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Saturday, January 10, 2015
My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: A little spot of cloudy weather-pros and cons of a...
My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: A little spot of cloudy weather-pros and cons of a...: It seldom gets cloudy on these Canary Islands where the canaries have not yet dared to make an appearance. Taking advantage of the lack of ...
Friday, January 9, 2015
A little spot of cloudy weather-pros and cons of all inclusives
It seldom gets cloudy on these Canary Islands where the canaries have not yet dared to make an appearance. Taking advantage of the lack of sun to reflect on our experience here thus far and the pros and cons of all inclusive travel.
This is our second stab at an all inclusive vacation. Our first attempt was also for two weeks in Varadero, Cuba at what was, ostensibly, a 3 star resort but turned out to be more of a no star resort. In Cuba if you want a modicum of service you need to go 4 stars, better yet 5 stars if you can afford it. Those of of you who have read my travel blog on Cuba know that it wasn't an entirely satisfactory experience, both food and accommodation were sub par only the lovely Caribbean waters made up for the hassle.
The Canaries specifically this island called Fuerteventura is our second experience for the same amount of time. It's not as disappointing as Cuba but it's not entirely wonderful either. This time the food is plentiful and somewhat appetizing although I haven't felt super hungry. Meals seem to be expedited fairly fast. I'm mostly appalled at the amount of food wasted by me by everybody else. Try something out if you don't like it leave it to the side a waiter comes and swoops it up, into the garbage it goes. This is repeated many times over for every meal. Last night I went into the dining room once dinner was over to check how much food was left. It was a bit surreal actually, I know they recycle some of it but not all can be recycled and a lot of it ends up being dumped. We are so spoiled in the West, it's the price we have to pay in so-called societies of affluence although right now wherever there is money food is being squandered and wasted not just here.
That's one drawback of all inclusives, hard to know how much food to prepare so there's always too much. The room we're in is perfectly serviceable. It's not total luxury, more pedestrian comfort than anything else. It's got the required bells and whistles but it's not like the rooms they advertise on T.V. for Sandals, Sandals appears to be the ultimate in all exclusive luxuries, I write this tongue in cheek of course never having been there myself. In terms of what a four star offers there is a level of so-called entertainment. The kids are well taken care of but 70% of the tourists are retirees, difficult to get them motivated in terms of physical exercise. Furthermore there's no way anyone would be likely to engage in any sort of water sport, the water in both outdoor pools is so frigid it took my breath away when I dove in. Enough to give you a heart attack therefore there is never anybody in the pool. I do all my swimming in the indoor pool which is only slightly heated. If you want to exercise there is morning pilates, there is also a group class before lunch and exercise machines. Some people are playing "petanque" today and I did find a squash/volleyball court upstairs. Might try some squash today. In the evening there is a meeting place/theater where one can enjoy the drink of the evening usually very light on the booze but heavy on color. Many do come back after dinner to enjoy a spot of disco dancing needless to say hell will freeze over before we indulge, significant other not a huge fan.
I'm starting to think that these all inclusive vacations are what I would term generic. They basically
always offer the same things regardless of what country you're in with some adjustments to quality here and there depending on the star rating. Of course there are always the side excursions to take advantage of with the euro costing us so much a side trip can easily cost us $200.00. We are doing the tour of the island one and that cost 100 euros which is still $150.00 with our lousy petro dollar, should be all right, will give us a good overview of Fuerteventura where frankly there isn't that much to see. The island is super dry filled with either black volcanic pebbles or boulders. Even the yellow sand beach is mixed with black volcanic powder. The island can't deny it's violent origin. This is probably the last all inclusive I will book. Perhaps in the early days of Club Med. when all inclusives were a novelty and really put out for its customers but now they're a dime a dozen. Furthermore I prefer a little difficulty with my traveling something to challenge even if it's only booking a trip on a bus in the language of the country. There is the satisfaction of never having to worry about one's basic needs while on vacation and I don't blame people for wanting, desiring that level of comfort and satisfaction, it's not something I necessarily enjoy.
