We picked up our ‘company’ van on the 22nd. It needed a service, so we booked it into the mechanic for the 27th. In the meantime, I managed to break the rear window whilst trying to turn around in one of the many tiny spaces in our apartment complex. Like many of the buildings in Gran Canaria, our complex is built into the rock on the side of a hill. I reversed into a piece of rock that was jutting out onto our road! I was horrified. David and Michael were very nice about it.
The 23rd was Michael’s birthday and we celebrated at an Italian restaurant and listened to some live music. It was a welcome relief from the stress of yet another small accident!
The following Tuesday Michael was not well – dizzy, nauseaus and weak. I thought he may have food poisoning, but the dizziness was a mystery. Maybe too much sun? I let him rest most of the day. The next day we took the van to the mechanic in Puerto Rico for it’s service. While we were there he asked if we would like the rear window fixed. Of course we did. He gave us a quote of approx. $300, so we told him to go ahead. In the meantime, we had breakfast at a local restaurant.
Michael wasn’t much better, so we stopped in at a doctor. She was amazing. She tested his pulse and discovered the oxygen level in his blood was low. Then she took his blood pressure – 200/110!!! Panic. She gave him nitro to put under his tongue and then called a taxi to take us to the hospital in San Agustin. They took him in almost immediately. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed in with him, so I explored the area, going to the store and then down to the beach. San Agustin is a lovely city with almost no hills or mountains, beautiful beaches and lush vegetation. Only 20 minutes from where we live, it’s a possible place for us to settle down.
After a couple of hours, they let Michael go with a heart monitor. His blood pressure was now back down to 130/80. The cardiologist seemed horrified at the amount of pills Michael was taking, some of which didn’t seem necessary.
Back in Puerto Rico, the van still wasn’t ready as there was a delay delivering the parts and the window due to a problem on the freeway. Michael was feeling normal again, so we walked around Puerto Rico with the intention of going to the beachfront, but we’d had quite a stressful day, so we didn’t quite make it. Instead, we picked up the car at 5pm and went home. The bill came to approx. $400 including the service and the window. A fraction of what it would have been in Canada.
The 28th was our 15th anniversary. We had to go back to the hospital to take back the heart monitor, so while we were there, we explored the mall, had a lovely lunch of tapas and of course, beer and wine on a patio overlooking the ocean.
Back in Playa del Cura and not feeling much like cooking, David took us out to supper.
Time goes by really fast here and before we knew it, it was Friday. Maybe it’s because we’re always busy – busier than in Edmonton – but it seems that just yesterday was Monday. We went to our favourite Italian coffee shop that morning, only to find it all closed up and black plastic covering the windows. On the chalk board outside was a sign that said they were on holiday for the month of May and that they look forward to seeing us in June. Apparently, a lot of restaurants do this in May – we found a couple in Puerto de Mogan and Puerto Rico that had similar signs.
We wanted to test our van and see if it was capable of climbing up to the top of Pico de las Nieves which will be one of our tours, so we set off in the morning, back up the mountain roads where we were a couple of weeks ago – click here for that post. Past the Bodega Las Tirajanas, and up. Click here for that post.
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