Back on the rock and back on the case, chasing around for stories and events. Tenerife welcomed me back with sunny arms and lots of catching up to do. As always a lot had been happening but it was good to get back to my daily routines of swimming and exploring the daily delights of Los Cristianos.
Arona council are rather strange, they mix some great ideas with wild mood swings. At the moment there is a book fair on the front by the old Los Cristianos beach, moved from its usual church plaza setting, it was laid out nicely in a blaze of orange and white tents and balloons. Mixed in with the book stalls there are a series of musical, theatrical and artistic shows. It started yesterday and finishes on Saturday with an early evening blitz of performances. I bought a rather nice book on the history of Los Cristianos from 1900 to 1970, this afternoon but they also have some great volumes on Canarian cooking and those spicy sauces mmmmm.
Anyway, a small area has a temporary display of three sculptures from local artist Fernando Mena, he already has a permanent display called Cetaceos that shows parts of whales and dolphins seemingly rising out of the ground. The new additions were worth a walk round, he’s a prolific worker, trained in Santa Cruz and La Laguna before moving to the mainland to study in Valencia.
A little further along, just before the tunnel to Las Vistas beach, preperations are underway for the next event, a Canarian Food Fair, on 17 and 18 April. This has also been held in past years but this time they are putting up a huge aircraft hanger like tent, it needed a crane to start it off yesterday and today they were putting electrics in and large steel supports. Full marks for big ideas, but it was only a few weeks ago that the council tried to cancel the sardine funeral on grounds of poverty. The fact they are building this a week in advance shows the scale of it, normally it’s just a few breeze blocks and some chewing gum. I will definately be paying a visit or two to the Food Fair, it’s on from 11am to 8pm both days, so plenty of chances to taste and buy local cheese, wine, biscuits, cakes, bread, sweets….think I better book a trolly.