Mark’s birthday dawns with a lovely breakfast. There’s just enough time afterwards to produce a Cæsar In kit-form and pack our cool-bag, before we whiz round to the neighbouring village to fetch our friends Jaqs and Mike.
We head down to Puerto Colon and find a parking space very easily. As I’ve built in a contingency in case parking was difficult, we arrive at pantalón 3 about 20 minutes early. The boat manager is quite happy that we go early, so after a 30 second lesson we are sailed out of the harbour, the pilot is collected and we are on our own.
Every day we watch as yachts and other tourist boats gether in groups, which is a tell-tale that whales are spotted. So we head to where we can see FireBird 13 and 24 in the distance. Unfortunately as we get near the catamarans are sails off in different directions, inevitably meaning the whales have dived.
We spot Royal Delphin and FireBird 1 in another nearby location so I set course there. Before we get near, suddenly we are treated to a small pod of three or four playing close to us. We stop and bob around for a while to enjoy the spectacle which is just for us, no doubt a different pod is entertaining the big groups.
We then head towards land to our favourite lunch-spot, El Puertito de Armeñime, and anchor. A swim is called for before I finish lunch-prep. The Cæsar salad is served followed by Jaqs’ fabulous apple turnovers and fruits skewers.
We head down to Las Americas and then back to the port.
For dinner we’re trying a new place to us. 1973 is one a several restaurants in Villa Cortes, the smartest hotel in Las Americas. We enjoy a three-hour, ten course extravaganza which is entirely sourced from Tenerife, and the paired wines from the Canaries generally.
I could write an essay on this dinner but for now, here’s my notes.
Appetisers
Tuna tartare & Oscietra caviar; Seafood salad; Sashimi 28 & 44 day ages with seaweed cocktail
Shrimp
Translucent flesh, caught near hotel at 03:00. Rich and dense flavour. Served with bisque
Bread
Mille folded brioche amazing with local tomato cheese butter
Rice
Seafood risotto with local sea cucumber – excellent. Smoked La Palma blush wine after recent eruption.
Hake
Yesterday catch. Beurre Blanc sauce. Squid in smoked sauce
Vieja
Parrot fish today’s catch. Sweet flesh, crispy skin. ? & Prawn sauce, sweet potato quenelle.
Pork
Confit with Perigord sauce, and pate? Quenelle of Canarian potato.
Sorbet
Creamy and fruity. Mango and ? with grapefruit water-ice.
Tenerife
Chocolate with three flavoured fondants Mango, Pinaapple and another
Petit fours
All intense flavours
