Busy

I don't have much to blog about right now.
I have been out shopping groceries today and on the way back home I bought Sushi for lunch.
Clas called a while ago and said he will have lunch at Hooters.
He eat the Hooters chicken wings many times a week and I can't understand why he don't become fed up.

I will now start cleaning the apartment and doing the laundry and I have a big pile of clothes to iron. But I don't look forward to it when I rather would like to start looking for new songs on the internet. Maybe I get time to do that as well...

It has been very quiet the last nights at La Karina.
We have had about 50 guests per night when we normally have about 200.
Tonight we are playing at Country grill Karina.

Cave warning

We stopped at this cave yesterday, but didn't go in to it.

You should under no circumstances be tempted to enter an unsupervised or abandoned gallery on Tenerife because it's mysterious appeal can prove a killer.
This is a warning published in the last issue of Tenerife news.

Tenerife has some 1,114 galleries, 77 of which are deemed to present a high risk, 18 a very high risk and 182 an average risk.
Many are not properly closed off, or are in a defective state, or located near populated areas.
Gases have been detected in some of them, either with a high concentration of CO2 or little oxygen.
In fact 36 galleries have been identified as having a CO2 concentration higher than 0,5%.

About three years ago six hikers lost their lives when they were overcome by fumes in a cave in Los Silas.
After this accident an order were given by the government that all the owners of underground caves, mines, wells and galleries have to put up proper signaling and closure systems, proper paperwork and exact details of location etc.
The owners are also required to put up a poster indicating potential danger.
Tenerife Cabildo has now been given responsible of checking whether the work has been done or not.
If not the owners will face sanctions and fines.

Eruption at Teide?

The risk of Teide having an eruption is again discussed in the media here on the island.

The president of the Tenerife cabildo, Richardo Melchior, has now sent a letter to the consejo superior de investigaciones cientificadas, CSIC, saying you can not allow statements like those of the researcher Alicia Garcia, who has recently stated that there is concern about the sientists about the situation due to the activity of Mount Teide and a possible eruption.

Garcia acnowledges that in the next 50 years it is expected there will be a volcanic eruption in Tenerife as during the last century it was once in every one hundred years.

Melchior said at a press conferance that there is no risk of an explosive volcanic eruption and meant that Alicia Garcia's statements are not supported by the other scientists. (Canarian weekly).

When we moved to Tenerife in October 2004 Tenerife was under "yellow flag" for the possibility of an eruption. We are now back under the "green flag"".
There are 4 flags; green, yellow, orange and red.
When it's orange flag you will be evacuated and when the eruption has started it's red flag.
At that time the discussions went high about the need of having an evacuating plan, but the cabildo said it's not cleaver to start talking in that kind of terms when it could scream the tourists away.

Tour Video

Here is a short video clip from
Puerto De La Cruz and
The Canadas National Park at Teide.

Please, click on the arrow to watch it.

Our big island tour

The tour guides here on Tenerife arrange "big island tours" and
"small island tours", and I think the tour we made today is something
similar to the big island tours.
We left at 10 o'clock in the morning and came back home
around 5.30 in the afternoon.
It has been a lovely day.

We started our day by having breakfast at
a restaurant called Sira in Guia Isora.



A cute donkey in Tamaimo.
It was very stubborn and looked away
when I was going to take the photo.
But I can be stubborn too and I didn't give up and
finally it looked the right way.



Some unemployed camels at the camel park in Tanque.
It's a lack of tourists on Tenerife now.



A Canarian tractor.



Garachico from the view point up on the mountain.



The nature is more green in the north part of the island.



Me at the pier in Puerto De La Cruz.



Big waves at the pier.



The harbor of Puerto De La Cruz.



Fishing nets placed along the bridge.



Lunch at our favorite restaurant called
Marec in Puerto De La Cruz.
We had grilled prawns, garlic bread and salat.



"La Tarta", means "the cake" in English.
It got this look when ashes in different colors
blowed down from the volcano.



Me at "La Tarta".



On the way up to Teide.
Teide is the volcano of Tenerife. (3918 m.)



Like always the weather was nice in the National park of Teide.



These famous Teide flowers start blooming now.
Are they called Teide buglosses in English?



Back down to Los Cristianos.
It looks like it has been a cloudy day in the south of the island?



Back home we rested for a while and then we went out for dinner.

No tourists

It's very quiet in Los Cristianos now.
I think I only saw about 6-8 people in the whole neighborhood where we live when I went out to the bakery earlier today.
Normally it's very crowded (50-100 people) in the restaurants on our street.

