08:49 - Woke up feeling grumpy this morning as my sunburnt shoulders impacted my sleep in two ways. In one that I kept waking up during the night and in the other that I was having horrible dreams because of the physical discomfort. Nonetheless, it's nothing a nice bacon breakfast couldn't fix. Had a look in the mirror this morning and there were crease marks all over my back and shoulders, so no wonder they were so sore compared to yesterday evening. Got to be at the bus stop in 45 minutes time for the Marina & Markets excursion so just relaxing a bit in my room before then. Hopefully the tiredness won't impact my enjoyment of the day. Good thing I'm on an all-day excursion today, I'd hate to be torn between the desire to sunbathe and the desire for self-preservation here.
09:36 - Just boarded the coach to take us to the boat. Looking forward to this now, the sunshine always does well to cheer me up.
10:10 - Queueing up waiting for the boat to take us to Lanzarote. As we're waiting another boat with passengers sailed past, a few of whom were on the side waving to us cheerfully. Me and a few others waved back. It was amusing.
10:41 - On the boat at last, was getting impatient waiting for it. Didn't think to wear my sombrero today so sat inside rather than outside this time. At least I've got sunscreen on, but definitely needs to be a day of limited solar exposure today unfortunately. My excursion to the water park is an open ticket so I might leave it until Monday or Tuesday, depending on how long it takes the burns to heal. I know, I too am shocked by my prudence. The boat we're on (Princesa Ico) has an emblem of a mermaid with rather large breasts. Nice.
11:01 - We've been advised that we have wind and waves blowing and flowing against us on the journey there, making for an enjoyably bumpy ride. I've recorded a couple of videos to try and give an idea of the awesome splashes we're getting but no idea how effectively they portray the experience. It is good fun though!
13:14 - Well I've drunk my fill of the markets, bought several souvenirs and even a new sombrero. Unfortunately there's still an hour and ten minutes to kill before the boat returns. I'm the only one to have become bored already and returned to the harbour. Saw a ship flying both a Scottish flag and the Jolly Roger, so I can only assume it's a Scottish pirate vessel. Yaaargh, me wee McHarties! There's also a helipad at the end of the harbour which I find interesting. Now just need to find a wind-sheltered spot where I can read for a bit...
13:44 - Sat down by the harbour on a little extrusion surrounded by rocks. It's still windy here but not too bad. My right leg has gone dead. On the plus side I've noticed my shoulders no longer feel sore. Still some very slight sensation if I touch them but I think they're healing quickly. Excellent stuff. Still 40 minutes to kill and I'm a bit hungry, having only eaten a bacon sandwich for breakfast, but we were told lunch will be served on the boat later, chicken and chips, yummy. So I'm saving myself for that, plus with only 40 minutes before we're due back on the boat (well, 37 now) I'm not going to risk taking too long in a restaurant and getting left behind here. I'm not even joking, there's no register of who was on board and it's only our wrist bands which grant us passage on the boat so if we're late then we will be left behind. And I speak far too little Spanish to find out how to get back to Fuerteventura. And there's NO bloody way I'm swimming it! The only thing that will earn me is a watery grave. Of all the ways to die, drowning is not one I would like to experience. And certainly not on holiday, at the age of only 29. Got far too much I want to do in life yet.
14:15 - Just 10 minutes to go now and a lot of people have returned, some sat in the extrusion area where I am and others stood up nearer the tethering point for the boat. Not sure what time this excursion finishes but if it's before tea time then I'm going to brave some time on the beach again. Just make sure I sunscreen all over first.
15:47 - Just had a yummy lunch, the chips were surprisingly nice, good quality batch of potatoes there. The chicken was on the bone, I had 3 pieces. Now we're sailing on to another beach along the Lanzarote coastline where we can go downstairs to the glass bottom to observe the fish. Should be good.
15:58 - Saw quite a few fish but alas my phone camera couldn't penetrate that far into the depths of the water so none of them appeared in the photos. Never mind, it was nothing spectacular anyway. On the way back to Corralejo Port now (albeit picking up another group first who were on the outward journey for a different excursion) and then it's back to the hotel. My burns have healed nicely judging by the lack of discomfort but I'll inspect them in the mirror before deciding whether to risk the beach or not. I wonder what entertainment is on at the hotel this evening?
17:21 - On the bus back to the hotel at last. It's been a nice day but I'm glad to be heading back to the hotel, partly through slight tiredness and partly just glad to no longer be waiting around for ages for the next event. At least I can consider the beach now...emphasis on "consider". I want to...actually I think it will be safe at this time of day, so long as I apply sunscreen on the burned areas.
19:11 - I don't know whether it's windier than usual or the sand is looser than usual but there was far too much sand being blown on me on the beach there. I tolerated it for a while but gave up in the end as it was getting too uncomfortable. The only positive is that the very same wind which blew all the sand into my clothes and my beach towel just as easily blew the sand back out again. Anyway, back in the hotel room now so just need to have a shower and head to dinner. There's a comedy show tonight at 9.30pm so that should be good. Then it's an earlyish night again for the water park excursion tomorrow.
19:30 - It's occurred to me that I haven't talked about what souvenirs I bought at the market today. All in all I spent €85 I think it was and bought a dolphin fridge magnet; a set of musical pipes and a CD with musical pipe covers of famous songs (why not?); some glittery ornaments made out of volcanic rock (a turtle and a cat I think it was?); some wooden ornaments of cats and an owl; a candle holder shaped like a volcano, again made out of volcanic rock; and last but not least, an amethyst tree. That is to say a block of raw amethyst with some bundles of smooth-cut amethyst on some artificial branches. I like amethyst.
20:22 - Well, dinner involved two slices of pizza with tuna, some sort of poultry on a stick (which at first I thought was chicken but I think the sign was misplaced because there was another which said skewered poultry). Either way the meat was very pink inside which scared me a little bit, but it didn't taste of chicken so I'm hoping it was some other bird meat which is OK to be pink inside...last thing I want is food poisoning in my holiday...even when not on holiday it's certainly not something I want! Anyway, afterwards it was two scoops of ice cream, vanilla and chocolate. Yum! Now going to make everything ready for tomorrow's excursion, then reserve myself a seat in the theatre bar downstairs for tonight's entertainment. And by "reserve" I mean sit in it.
22:43 - Wow, the comedy show was fantastic! I did wonder how they would manage it, given that it's an international audience, but it started with a "silent maestro" who tried commanding different parts of the audience to clap once on demand; a lot of the comedy was in the audience's failure to do so and his silent reactions to it. Then 3 men were picked from the audience to get up on stage and do as he commanded; similar errors and hilarity therefrom occurred. Then there was a sketch mocking the stereotypes of various countries which was hilarious, England was two guys violently arguing over football teams, only to then have a beer together and become best of friends. Another involved a guy from the audience performing sounds to accompany the actor's actions, again a lot of hilarity came from his errors and the actor's reactions. The rest wasn't quite as funny but it was still good overall, same entertainment team as the previous two nights.
All in all I feel very satisfied with the holiday so far. When I went to Tenerife last year, although I enjoyed it, secretly deep down I felt a bit unsatisfied as I felt there could have been more to it than there was, even though I didn't want to admit that to myself at the time. This holiday though, with the mixture of excursions, evening entertainment and perfectly legal and acceptable public nudity, has been everything I could have wanted in a holiday. There's one more daytime excursion tomorrow and an evening excursion on Monday, otherwise it's just relaxing and taking in the rest of the sights. Very satisfied with how it's all gone. This may be the last solo holiday I have for a while now, so I'm glad it's gone the way it has. Plenty of photos, plenty of memories. Who could ask for more?
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