Regarding the beach it's not that long or wide. Parts of it have been eroded by the constant pounding of the surf and wind. We have seen much nicer beaches over the course of all our travels. Actually it's hard to beat Mexico in terms of beaches and warm waters. Here you really have to force yourself to go in and since it's always windy outside it's never that tempting. The people who do go in on a regular basis are the German tourists fans of nudism. Apparently this area is famous for that. I had the "chance" to be in the water with some of them. They're certainly a hearty bunch. Being so close and personal I was able to observe that most of them male and female appear to shave their nether regions,yes no grey bits allowed and since they're mostly all over 50 I can see that it would be a plus. After all they want to put their best "foot" forward..haha well I found out something new I really had not been aware of that. Speaking of nationalities we still have not "bonded" with any French people although we have made some eye contact and said a few "bonjour" to people we habitually see. I can tell it's going to be a long drawn out process vacation will be over and we won't even have shared a comment ca va. LOL Have to say the French women are always very smartly dressed especially around dinner time, ditto for the men. They do go that extra mile to look attractive with the perfume and the jaunty scarves knotted in just the right French way. Actually feeling sad right now, should not joke about the French after what happened at Charlie Hebdo but freedom of speech cannot and will not be silenced. JE SUIS CHARLIE. Hope you enjoy this latest blog, know that my blogs are not exactly the typical travel blog but hey that's the way I roll.
This is our second stab at an all inclusive vacation. Our first attempt was also for two weeks in Varadero, Cuba at what was, ostensibly, a 3 star resort but turned out to be more of a no star resort. In Cuba if you want a modicum of service you need to go 4 stars, better yet 5 stars if you can afford it. Those of of you who have read my travel blog on Cuba know that it wasn't an entirely satisfactory experience, both food and accommodation were sub par only the lovely Caribbean waters made up for the hassle.
The Canaries specifically this island called Fuerteventura is our second experience for the same amount of time. It's not as disappointing as Cuba but it's not entirely wonderful either. This time the food is plentiful and somewhat appetizing although I haven't felt super hungry. Meals seem to be expedited fairly fast. I'm mostly appalled at the amount of food wasted by me by everybody else. Try something out if you don't like it leave it to the side a waiter comes and swoops it up, into the garbage it goes. This is repeated many times over for every meal. Last night I went into the dining room once dinner was over to check how much food was left. It was a bit surreal actually, I know they recycle some of it but not all can be recycled and a lot of it ends up being dumped. We are so spoiled in the West, it's the price we have to pay in so-called societies of affluence although right now wherever there is money food is being squandered and wasted not just here.
That's one drawback of all inclusives, hard to know how much food to prepare so there's always too much. The room we're in is perfectly serviceable. It's not total luxury, more pedestrian comfort than anything else. It's got the required bells and whistles but it's not like the rooms they advertise on T.V. for Sandals, Sandals appears to be the ultimate in all exclusive luxuries, I write this tongue in cheek of course never having been there myself. In terms of what a four star offers there is a level of so-called entertainment. The kids are well taken care of but 70% of the tourists are retirees, difficult to get them motivated in terms of physical exercise. Furthermore there's no way anyone would be likely to engage in any sort of water sport, the water in both outdoor pools is so frigid it took my breath away when I dove in. Enough to give you a heart attack therefore there is never anybody in the pool. I do all my swimming in the indoor pool which is only slightly heated. If you want to exercise there is morning pilates, there is also a group class before lunch and exercise machines. Some people are playing "petanque" today and I did find a squash/volleyball court upstairs. Might try some squash today. In the evening there is a meeting place/theater where one can enjoy the drink of the evening usually very light on the booze but heavy on color. Many do come back after dinner to enjoy a spot of disco dancing needless to say hell will freeze over before we indulge, significant other not a huge fan.
