Bears and little furry creatures ran for cover, birds of prey changed their flight paths, and Mother Nature got her pinny in a twist when they heard that the annual Armada Sur barbecue was coming to Cho Pancho. They had no need to worry, it was just our usual way to let off steam after another frustrating season following CD Tenerife.
Cho Pancho is a large hilly picnic and barbecue area high above San Miguel and the scene of a previous bash. Bob had raised funds during the season via the Golden Goal competition on the coaches and Juanma and Frank were the advance guard to fire up the barbecues and start cooking ahead of the main coach party. It seems that each year we get a heat wave just before our party and hope that any outdoor fire ban will be lifted in time – of course it was so the good people of Tenerife didn’t have to witness us draped over a local traffic roundabout.
Cho Pancho is looked after by the San Miguel council and they do a fantastic job, at the top of the hill at the end of a long access road there is a toilet and washing block – well bears might do but we don’t. Scattered around the clearings between the trees are collections of concrete cooking areas, just add your own food and charcoal and off you go. The General had sorted out food and drink so we had stacks of chops, burgers, salad, sausages (Frank’s big German sausage was very popular with the ladies) and industrial amounts of beer chilling nicely in a large bin of ice.
Our area had been decorated with a forest of CD Tenerife flags and banners and as always a stuffed Pio was supplied to cremate in the fire, weirdly the shop in Los Cristianos only had a choice of green or pink Pio, The General went for green and even though it was a tough little blighter we eventually managed to get it to burn with the help of bangers and much prodding.
A bonus at Cho Pancho is a small clearing just above the cooking areas, ideal for a quick game of cricket based loosely on the rules of England’s summer game. While the more energetic launched themselves into the action out in the blazing sun, I skulked around the edges taking a few photos and trying not to lose track of where I had lodged my beer can.
We had a good five hours before it was time to head off to the coach pick up point, we were all in good voice by then, I’m sure the families at other tables enjoyed our football based ditties. Like Wombles on speed we scurried around and cleared up all our rubbish to take up to the big bins, good planning meant we still had plenty of beer and wine to lubricate our uphill walk. Heading back down south the idea was to be back in good time for the Euro 2012 final, I think we all watched it in various degrees of blurring but it was another cracking day the new 20th anniversary season of the Armada Sur can’t come soon enough.