I left home on the 12th of May and hopped over the mountains to stay in Calgary for an evening with my good friend Steffy the Rubber Doll, then on the 13th, took the flight from Calgary to Frankfurt, arriving on the morning of the 14th. In Frankfurt, I stayed overnight with other good friends and enjoyed a great 'getting-together again' dinner.

The next day at noon, the 15th, I hopped on the silver bird for the four and a half hour flight to Tenerife; arriving at 17:30 to a warm welcome from my very good friend Matthias.

I hadn't seen him since October last year (2007) in Aalen, just prior to his move, and so it was REALLY good to connect again. Tenerife was enjoying great weather the day I landed, but little did I know that I'd brought all of the icky Vancouver weather with me, and what Tenerife had, had departed for Vancouver :-(!

And so, it was off to his finca, 500 metres up the side of the mountain. In the middle, top row, you can barely see the roof of the finca, then on the right, the view from the back. Bottom row is the view out to the Atlantic and the middle pic is the entrance to the portion of the house I stayed in. Lower right ... Matthias gets the BBQ going.

There's a great stock of heavy duty restraints on hand, and I soon had them washed and ready for use. Lower right is Juli, a Canarian dog, and she's only a couple of months old. FYI ... the Canary Islands are named for the dogs, not the birds.

A local lady, Victoria, in Costa de Silencio had found my site and gotten in touch with me prior to my departure and so we actually met face-to-face when she came to the finca on the 18th May. Victoria is a happy, vivacious and lovely lady with a sense of adventure and one who loves to enjoy a cold beer. Needless to say, we hit it off immediately.

It didn't take long until we began to have some fun, as can be seen for the pix above and below. As most of you know, I DO love the idea of a septum ring, U shackles in combination with nipple bar bells, and then using assorted arrangements to apply leashes to the owner of these delightful pieces of jewellery. Needless to say, THAT afternoon passed in a flash and we had a lot of laughs.

Matthias has a vast collection of different types of hand cuffs and so we began to add them all into the mix as well, much to the delighted horror of Victoria, and she soon weighed about 10kg more than when she'd arrived :-).

What a delightful and willing lady! Victoria was up for anything we suggested and as can be seen, was unable to stray too far. She managed to drink her beer quite easily, despite the weight of the cuffs.

I'd brought along some other small pieces of gear and so she was soon experimenting with them, or rather I should say, I was soon experimenting with her :-). A gag is always of value, as she soon discovered.

Tenerife uses a lot of wind turbines for power and here's only a few of them - BIG bastards! Matthias had some errands to attend to and so I happily snapped pix from the passenger seat while we drove along the twisting and looped-back roads. As can be seen, the ocean was pretty rough. Below left is the freeway on the approach to Santa Cruz. Bottom row, middle and tight, is the home of Lady Astrid and her husband who is a dead ringer for Phil COllins (he's a mad soccer fan of Manchester United).

Lady Astrid and Eve were doing a photo-shoot when we came to visit and so did a few poses for me. Both are stunningly good looking women to say nothing of being smart, funny and self-depreciating. They made me, the visiting hick, feel right at home and we had a great afternoon and evening.

A little out of sequence for the above pix, but these give some idea of the ruggedness of the northern coast of Tenerife. Like all tropical and sub-tropical islands, Tenerife has a very lush, jungle side and a semi-arid side.

Above, more pix from the finca: its new name, looking off to the ocean and one of the inter-island ferries.

One of the thousands of water tanks used to collect rain run-off as there are few natural springs and no rivers on the island. On the right, you can see the plumber's nightmare of water supply piping. THAT place has to be seen to be believed.

Back to Astrid and Geoff's place for another party and getting to meet more new friends. It was great evening.

Matthias and Victoria took me for a drive to a little place on the western end of the island, Masca, and Jesus! Talk about winding roads! Once we'd arrived, Victoria found a small cafe owned by a long-time friend and we settled in for a typical Canarian luncheon. Great food, good beer and an incredible setting.

The local animal inhabitants made themselves known .. the cat and the pheasant (a noisy bastard), then it was off down the road to the next stop ... a really small bar buried in the forest. Victoria wanted to show us the texture of the rock wall, as can be seen, bottom row, right :-).

Victoria was kind enough to have a party in my honour and invited some of her friends from Santa Cruz, Grand Canaria and one even came in from Spain! The party at her place started at 22:30 and went until 06:30 the next morning. Even though I understood little of what was said, I had a great time and enjoyed meeting everyone.

Matthias and I drove back over to the north coast after I'd spent a day recovering from the party, and I had a chance to visit all the tourista traps.

On the 29th, we descended again to Costa de Silencio and wandered around for the afternoon. In the top row are two of my favourite behinds :-). A harbour is a wonderfully interesting place to visit at any time and so I took the usual type of tourist pix.

Above left is Matthias' favourite shade tree and eventually there'll be a table and beer cooler plugged in. My kinda guy! On the right is his new weather station, even though his Mark One eyeball is still pretty good :-).

For my last night on Tenerife, we went to a restaurant owned by a couple of Matthias' friends, Casa Tagoro, in Granadilla. If you want truly excellent food, served happily, in a place that has tremendous history and atmosphere, then THIS is the place to go. We finished the night at 01:30 and headed back to the finca for a few hours of shut eye before I had to get to the airport.

And so, at 08:30 on the 1st of June, I was airborne yet again and heading back to Frankfurt. Condor airlines does a great job and was a pleasure to fly on.

Upon arrival in Frankfurt, Franck and Corinna picked me up again and we settled in for a little longer get together, as I'd allowed a day and a half on the ground there. On the 2nd June, we drove around and visited some fun places, then on the 3rd, it was back on the airplane once more and I settled in for the long trip back Vancouver.

It had been a WONDERFUL trip and chance to see friends. I thank ALL of them most sincerely for putting up with me and putting me up.