The Quietest Island

Sssh! Can you keep a secret?
If, like me, you prefer to avoid the busy holiday hotspots in the world, then you may well have never considered a holiday in the Canary Islands. Images of packed beaches, drunken tourist antics, theme bars and general unpleasantry have long put me off visiting the large resorts of mainstream Canary Island package holidays.  Call me a holiday snob, but such places are my idea of hell on earth!

But, there are some lesser known islands that are completely the opposite. They do require more of an effort to get to, but the journey is well worth it for the chance to escape to relatively unspoilt beaches.

La Graciosa is one such place. Although fairly popular with day trippers making the 20 minute ferry hop from Lanzarote, the limited frequency of those crossings, and the lack of facilities beyond the small harbour town of Caleta de Sebo, make it still possible to escape the masses and find your own little bit of paradise.

Ferry from Lanzarote to La Graciosa

 A handful of restaurants, bars and cafes, a fabulous bakery, two small but well-stocked grocery shops, a hardware store, a Dive Centre, the 'smallest museum in the world' and some municipal buildings pretty much make up the extent of the island's services. 

There are no hotels, just a handful of holiday rental apartments.

There are no tarmac roads on the island at all. A local taxi company will take visitors to the prime spots in jeeps, but they best way to get around is on foot or mountain bike....

Just one tiny little thing... if you are offended by nudity, you may want to stay away from the furtherest flung beaches of this tiny island. With so few people about, all over tanning is de rigueur! 

And Then It Was 2016....

If... and it's a monumentally huge IF... there's anyone still reading this wayward blog, they may well have assumed I fell off the edge of the world, somewhere around mid July.

Around that time, I was feeling rather sorry for myself... I'd torn my gastrocnemius and was limping about like an old croak. I'd resigned myself to weeks of inactivity, and an expanding waistline to boot.

However, there was no peace for the wicked. On very short notice, in late July I had to fly to Colorado for an urgent client project. My 'physiotherapist'....that's his professional name, I christened him 'That bleeping bleep bleep bleep!' within 2 minutes of the first of many excruciatingly painful, torture sessions of so-called 'deep tissue massage'.... insisted that I wear super sexy decompression socks and secure an airline seat with as much leg room as possible. My boss went one better than that, booking me in Business Class, which miraculously got me upgraded to First. I'll have to gloat tell you more about that fantastic experience another day.

Colorado was hectic. I had to hit the ground running, pretend my body was not 8 hours ahead of the client's office, and sit through a full week of all day meetings and late nights of work. I was almost delirious with exhaustion and jet lag by the time I boarded the plane to fly home, with twitchy eyes and heart palpitations thanks to an overdose of caffeine and sugar (there may have been time to grab a slice of the Cheesecake Factory's Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake). Back in London, I barely made it home, crawled into bed and slept for 14 hours' solid.

By late August, 'that bleeping bleep bleep bleep' had worked his magic on my calf (and I had experienced the worst pain in my life, having never given birth). I felt fit enough to embark on our long planned tour of Boston and the Canadian Atlantic Maritimes.... again, I'll have to gloat tell you more about that fantastic trip another day.

Back from Canada in mid September, and the year was just hurtling rapidly towards the end. Work dominated our household, especially as hubby has started his own company and we are now both working from home. To be honest, after having the place to myself for over 8 years, I was not sure how it would work out, but so far, things are going well, and we manage to avoid each other and not find distraction.

September turned into October, then November and December. Autumn was officially over but winter just did not arrive in the UK. It turned damp and then soggy, but remained a warm Christmas. Ever so slightly miffed not to be escaping sub zero degrees, we were still rather smug to be swapping torrential downpours for the blue skies and bright sunshine of the Canary Islands over New Year. Just over 4 hours' flight from the UK, La Graciosa (off Lanzarote) is one of the lesser known but most gorgeous of the islands, and one that certainly stole my heart. You guessed it.... I'll have to gloat tell you more about that fantastic place another day!


Happy 2016 everyone! 
Hope to see you all (and be seen) more often  this year.....