I'm starting to think that these all inclusive vacations are what I would term generic. They basically
always offer the same things regardless of what country you're in with some adjustments to quality here and there depending on the star rating. Of course there are always the side excursions to take advantage of with the euro costing us so much a side trip can easily cost us $200.00. We are doing the tour of the island one and that cost 100 euros which is still $150.00 with our lousy petro dollar, should be all right, will give us a good overview of Fuerteventura where frankly there isn't that much to see. The island is super dry filled with either black volcanic pebbles or boulders. Even the yellow sand beach is mixed with black volcanic powder. The island can't deny it's violent origin. This is probably the last all inclusive I will book. Perhaps in the early days of Club Med. when all inclusives were a novelty and really put out for its customers but now they're a dime a dozen. Furthermore I prefer a little difficulty with my traveling something to challenge even if it's only booking a trip on a bus in the language of the country. There is the satisfaction of never having to worry about one's basic needs while on vacation and I don't blame people for wanting, desiring that level of comfort and satisfaction, it's not something I necessarily enjoy.
Regarding the beach it's not that long or wide. Parts of it have been eroded by the constant pounding of the surf and wind. We have seen much nicer beaches over the course of all our travels. Actually it's hard to beat Mexico in terms of beaches and warm waters. Here you really have to force yourself to go in and since it's always windy outside it's never that tempting. The people who do go in on a regular basis are the German tourists fans of nudism. Apparently this area is famous for that. I had the "chance" to be in the water with some of them. They're certainly a hearty bunch. Being so close and personal I was able to observe that most of them male and female appear to shave their nether regions,yes no grey bits allowed and since they're mostly all over 50 I can see that it would be a plus. After all they want to put their best "foot" forward..haha well I found out something new I really had not been aware of that. Speaking of nationalities we still have not "bonded" with any French people although we have made some eye contact and said a few "bonjour" to people we habitually see. I can tell it's going to be a long drawn out process vacation will be over and we won't even have shared a comment ca va. LOL Have to say the French women are always very smartly dressed especially around dinner time, ditto for the men. They do go that extra mile to look attractive with the perfume and the jaunty scarves knotted in just the right French way. Actually feeling sad right now, should not joke about the French after what happened at Charlie Hebdo but freedom of speech cannot and will not be silenced. JE SUIS CHARLIE. Hope you enjoy this latest blog, know that my blogs are not exactly the typical travel blog but hey that's the way I roll.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Walking to Moro Jable, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
Set off this morning with the best of intentions to reach what we thought might be the quaint little fishing village of Moro Jable. First of all we were told of local buses which ran on a semi-regular basis but couldn't find the actual bus stop near our hotel. Our resort by the way is called Hotel Ambar Beach, it's quite luxurious by our somewhat modest standards. The lobby is especially glorious. All steel, glass and wood facing the ocean. It's a fairly large structure, modern in its design and concept and easily the nicest thing about this resort. More on that later.
Not having found the bus stop we decided to start walking on the highway. I had read that hitchhiking was OK on the islands, we thought or rather I thought I might try it, winning smile and all. Unfortunately traffic was rather sparse. Most cars were already heavily occupied and the rest were taxis. We trudged on, it got warmer, had to peel off a few layers. Read that the temperature actually climbed to 23 degrees today and there was less wind which made it feel even hotter. We thought that the walk would be about 25 minutes but it took a lot longer. We hit a bit of a snag and had to take what we felt might be a shortcut to the beach but it turned out to be a rather long detour. Along the way I made some casual observations. This island is the oldest of the chain of 7 islands. It came into
existence as a volcano spewed forth over the years by the ocean. Its birth must have been quite violent because the island bares traces of a difficult childhood. It's easy to imagine rivulets of lava spreading across its surface creating gorges and crevasses. The vegetation is basically small brush, a few spindly trees here and there and strangely spots of moss where water must still seep to the surface. There is not much animal life to speak of. A few birds, pigeons and sea gulls with little mammal which resemble tiny squirrels, that's about it. I'm certain there are reptiles around but we didn't see any, they're too wise they hide and stay out of the sun during the day. I would have described the island as semi-arid but must change my initial definition to arid. This is not a land which knows a lot of water. It reminds me of a very ancient relative who has given a lot in its prime but has now reached its zenith and is in steep decline. Without water no new life can spring forward. The island may not survive the coming century. The only answer lies in desalination which is a costly process and not always entirely successful. There are a few plants here, there's no avoiding the building of more in the future. Although tourism is the bread basket of the islands it brings forth its share of problems. They are continuing to build resorts which require a lot of water to function, not to mention the golf courses
which must be a feature of any self-respecting resort. There's no golf course where we are but we saw
\a huge, green (of course) one on our drive to the hotel, there are surely many more. Fortunately they haven't built the ghastly tall hotels which have wrecked the skyline of the Costa Brava in Spain. Here the structures are short in stature, no more than 4 or 5 in height and built on inclines in order to follow the natural slope of the land.
