Tenerife pt2 papaya in paradise

Late November or so. This blog covers the overlap of Nick and Lou’s holiday with ours. They chose their holiday with no reference to ours a while back. We hadn’t booked ours at that point and when we did it was happenstance rather than careful planning that caused them to overlap.

I am writing this while preparing dinner so forgive me if my mind is drifting. Dinner is (aptly for December) turkey - Pavo - and they sell a nice pack of slices that chop up well with vegetables, pesto and chillies into a very delicious casserole. Turkey-lurky; bravo-pavo! Served with Canaries potatoes although we have been mashing them which is not a thing here. We have already had shot glasses of white and shot glasses of pink wine. (Just to make room in the small fridge which is a daily game of tetris to fit in all the things that need to stay cool. The small shot glasses of cold wine give you enough to get the message without shooting the messenger.) Beer and air-conditioning is next. 

The air conditioning is a vain attempt to keep the steam from the boiling potatoes from condensing on the sweating cupboards above the hot plates where it risks then dripping back into dinner. Pot lids have been employed. As have store bought chillies. We always bring our own as previously on Tenerife Housewives, there was no sign of anything with significant piquancy in the supermercado. When we asked the Indian Restaurant where they got theirs and where we might also, they said hunt them down in Asian Minimarkets. 

However today we came across ‘Pimiento Picona’ in the local Tesco equivalence and tested them for heat. There is only one way - chop a small sliver and put it on your tongue. Measure on a scale of 1 to yikes. It registered at least 9 so maybe fashions here are changing. Which is great as (2 weeks in) we are coming to the end of the smuggled Tesco’s chillies (Scotch Bonnet and green finger chillies) we brought with us. 

broad scarlet (m)

small white female discouraging a male just out of shot

broad scarlet (m)

Southern green stink bug on pomegranate

African grass blue

Talking of menus; a favourite item we enjoy in Tenerife is papaya. It has not yet made it to Leith Tesco’s fruit counter although no doubt eventually will. Some say it has a whiff of vomit about it (and if over-ripe I know what they mean.) However it was a discovery here two years ago, and now we enjoy it most nights as a dessert with, for instance, blueberries, bananas and natural yoghurt with a spoon of honey. (And if nobody is looking and judging, a thin slice of panettone bread crumbled in!) This is why we do self-catering rather than restaurants. BTW the bananas, presumably grown locally, can also be outstanding.

Anyway, a while back in October we passed a shop on Leith Walk of imported fruit and veg - all displayed on crates out front. We were in holiday anticipation-and-nostalgia mode and wondered how much the papayas were. No price tags. You had to choose a fruit and carry it inside by which time you were pretty much committed to it. How much? £7.99! 😳 Given the price in HiperDino was around the 3 euro mark for a large adult papaya, I nearly dropped the yellow fruit and ran out the shop screaming. I raised my eyebrows to Mary who I could see was also preparing to run out screaming. 

In a fit of anticipation-and-nostalgia I actually bought the overpriced papaya, mainly because its distant relatives had brought so much joy in Tenerife, and NOT because I felt £7.99 was anywhere near a competitive price. I later considered that we had been visually means-tested by the small-boater behind the counter who adjusted the price according to the cameras we were wearing round our necks. And that had we been dressed in heroin-hoodies and knee-free low-hipped trousers, the price would have been somewhat less extravagant. Much to our surprise, the most expensive fruit in Leith actually tasted brilliant. We did not conclude the experiment by returning, dressed as tramps to see if the price fluctuated downwards.

broad scarlet (f)

broad scarlet (m)

Colin

Mary

Colin

Joan

If memory serves we did a track session early and after showering back at the hotel, returned to the track to watch C&J do their track session (a pyramid of high-intensity intervals) while we hunted for photos. These four-striped digger bees are fun to watch and photo as they often hover over a flower before climbing into it. According to the internet they are normally placid but can sting. A type of solitary mining bee.

