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.