Our final Friday in the Canaries was to be a relaxing one. Carla, Tong and I began the journey to Real Club Nautico de Las Palma around 9:30 am this morning. It was a ten minute walk and went by quickly as we talked about the night before. We met the gang in the lobby where we were quickly led through a tour of the place by Victor, a member of this club, the Rotary Club, the consulate to Ireland, a business owner, the Vice President of the senior golf association of Spain and the coolest guy ever.

Victor told us of the 16 Olympic gold medalists that have trained at this club and the hundreds of world champions, whose names were on the mail wall in the foyer.

The club consisted of an Olympic sized pool, a gym, a sauna, a Turkish bath, a restaurant, tennis courts, squash courts and a beach that may or may have not been a topless beach. The group changed their clothes and headed for the pool. Bert sat under the cabana and caught up on his journal which is a week behind. Tong went for a swim. Chris went and worked out. I laid by the pool and took a nap. Carla and Catherine sat around and gossiped like old ladies. Victor told us to meet him back upstairs for lunch at 2 pm so that gave us four hours to hang out and do nothing…a far cry from the schedule that we have been following over the past few weeks. Sometime during my nap, Tong and Carla walked out into town and did some shopping as well as changed clothes for the afternoon. Catherine and I walked on the beach and got our exercise in for the day…err the past four weeks and talked about the trip and how amazing the Rotarians have been to us since we have been chosen for the program…not only here but in South Carolina (we have all come to the consensus that we are all truly grateful for this experience but we also want to go to Norway next year with the GSE program…Ken/Myles, is that possible?). After a brisk walk and a sauna, we all showered and changed for lunch. Victor treated us to another great lunch in the upstairs dining area that overlooked the pool and the beach.

During lunch, we all took some Dramamine because we were headed to the ocean to meet a sailing competition team and follow them as they practiced sailing for the regatta that is happening tomorrow.
We walked over to the port and met the team that is sponsored by the club we visited earlier. We watched as they prepared the boat for the trip out to see. We learned that in most cases, it took around two hours to prepare the boat for one hour worth of sailing.

This is the only predominantly female team in the Spanish league (they have a couple of guys to help with some of the heavy lifting). The team worked together like clockwork to make sure that everything on the boat was perfect before they headed out to sea. When it was time to leave the bay, we were led to a small tugboat that followed the team and we watched as they sailed the open sea…they didn’t go too far or too fast because the wind was not blowing at all. However, we followed and cheered them on as they practiced for tomorrow’s event. At some point during the trip, Catherine decided that we needed to sing songs to pass the time and they all had to deal with water…the songs ranged from “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog” to “I saw three ships coming sailing in…” It was a fun ride. Once the team had finished their training and exhausted all of the wind in the harbor, we headed back to shore for snacks. The team unloaded the boat and we enjoyed cold beverages and sandwiches before getting together for some group photos. The team accepted us with open arms and made us feel like we were going to be on the boat with them tomorrow. We wished them the best of luck and headed out to the cars.

The schedule said that we were supposed to have dinner with our host families this evening and Argi and Efie had prepared a Greek dinner for me, Tong and Carla. Sometime during the evening, Alfredo and Marian, the host of Chris and Catherine respectively, called and said that they were coming over as well. They stopped and got food from an Iranian restaurant and our Greek meal turned into an international party.


The night was wonderful as we enjoyed the company of the entire group sin Bert. He was having dinner with Victor and probably in bed early. Argi and Efie were amazing hosts and took care of the group like were all one big happy family. Once we all had agreed that we were tired, the house cleared and everyone headed back to their houses for the night. The day was perfect. We needed a day to relax and get ready to move into the hotel tomorrow. We still have to pack…
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