Mary at the track

the red-leafed poinsettias were great for attracting butterflies and insects

new this year at the track: cattle egrets

no doubt attracted by increase in insects and bugs due to flowers/plants

small white

Obsidentify is unable to specify what type of hopper this is. We see them most years on red poinsettia leaves although they also enjoy several cactus species (as above) to which they are very well colour-matched. If approached too hastily they jump or fly off.

European bee wolf

red-veined darter (f)

banded garden spider

broad scarlet (m)

We went briefly for a look along the prom but there wasn’t much there. Mary went back to the hotel while I went back to the track and enjoyed taking pics of more butterflies and insects. This is what I miss most about the Scottish Winter, so I like to capitalise on it here to the max.

small whites

there are loads of these nearly everywhere

painted lady

you can go days without seeing one, but they are not rare

so many delightful shrubs and plants in flower;

bougainvillea is used extensively as a cheerful hedge along main roads and in gardens

there’s a monarch which likes to perch on the prickly cactus 

near the entrance to the sports track

Back at the hotel I was making friends with the locals: the first to turn up on our fifth floor balcony (81 steps regularly raced up and down if not carrying 5lt waters and papayas) was this cheeky pigeon. Within hours he was eating out my hand and a couple of white doves also got in on the act. Along with an occasional collared dove and another feral pigeon. 

looks a bit thick through the neck due to 80 sunflower seeds

and half a loaf of integral

We asked if Nick and Lou would like to slum it and stay at our hotel for the night rather than returning same day to Los Gigantes. Our place had a room free which allowed N&L to stay over and have a few drinks rather than head back sober in the hire car after a meal together. It was all great fun if slightly tempered by the idea of a parkrun the following morning which happened to be a Saturday. 

I love this photo Mary took of us posing on the prom.

Seeing Nick reminds me we re-watched Ripley on Netflix while here.

(It was just as good, maybe better, second time around.)

(Although Ripley was never this smiley.)

Colin and Joan were also invited to the parkrun. They asked if the traditional time of 9.30 could be pushed back to 10.30. They were on half-board at their hotel and they liked to see if they could avoid eating anything between breakfast and dinner, since they had fiscally committed to those, and it was almost possible to go without eating for the duration if they filled up properly twice a day at the hotel. 10.30 it was, and all six of us turned up (some slightly hungover) to run 12 and a half laps of the dirt track. 

the meal on Friday night

Mary’s photo on the parkrun start line, Saturday morning 10.30am - scorchio!

what a team!

I was very wary of the parkrun thing. It was getting properly warm by 10.30am and I reckoned if I set off fast enough there was a really good chance I could have a cardiac incident by lap 8, fall over and shit myself in front of friends. A red face literally and metaphorically. And a shame to waste a perfectly good holiday, when there were still 2 weeks of papaya in paradise to go. I should pace myself. (At least until Joan looks like overtaking me.) Surprisingly, I managed to do this. Although by lap 8 I was struggling to remember my name, and was unsure if there were 4 laps left or 4 miles.

I ‘let’ Nick go out ahead and settled into second place keeping a watchful eye on Joan. She has been training far more than I have these days and if I keep that up it won’t be long before our places swap. However on this occasion I managed to stay a little bit ahead. It was a very warm day and the track is slower than tarmac as the loose dirt absorbs your impact. And other excuses. 24 and a half minutes was the outcome. I’m not sure what emoji I’d use to illustrate that result. Is there one that means unimpressed but at least I didn’t shit my pants? On the upside, the hangover was totally sorted leaving the rest of the day free for a wander, or a lie down.

Lou and Nick are both in good shape from doing the York marathon recently, so a parkrun was no problem for them. They had to be out the hotel by midday and return the hire car, so we didn’t see much more of them, but it was great to share a bit of our holidays together.

As we were eventually leaving the track we saw the dude watering the plants. We see him every year and he is followed around by a cat. Because he is always watering the shrubs Mary named him José. We always say hello when we see him. It is unclear whether he is council sponsored or just a fan of keeping the place in great shape. It has certainly worked as over the years we have been aware of the track (was Colin and Joan who brought it to our attention?) it has gone from a bit rough around the edges to a major centre for Scottish athletes (and lepidopterists) training abroad in the off-season. 😊

José and gato