You get an unusual senses when it's so quiet and you start wondering if Teide ( the volcano here on the island) has had an eruption and everybody have been evacuated.
Or has Jesus come back and everybody has been caught up except me? *smile*

It's only a few days to May which is the most quiet month in the whole year.
I don't know why nobody likes to come to Tenerife in May but think it maybe has to do with the preparation of the school examinations and maybe not many people get vacation this time in the year.

Tomorrow when it's our day off we will rent a car and take a trip along the west coast of Tenerife. We will go all the way up to the north of the island and I will show you photos from our journey later.

The Salmon

I had two salmon sandwiches in the afternoon.

The salmon is ready!
No boiling and no heating! Only salt, sugar, pepper and dill and you keep it in the refrigerator for three days and turn it every day.
Very simple but delicious!

A couple from England told us the other night, that some people over there wrap salmon fillets in plastic bags and steam the fish in the dishwasher.

Before when we lived in Finland we sometimes wrapped salmon fillets in wet greaseproof paper and then we put foil around it and put the whole package into the fireplace among the embers and kept it there for half an hour.

There are many special ways of how you can prepare a salmon...

My Day

I started the day by having a sandwich and coffee at the Bananas bar.



Then I went by taxi to the hospital.
The taxi driver was driving fast with all the windows wide open.
My hair went into a mess and I had to keep it in a tail during the whole travel.
This is Tenerife! *sigh*


In the waiting room.

I thought this was the last visit at the hospital before the surgery,
but learned that this was only the beginning.

I met the surgeon who is going to correct my hernia.
He explained everything and I know now what he is
going to do with me.
He like to check me out carefully before the operation and I got 5
new referrals to different examinations.
Four will be done at the hospital here in town and one will be done at the hospital in Sta Cruz, which is the main capital here on the island.

I don't know what all these examinations are called in English but in Spanish it says:
Manometria Esofagica y PH metria (in Sta cruz)
Transito Esofago-Gastroduodenal
Electrocardiograma
Torax PA
Laboratorio:
Glucosa, Creatinina, Sodio, potasio, Cloro, Tiempo de protombina INR,
Tiempo de Cefalina APPT, Hemograma Completo.

If you are a nurse or a doctor you probably know what it's all about.

Sorry, that I blog much about the hospital and the illness now.
If I knew it would take such a long time and that it would
deserve so many different examinations I probably
would have kept it a secret.
I thought it will only be a couple of visits at the hospital +
the surgery, and then it's over.

I am very tired of the illness and the hospital visits now and
would like to concentrate on something more positive instead.
All my spare time goes to be at different examinations,
which is not fun, and I think some of you will get tired of
reading about the illness all the time.

16.000 visitors

Gravlax

Clas has been out buying two big pieces of salmon today and when we got home from work tonight he told me to cure them in salt and sugar.

You put the same amount of salt and sugar on all sides of them (about 1/2 dl of each) + some ground pepper + dill.
Then you lay the two pieces together, with the skin sides out, and put them into a small tight plastic bag which you close around the fish with a knot.
Then you keep it in the refrigerator and you turn it ones every day.
After 3 days it's ready to eat.
Then you open up the plastic bag and take it out and slice it in thin pieces and enjoy it.
It's very delicious to have on dark rye bread, with boiled eggs or as it is.

Now we both look forward to Saturday night when it will be ready.

Clas and me

Gigolos

This is not the gigolo I met today!

The culture here on Tenerife is far away from the culture of Finland where we come from.
Here the "chicas" daily add zest to themselves and the guys openly show their appreciation by cheerful shouts and whistles.
Some men here seems to be hot like potatoes and they are continuously out hunting for new quarries.
Many times they even hang out from the car window screaming after you.
They like long hair, high heels and short skirts.
If you have all these things + light hair color they will act like crazy.
I had light hair before but changed it to dark and then it calmed down a little bit.

Today when I walked into Vista Sur there was a good looking man, a real gigolo with a muscular body, who stopped me and started telling me quietly how pretty he thought I was. *laugh!*
What can you do? I just said; Oh, thank you! and smiled.
But he didn't give up!
He asked me out for dinner tonight and even offered me his phone number.
I told him that I am married and then he just wished me good luck.

If somebody in Finland would behave like this on the street the people would think the person is crazy.
You know in Finland a real queen can show up without anybody showing an expression!

"Princesa"

Today I went for the first time to the Italian Pancake restaurant that is located at the small square inside Vista Sur.
They have got both sweet and salty pancakes to order from the menu.
I picked a sweet one called "Princesa" and changed the cream to ice cream.
It was delicious but included probably a big amount of calories.

Shopping tour

I went for a shopping tour when I got out from the hospital.
Couldn't resist it when there are many nice shops not far
away from there.
I only bought a white skirt from Sara and a red scarf from Stradivarius.

