The Update #37 - The Great Escape

Last week we ended the update that we were giving Bob a well-deserved pampering. We had bought new motor oil and the other things we needed for the maintenance we had already brought from the Netherlands. Jap had replaced the engine oil and the oil filter once before and hoped to be able to tick it off quickly. The diesel filter also had to be replaced and that was something new, but with some help from uncle YouTube, that should also be possible. Jap started with the easiest, the oil and oil filter replacement. Or at least he thought this would be the easiest. In the end, this took him 3 days and several oils drains from the car before he managed to get the oil plug closed without leaks. In the end, the solution turned out to be a 1.20 euro ring. Another lesson learned in engine maintenance, don’t be a stingy Dutchman and always use a new ring when you change the oil. The diesel filter was a much easier repair and took less than an hour. Hopefully, in 15,000 km it will be just as fast with the oil and oil filter.

Another thing we forgot to mention in the previous piece was that we did a stargazing tour at the Teide Volcano. Teide and therefore Tenerife is one of the best places in the world for stargazing. We already had this tour on our to-do list for some time, but due to the weather conditions, it had not been possible so far. But last week we finally succeeded, we went up the mountain around 8 pm with good warm clothes, where a telescope from Stargazing 1242 was already waiting for us (also want to do stargazing on Tenerife, look here). This company belongs to an old colleague of Amanda, Samu, who wanted to tell us something about the stars. He organizes wine and stargazing tours here on the island together with a bodega in the area. We had skipped the wine tour and only went to gaze into the black sky. Unfortunately, it was a full moon, so not many stars could be seen, but because of that, we could admire the moon all the better. During the tour, we could see the rings of Saturn through the telescope.

Now that we’ve got this out of the way, we can finally tell you what we’ve been up to this past week.

There are few things here on the island that we haven’t seen yet, but Los Gigantes was one of those places that we had skipped until now. That’s why we only went there twice this week. The first time we went for a walk in that area with Enzio and Rianne after work. Or Lon, Rian, and I went for a walk because Enzio was going to do running training on the same route. He does ultra trail running where you run long distances of sometimes over 100 km and he has to train for that quite regularly, however, this training was extra fun because he had to run back and forth on the same path very often, so we saw him a lot. Jap was also able to take some action photos of him on the way. The route started through banana plantations and then continued into the mountains. Halfway through the walk we the path went through a large tunnel. But unfortunately, this tunnel was closed and we soon found out why. They had thought that they could earn money with this tunnel, because of this you could no longer just go through the tunnel, but needed to rent a helmet and headlamp for 10 euros p.p. Uhm no thank you, so we decided to take a different route. And that certainly did not disappoint, we had beautiful views over the cliffs of Tenerife. Finally, we came back to the car in the dark, and in the meantime, our stomachs had started to rumble. So, we stopped on the way back to the Finca for a tasty pizza, we deserved it after the walk. The second time this week in Los Gigantes was a bit less active. We mainly strolled through the village, ate ice cream, and chatted a lot about the coming year. Now that we had expressed to each other that Canada is a really good option in March/April, we couldn’t wait to book the boat for Bob. And the date has been set, March 24, 2022, if all goes well, Bob will be on the boat. Fingers crossed!

Life at the Finca was mainly dominated by Christmas and finishing projects. Enzio and I had previously built small roofs over several windows. Now it was time to make sure that these would also last a little longer than a few years. We used asphalt roofing which neither of us had used before. It took us a few afternoons, but then it was finished. It’s nice that we can learn new skills and try things out in this way. Enzio likes buildings and fixing things as much as I do, so we make a good team to tackle the many projects that are here at the Finca. In addition, Lon made the covers for the bench and pillows and she also sewed a cover for my surfboard.

In the past, Amanda mainly celebrated Christmas Eve, so dinner was planned for Christmas Eve. We split it up so that Rianne, Amanda, and Lon would cook on Christmas Eve, and Enzio, Piotrek, and I would prepare brunch for Christmas Day. Although we had a great time during Christmas, we miss our family extra on these days. For both of us, it was the first time that we did not celebrate Christmas with family and we were both very sad about it. We didn’t expect it, but it is always a special time to have a delicious dinner with your family and just be together. Instead, we also had very nice people around us, especially with Rianne and Enzio we had a very nice time together at the Finca. Besides the good food, we visited the beach to work on our tan, which remains a very strange feeling on Christmas and certainly does not contribute to the Christmas atmosphere and we walked around the neighborhood with the Finca family and panda. How I am telling you this now, that walk doesn’t sound spectacular and it wasn’t, in the beginning. We walked through a beautiful gorge and had panda run off-leash because he had nowhere to go and Amanda had already stated several times that this should be possible as long as he has his muzzle on. It went well he kept waiting for us every time and never walked too far away. Without a leash, he could explore and absorb all the odors. When it was time to walk back to the car, we walked out of the gorge at another point. Where Panda, like all the time, was ahead. But this time he didn’t wait for us and once we were out of the canyon, Panda was nowhere to be seen. Shit… that’s not good.. so, everyone went straight into search mode, but we soon saw why he hadn’t waited for us. He ran at full speed after a whole group of goats. There was no way we could call him back or even come close to catching him, he was way faster. And in no time we had all lost track of him. Everyone lost their hope, unfortunately, Amanda was not with us, and we could already see that we would come back to the Finca without a panda. In order not to let that horror image become reality, we started the search. Shouting, we spread out over the area. Finally, after what seemed like an hour but was probably 10 minutes, Jap heard Panda’s breathing in the distance and Enzio was able to grab Panda by the collar. He was completely exhausted but didn’t seem to have caught a goat. He did have some scrapes and a closed eye, but hey, that may be the price of his escape. Luckily we were able to return to the Finca with Panda, what a relief.