Although I don’t like to boast about it I owned a rather stylish boat when I was younger, it gave me hours of pleasure, sadly it got damaged beyond repair when I dropped the soap on it, bathtime has never been the same since. My mind raced back to those happy splashy days (I was 23 at the time) on Saturday as I walked around the Expo Nautica at the Fred Olsen ferry terminal in Santa Cruz. A large gleaming red Stingray speed boat was one of the stars of the show and what a snip at just 57,000 euros.
It was a good day up in the capital of Tenerife, I’d gone up early to check out all that was going on before heading to football – least said about that the better. Anyway I started with a look at Los Caminos Del Mar, a new exhibition at Sala de Arte La Recova, just behind Teatro Guimera. The free exhibition of mainly paintings looked back at a golden age of Canarian art inspired by the linking of the 7 islands by a series of steam ships. Entry into the hall is through a covered wooden walkway with the sound of lapping water feeding up through speakers to give a feel of walking along a ships gangplank. The paintings were pretty impressive and marked a good start to my day.
Now in a nautical frame of mind I headed for the boat show, the display area is the roof of the Fred Olsen terminal which connects at street level to the Plaza de España and its surrounds. There were around 30 boats and a few jet skis on show and little marquees selling support services like dingys and life rafts, I did notice a few attractive young sales ladies and hoped they might be draping themselves over the shiny body work of the powerful boats but they seemed content not to roam.
The setting made a great scene as the port behind was busy with the Armas and Fred Olsen ferries coming and going and 2 large cruise liners moored up for the day. I’m not a speed junkie but can see the attraction of these fine sporty boats, I have tried jet skis and loved the feeling of power and the spray of the water in my face. There were a couple of top of the range jet skis on show looking sleek and compact. A pair of professional racing speed boats looked like rockets with gleaming chrome engines glinting in the hot sun, I bet they would soon leave me in their wake on my little pedal boat. I don’t know if any of the companies were selling much, most people seemed to be looking and longing until the price tags dispelled their day dreams.
Taking off for a stroll around Santa Cruz I was eager to see the street entertainment put on for the days La Vive Calle programme, several plazas were putting on music and dance to attract more shoppers and get them in a happy money spending mood. Plaza del Principe had a good sized crowd spilling onto the pavement with lots of children sitting cross legged lapping up the musical theatre offering. It was a small team quick changing in a hastily assembled back stage dressing room and the sound system made sure that their light opera stories kept attracting more enthusiasts.
The most impressive street show was at the Plaza Isla de la Madera in front of Teatro Guimera, a duo called Mooba Mu were quite spellbinding with a mix of music and dance. They were performing on a small square area of matting and when I arrived the young lady was on all fours writhing and singing a mournful soul song to the guitar backing. What a great performer, she used eavery inch of the “stage” and wrung every drop of emotion out of the songs. Rising slowly to her feet I could see the microphone headpiece partly hidden beneath her long wild hair and she continued to use her emotive performance as her co performer moved from guitar to an amazing electric upright string instrument.
Santa Cruz council are definately on a winner with this street entertainment, hopefully it will become a regular thing, it all helps to enliven the capital and add to the diversity. What a pity the football wasn’t as entertaining.