Again to Hospiten Sur

I left the bed already 9.30 this morning because I had again an appointment at the hospital.
This time I met a throat, nose and ear specialist.
This doctor put an instrument into my throat and looked at the vocal cords and I had to say "e" and "i".
Everything was okay like I thought before I went there. No polypes and no inflammation.
It's the hernia that causes my soar throat and now when I take the Nexium pills I don't have any problem with it anymore.

I'm so tired of running to the hospital now.
Tomorrow I have to go there again and meet the surgeon who is going to fix the hernia.
Like it seems they have a specialist for every little thing at the hospital and now I am like in a chess game and they move me back and forth from one specialist to an other.
But , of course, I shouldn't complain. It's good to get everything checked out.

I had breakfast at Bar Bananas this morning.

New Bag

I will show you the new shopping bag I bought yesterday.

Summer Shopping...

I had a good "shopping luck" yesterday.
I was out only for about one and a half hour and this is what I bought.
The most of the stuff is from Stradivarius that is one of
my favorite shops here on Tenerife.

White shirt and a dark blue scarf.
It's still on fashion to wear scarfs!



A summer dress.



Blue jeans shoes to wear with the dress.



A blue top that I will wear inside the small white
jeans jacket that I bought last week.



A gray scarf.



Two white belts.

Israel Is Not Racist

The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said recently in a conference about racism that was arranged by UN that Israel is a stat of racism.
Many of the delegates at the conference became angry and walked out.
I would have been doing the same if I was there.

It seems like Mahmoud is a little bit excited now and believe that all in the world will agree with him.
His proud is maybe because a door has been opened between the Obama-administration and Iran and they are now discussing how to put pressure on Israel when it comes to the question about making two states.
The prime minister of Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu, is against a two-state solution and so is even Hamas.

US probably like to have an agreement with UN before they take the question further and because of that Mahmoud has tried to force UN in the right direction, in his point of view, by telling them that Israel is a state of racism.

Considerable pressures to bear have also been brought towards The International Commission of EU.
Eu has before taken a stand against Hamas and demanded three things to be fulfilled before they again make contact.

One demand is that Hamas has to accept Israel as a state.
Now it seems like they have changed their minds when the spokesperson of the International Commission , Javier Solana, in a press conference in Israel recently named only the two other demands.
Maybe it’s because they have realized that Hamas never will accept Israel?
The only demands are now that Hamas have to accept the two-state solution and the Arabic peace alternative.

French and Norway also try to put a pressure on EU when they like them to accept to establish contact with Hamas about the Palestine-Israeli question.
The risk is that EU soon will accept that Hamas is brought to the bargaining table which is the same as dealing with terrorists. They have gone too far if they do.
The question about accepting Israel as a state should have to be fulfilled before they accept it!

The old story will soon be repeated if they get to an agreement of peace in which Hamas can get an advantage.
Later when everything have calmed down Hamas again will start sending rockets into Israel while the whole world close the eyes.
Then when Israel become fed up of living under treatment of Hamas and start a war all the media will wake up and put all the blame on Israel.
That’s a story that has happened before!

Shalu Shalom Yerushalayim!

Our Night Off

Tonight we had dinner at restaurant La Monteria in El Camison.

The restaurant has really good food and I like to recommend
you to go there while you are on Tenerife.
The cuisine is Spanish and the owner is from La Gomera which is
the small neighbor island that you sometimes can see
from Las Americas.
This was the third time I visited the restaurant when I had lunch
there two times last week.

Restaurant La Monteria is neighbor to the Mercadona shop that
is between Los Cristianos and Las Americas.

Inside the restaurant. They have a lot of homemade tapas
( at least over twenty different to choose from!)
and they are very delicious to have for lunch.

Clas and me.
It was a warm night and we prefer to sit out on the terrace.


My starter.
Fried cheese with cranberry sauce.
Very delicious!
Clas had a salmon salad with Iberico ham and
I got a piece to taste from him.



Here are the waiters of the restaurant.
They were one more, but she left after a while.


My main course.
It's fillet steak with onion rings.
The steak was just perfect and had no strings.
One of the best fillet steaks I have had on the island!


The kitchen staff . The kitchen looks very clean.


Our table.
Clas had fillet steak a la La Monteria.


The waitress is here cutting out pieces from the Iberico ham.
This ham is very famous on Tenerife.
Remember to buy the one that has a black hoof,
if you like to try it, when that's the best one.


One more photo from the inside of the restaurant.
It looks very nice!


After the meal we got two small shots for free.
I got Ron Miel and Clas Brandy.
A meal like ours at La Monteria costs about 80Euros for two,
but it's worth the price.
The price includes a bottle of wine from the island.