{"id":4748,"date":"2024-04-17T12:19:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T12:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4748"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:48:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:48:31","slug":"5-gran-canaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4748","title":{"rendered":"5. GRAN CANARIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m having to retype this section.\u00a0 A bit of a tragedy on the Internet front.\u00a0 It stopped yesterday.\u00a0 \u00a0Stopped for EVERYBODY!\u00a0 The ship has a weirdly complicated system on board.\u00a0 Every cabin gets one account (at least) – the posher, more expensive suites get several!<\/p>\n

Of course, creation of a hot-spot in the cheaper cabins overcomes that little issue!\u00a0 However, these accounts are all time limited.\u00a0 Conveniently, but for no apparently useful purpose, they all expire at the end of the cruise.<\/p>\n

Unexpectedly, and we’ll come to the reason for that in a bit, we have had our cruise extended.\u00a0 We will be arriving in Barcelona about 40 hours later than planned.\u00a0 So everyone lost connection to the outside world.\u00a0 And, for reasons known only to Regent Seven Seas, everyone’s accounts had to be reinstated.\u00a0 Individually!\u00a0 And there’s only one person on board who can do this.\u00a0 And she takes a four hour break (REALLY) starting about five and a half minutes (not quite so really!) after connections were lost!\u00a0 And she had a long queue!\u00a0 500 people!<\/p>\n

I mention that to explain why I’m even further behind than normal!<\/p>\n

So, from one disaster to another (and I’ll skate over this one because of personal involvement!).\u00a0 Our planned excursion was due to depart at 0950.\u00a0 Up to now, departures have been running 25 to 30 minutes late.\u00a0 Today they left on time.\u00a0 Due to a relaxed approach involving two cappuccinos, and one of us not focused on the programme, we found ourselves left behind!\u00a0 So we took a random gamble on a trip which left a little later and which included a wine tasting.<\/p>\n

First stop was at an Aloe Vera farm where we we told all about the cultivation of the succulent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Basically, cut off a side shoot, plant it and wait nine years!\u00a0 Then harvesting – cut off the outermost leaf once or twice a year.\u00a0 The extraction of the gloupy product involved washing the toxins off the outer skin, cutting of the spiky leaf edges and fileting off the top and bottom leaf surfaces and pouring the clear soupy gunk into a big vat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thiis is then mixed with all sorts of products to make a range of skin treatments suitable for all sorts of cures and potions.\u00a0 Everything seemed to take advantage of the Aloe Vera’s capacity to move stuff through the skin surface and dry without leavng the skin sticky!\u00a0 Interestingly, everyone handling the stuff was wearing protective gloves!<\/p>\n

Then it was off to the olive farm where farmer Giles told us (in fluent Spanish) that they hand pick every olive from their 1000 trees.\u00a0 Except this year it won’t be so much of an event.\u00a0 Cold weather in the flowering season meant no insects, so no pollination and no fruit.\u00a0 Well, less than 10% of their normal crop anyway.\u00a0 The berries, once picked are cleaned and processed and end up in huge barrels of brine, where they stay for two to three years!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The main attraction of the olive and cheese tasting session was Polly!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now, where’s the wine tasting stop?!!\u00a0 The Bodega San Juan.\u00a0 Long established, but now reduced in size as parcels of land have been passed to sons and daughters over the generations.\u00a0 The grape vines are grown low and horizontally to protect them from the island’s strong winds.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Each of the islands has adopted a representative plant species.\u00a0 That of Gran Canaria is the Canary Island Spurge – a type of Euphorbia…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And there were Dragon Fruit all over the place…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… but where’s the wine?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Found it!\u00a0 And very good it was too!\u00a0 All grapes are picked by hand.\u00a0 No mechanisation.\u00a0 But at least they don’t press the grapes by foot any more!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After all the excitement of the wrong trip, we were delivered home in time for a short walk from the East Coast to the West Coast – less than a mile from the ship.\u00a0 A quick walk up the beach of dubious-looking, imported sand (La Playa de Las Canteras also labelled as La Playa Grande) and home in time for departure to Lanzarote.<\/p>\n

Good heavens – and here we are about to disembark in Barcelona!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m having to retype this section.\u00a0 A bit of a tragedy on the Internet front.\u00a0 It stopped yesterday.\u00a0 \u00a0Stopped for EVERYBODY!\u00a0 The ship has a weirdly complicated system on board.\u00a0 Every cabin gets one account (at least) – the posher,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regent-seven-seas-cruise-travels-in-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4748"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4748\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}