We haven't been able to swim in the ocean yet but I'm not giving up, we're here for a while yet and I do believe there is a tranquil beach with lazy little waves just waiting for us. If it's there we will find it.
We walked for about 6 kms. without reaching the town itself. What we did reach was an outdoor shopping center of sorts which could have been a direct replica of anywhere's ville. I swear there must be a uniformity of crap by-law somewhere which apparently is universally respected and accepted by all. We've seen stuff like that everywhere we've traveled, it's depressing but it's the price of globalization, everything's been flattened out to look the same.
We were too tired to walk any further and settled in to wait for a bus. The people around us were all German speaking. Apparently there are a lot of hotels here which cater to an exclusively German clientele. They do enjoy swimming and sunbathing in the nude. We spotted them on our walk to the beach yesterday. Too bad most of them are old other wise it might have been OK for some innocent ogling. While waiting there I heard a couple speaking French. As luck would have it they were going to Ambar Beach so we ended up sharing a cab much better than waiting forever for the bus and certainly better than walking back.
Regarding the hotel itself for once the pictures promoting it didn't lie. It's exactly the way it was pictured in the brochure which is great. The pools outside are indeed large and beautiful,with lots of lounge chairs around and the view is gorgeous. The indoor pool is far from warm it's not even tepid basically it's quite cool and the sauna and steam room are never open or they're opened but they're not on. It's the same everywhere though mostly people don't swim. They're content to either walk the beach or lounge around either dozing or reading. It's the equivalent of Western nirvana if you come from somewhere less than tropical.
This is our first time traveling with French people and as a group they're not the friendliest bunch. They mostly stick to themselves, don't indulge in getting to know you better conversations. They are not curious as to where you're from, how long you're staying and certainly not what you do in life. If this had been a bunch of Canadians the first thing they would ask is "where are you from?" and the predictable rest would follow. They can't help it they need to situate themselves, Canada is a huge country, I do believe Americans are equally friendly. Europeans live with many borders thus they are much more aloof. It suits us fine my partner not being a big talker himself.
The food is plentiful and quite varied although it's a little industrial in taste. This can't be helped when you're servicing that big a clientele. There must be around 500+ people here. I was surprised at the French being so keen on the deserts which aren't that tasty if truth must be told. On the other hand the lack of cheese might explain their interest in cakes and ice cream. There's lots of jello too which is weird,didn't think the French would like jello but one can never generalize. People are far too complicated for that.
Not sure what we have planned for the coming days. I will update if anything interesting does turn up. Whoever is reading this hope you're enjoying my casual ramblings, adios for now.
