picton Castle so there is a lot of room aboard as the
available space goes up as the cube of the dimensions. The typical crew is 100, 80 trainees and 20 pro
crew including a chef and a full time baker!
Their decks are holystoned and all brass is highly polished. Being “ship rigged” she has a lot more rigging
and lines around the mizzen mast. She also has 3 wheels, two before the chart house and one on the poop.
There is also a big electrically operated windlass for raising the anchor. Nice.
I’m going to try and head over to the technical museum this afternoon which has a display on ships and
maritime transport.
Looks like we will be here until later next week due to visa issues going to Senegal so I might tag along
with the gang who are planning on renting a car to see more of the island.
Thanks for reading
KJ
Pictures of my rambles in Las Palmas are here.
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