The Magic of Tenerife - issue #32
January 1st, 2014

Happy New Year! Hope everyone enjoyed the festive season.

This is your genial webmaster John with the latest Tenerife Information Centre Newsletter! The contents of this quarter's newsletter are based on our recent visit to the sunshine island - a nickname that, in this case, was a bit of a misnomer!

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Alison and I visited Tenerife from November 30th to December 10th. Now, we were aware that, at that time of year, the weather can be a little chilly on an evening. What we didn't expect was the island to be hit by storms - the worst in 60 years, apparently.

When there is the occasional bit of rain in Tenerife, it usually consists of a heavy shower that's over within minutes and the sun begins shining again and everybody's happy. Well, on the first Monday of our stay, it absolutely poured down - all day. This is unheard of.

Although there were good days, with warm sunshine, I spent quite a lot of the time wearing a pullover. It seems, all across the globe, the weather's going crazy.

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The Demise of La Tasca

One of the most iconic meeting places for locals in Los Cristianos was the tapas bar La Tasca de Mi Abuelo, just near the traffic lights. During our visit, we had occasion to walk into town, which took us past the location of this restaurant. Imagine my surprise when I found that it wasn't there anymore! What I thought was a well established, successful business, always full at mealtimes, is no more! I couldn't believe it. In its place is an Italian restaurant called L'Italiano. Let's hope it's just as good.

As if that wasn't enough, the Overseas Chinese Restaurant next door is now a Spanish one! I don't know, you turn your back on Tenerife for five minutes.

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Cheap Alcohol and Cigarettes Don't Come Cheap

If you happen to be walking along the Los Cristianos promenade, and you're tempted to call in one of those electrical/alcohol/tobacco shops run by Asians, you may end up with more than you bargained for. We did this - Alison wanted a bottle of Tia Maria and I wanted to price up my brand of cigarettes. That part of the visit was successful. The liqueur was a lot cheaper than Alison had seen elsewhere and 200 Royals (my brand) were less than 16 euros. This is when the fun started. On trying to pay for the Tia Maria, somehow, the salesman got onto the subject of video recorders and, before we knew it, was demonstrating one for us. To cut a long story short, a very hard sell technique was then employed and we actually felt that we couldn't leave the shop until we bought the item.

Fair enough, the camera was a really good model and the price was reasonable, but we hadn't gone in there with the intention of buying anything like that.

So, just beware. If these Asians in the electrical shops get their claws into you, they won't let go!

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The Airport Bar

In the last newsletter, I told you about a new bar at the South Airport, which had an outdoor terrace, so smokers, like me, could enjoy a cigarette with their drink. On our departure this time, the weather was intermittent showers, so we were a bit concerned that we wouldn't be able to sit at this open air area. Well, it was a pleasant surprise to find that an awning had been erected, creating a makeshift roof. So, an outside bar, suitable for all types of weather. Nice!

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