Not having found the bus stop we decided to start walking on the highway. I had read that hitchhiking was OK on the islands, we thought or rather I thought I might try it, winning smile and all. Unfortunately traffic was rather sparse. Most cars were already heavily occupied and the rest were taxis. We trudged on, it got warmer, had to peel off a few layers. Read that the temperature actually climbed to 23 degrees today and there was less wind which made it feel even hotter. We thought that the walk would be about 25 minutes but it took a lot longer. We hit a bit of a snag and had to take what we felt might be a shortcut to the beach but it turned out to be a rather long detour. Along the way I made some casual observations. This island is the oldest of the chain of 7 islands. It came into
existence as a volcano spewed forth over the years by the ocean. Its birth must have been quite violent because the island bares traces of a difficult childhood. It's easy to imagine rivulets of lava spreading across its surface creating gorges and crevasses. The vegetation is basically small brush, a few spindly trees here and there and strangely spots of moss where water must still seep to the surface. There is not much animal life to speak of. A few birds, pigeons and sea gulls with little mammal which resemble tiny squirrels, that's about it. I'm certain there are reptiles around but we didn't see any, they're too wise they hide and stay out of the sun during the day. I would have described the island as semi-arid but must change my initial definition to arid. This is not a land which knows a lot of water. It reminds me of a very ancient relative who has given a lot in its prime but has now reached its zenith and is in steep decline. Without water no new life can spring forward. The island may not survive the coming century. The only answer lies in desalination which is a costly process and not always entirely successful. There are a few plants here, there's no avoiding the building of more in the future. Although tourism is the bread basket of the islands it brings forth its share of problems. They are continuing to build resorts which require a lot of water to function, not to mention the golf courses
which must be a feature of any self-respecting resort. There's no golf course where we are but we saw
\a huge, green (of course) one on our drive to the hotel, there are surely many more. Fortunately they haven't built the ghastly tall hotels which have wrecked the skyline of the Costa Brava in Spain. Here the structures are short in stature, no more than 4 or 5 in height and built on inclines in order to follow the natural slope of the land.
We haven't been able to swim in the ocean yet but I'm not giving up, we're here for a while yet and I do believe there is a tranquil beach with lazy little waves just waiting for us. If it's there we will find it.
We walked for about 6 kms. without reaching the town itself. What we did reach was an outdoor shopping center of sorts which could have been a direct replica of anywhere's ville. I swear there must be a uniformity of crap by-law somewhere which apparently is universally respected and accepted by all. We've seen stuff like that everywhere we've traveled, it's depressing but it's the price of globalization, everything's been flattened out to look the same.
We were too tired to walk any further and settled in to wait for a bus. The people around us were all German speaking. Apparently there are a lot of hotels here which cater to an exclusively German clientele. They do enjoy swimming and sunbathing in the nude. We spotted them on our walk to the beach yesterday. Too bad most of them are old other wise it might have been OK for some innocent ogling. While waiting there I heard a couple speaking French. As luck would have it they were going to Ambar Beach so we ended up sharing a cab much better than waiting forever for the bus and certainly better than walking back.
Regarding the hotel itself for once the pictures promoting it didn't lie. It's exactly the way it was pictured in the brochure which is great. The pools outside are indeed large and beautiful,with lots of lounge chairs around and the view is gorgeous. The indoor pool is far from warm it's not even tepid basically it's quite cool and the sauna and steam room are never open or they're opened but they're not on. It's the same everywhere though mostly people don't swim. They're content to either walk the beach or lounge around either dozing or reading. It's the equivalent of Western nirvana if you come from somewhere less than tropical.
This is our first time traveling with French people and as a group they're not the friendliest bunch. They mostly stick to themselves, don't indulge in getting to know you better conversations. They are not curious as to where you're from, how long you're staying and certainly not what you do in life. If this had been a bunch of Canadians the first thing they would ask is "where are you from?" and the predictable rest would follow. They can't help it they need to situate themselves, Canada is a huge country, I do believe Americans are equally friendly. Europeans live with many borders thus they are much more aloof. It suits us fine my partner not being a big talker himself.
The food is plentiful and quite varied although it's a little industrial in taste. This can't be helped when you're servicing that big a clientele. There must be around 500+ people here. I was surprised at the French being so keen on the deserts which aren't that tasty if truth must be told. On the other hand the lack of cheese might explain their interest in cakes and ice cream. There's lots of jello too which is weird,didn't think the French would like jello but one can never generalize. People are far too complicated for that.
Not sure what we have planned for the coming days. I will update if anything interesting does turn up. Whoever is reading this hope you're enjoying my casual ramblings, adios for now.
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