Overview 2012

Happy 2013!The year is almost past so once again its time for a review of the past year. We are still living in Las Palmas on the Canary island Gran Canaria. In January we got a nice visit from Kees and Nel which was great fun! Alex was really happy to see his grandparents again, and it was difficult for his to say goodbye. Later in the year we went home to Holland to visit brother Bert, Sally, little Annabel and Jack, grandpa Kees, Grandma Nel and a big part of the family.

In the beginning of this year we had some stressful times. Ana needed to undergo some surgery, and her bladder was removed. After the operation it took some time to get back to her normal self, but eventually she could go on without pain and without a very strict diet.

This year we also moved to a new home. We still live in Las Palmas, but now a little more in the city center and in a little bit bigger apartment. Also we now how our own parking space. 2012 was one more year in which the crisis was noticeable. In Gran Canaria there is an unemployment rate which is more than 30% and this is something you can notice. In July I also lost my job and ever since I’ve been a full time dad and looking for some new job.

Our little angel has gone through some tremendous development this year. He now has teeth and is walking around all the time. He knows Spanish and Dutch words. He learned how to swim. He dances! He likes to play hide and seek with us. He likes painting. In all being a parent has turned out to be a fantastic experience.

We wish everyone a very good 2013!

Alex and the crocodiles

Alex croco!
Since the end of the world did not occur Alex got in the mood to take a little more risks. He wanted to visit some crocodiles. Luckily for his there is a big park with crocodiles (cocodrilo park) right here on Gran Canaria near Agüimes and they claim there are more than 300 crocodiles walking around the park. During our visit we could even touch a few little crocodiles and Alex liked this a lot. In the park there were a lot more animals like chickens, rabbits, parrots, snakes, dear, monkeys and more and Alex at times didn’t know where to look. Some of the animals like the chickens and the rabbits seemed to be in high risk to end up as crocodile food but this is maybe just my incorrect assumption.

The ark itself was very charming. It was almost the opposite to a normal commercial park. The tickets to get in were cheap. The food was priced normally and the park was big enough to spend a couple of hours. The park is closed on Saturdays and open the rest of the week from 10:00 till 17:00. At 1 they feed the crocodiles which is like a show and afterwards there is a clown performance.

Surprisingly, the personal was not commercially trained, but they were ‘real’. The boy that was clearly there to take our picture with some parrots did not even bother to make a picture. He started telling us about his parrots and that sometimes one of them bites. One female parrot could be held by men, but did not like to be held by women. We were allowed to pet the parrots and continued our stroll through the park.

An older Canarian that worked on the park took some time to tell us about his work and his relation with one of the apes. In his time working at the park he had developed a relation with one of the apes,Judith, and now he trusted the ape and the ape trusted him. I have never seen a person talk with so much emotion about his relation with and ape and even enter in a discussion with said ape. This was very nice to see.

We liked the park a lot and will return for sure.

December in Las Palmas

What to do in Las Palmas while you wait for that Santa Claus to arrive and you wait for the new year. Maybe there will even be a big apocalypse. Well, fortunately life here is not so complicated. We simply wait for the things to come eating some tapas, drinking some Tropical and a nice Mojito and enjoying a nice concert in the sun. Even the little once was enjoying himself.

From Spain we wish everyone a very nice Christmas!

Jamón

Alex the jamón addict!Alex found his first addiction. A very typical Spanish addiction even, jamón! In Spain it is even normal that vegetarians make an exception for a nice jamón, and enjoy a nice slice of cured salted pig meat without any problems.

Alex also developed a taste and spends quite some time looking at the pigs leg and asking for little pieces of the tasty jamón. In Spain the people are convinced that jamón is one of the most healthy foods available so his current meat addiction is not a problem at all.