Carnaval season is well underway, today was the big parade in Santa Cruz and today was also a holiday, the schools have even got the week off so that hungover parents don’t have to get up early. After sacrificing several small animals in an attempt to ward off any future defeats for CD Tenerife, I headed down into Los Cristianos, yep definately Carnaval season, a troup of musicians were gathering with their large bongo drums outside the Apolo centre ready to head up to Santa Cruz.

Todays holiday was only loosely observed down south so I made my daily call at the Los Cristianos cultural centre where a new exhibition of Carnaval paintings were on display. The works by Javier Isidoro Aixa, a local wind surfer, are delightfully surreal and captures the sense of fun surrounding the annual celebrations, there’s no charge to feast your eyes on the small gallery, they always have at least one art exhibition going on. The paintings await you until 31 March and you can pop in weekdays from 8am to 10 pm and Saturdays from 9am to 1 pm.

It was of course Shrove Tuesday so naturally I wanted a shrove, failing that I settled for a pancake. One of my regular haunts is Via Vai on the old beach front and they do a very nice Quita Penas (no worries) rum and raisin ice cream and vanilla with a nice sized pancake, very yummy. The wind was up a bit today but thankfully no sign of the heavy rain from up north last night. Heading along the front I noticed a small tent by the Plaza del Pescadora and popped over to have a nose. The other claim to fame for today was International Womens Day and Arona council were doing their bit with a free drop in centre, shame it wasn’t publicised in advance. A small seated area was set up not far from the fisherwomans statue for promised talks and advice but in the tent there were free massages. Two volunteers were being neaded like some fresh dough and several others were hovering around for their turn, much better than being ripped off by the illegal oriental girls on the beach. The special area was open from 10 am to 10 pm today, you never know what you will find during a stroll along the front.

Way back on 28 November was the last time CD Tenerife kept a clean sheet and Monday night visitors Barcelona B had racked up 10 goals in the last 2 games, it was going to be a tough one. A look at the morning papers had further worrying news, Nino was an injury doubt, he was cleared late in the day and took the captains armband from Marc Bertran who failed to recover in time.

Despite those portents of gloom the Armada Sur were well up for it as our 2 packed coaches arrived in the capital. Carnaval was weaving its spell and the passing fans put on a good show with their imaginative costumes. Coach Tapia made a bad move putting Juanlu Hens at right back and he was soon shown up by Barcelonas flying forwards, Soriano gave him a nice all over roasting. Luna was too slow to pick up Oriol after 10 minutes and Sergio had to come to the rescue with a timely save for a corner and then another from Santos straight after. Juanlu looked slower than the “fat ladies” on the Grada Popular Alto as he lost the ball but at least he recovered to spare his blushes. Nino had a great chance a few minutes later but failed to make it count, Barcelona were settling in and Roberto laid on an inviting pass to Oriol to open the scoring after 22 minutes. Barcelona were stroking the ball about, their mainly young side showing great composure and confidence so it was no surprise to see Nolito crack in a fierce shot from the edge of the area to make it 2-0 just before half time.

The black clouds were gathering over Santa Cruz as the second half kicked off, Omar came on for Pablo Sicila with Kikoto dropping to centre back. The coach’s tactical gamble was understandable, Kikoto is a great ball winner, but it robbed the midfield of the little bit of steel that they had. Big striker Igor made his home debut after 64 minutes and gave Tenerife some much needed prescence up front alongside Nino. Igor was giving the Barcelona defence some new problems in the air which made it seem wasteful when Omar sent a rare corner in along the ground. The referee had forgotten his clown costume but his decisions gave him away, Nino was assaulted by a high flying Barcelona boot with no punishment given. The ref had no trouble finding a second yellow for Dubarbier after 74 minutes leaving CDT with 10 men.

The home defence lost their footing and concentration as the heavens opened and poured industrial quantities of rain on players and fans. Nolito latched onto a counter attack and hit his shot against a post, bizarely it bounced out against Sergio’s back and into the net. As players looked forward to getting dry, fans on the terraces soaked up the rain singing and dancing in their lovingly made costumes. Nolito had plenty of room to complete his hat trick with 10 minutes left but that didn’t stop the Carnaval singing from the hardy faithful in the 17,587 crowd. Igor showed that he can play a part in the survival struggle as he used his height to set up Nino to pull back a late goal.

Barcelona were very impressive and look set to fill one of the promotion places that they can’t accept due to the senior teams status. If only we had pots of money to tempt away some of their bright nuggets, but we don’t, it’s going to be down to grit, hard work and character. At least the club know that the fans are serious about their football, although you might find that hard to believe looking at the way they dress.