25th December 2016. Las Marinas, Spain.

We had a  surprise lined up for the boys today (we hoped) we drove them out to a theme park in the desert called Oasys Mini Hollywood which had had rave reviews on TripAdvisor.

We arrived just after opening time and there were only a few people there, we bought tickets which included a buffet lunch and entered the park.  It was like walking into a town in the Wild West.

 

We went into one old building which had an exhibition of photos, looking out of the window my mind thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because there was a real live cowboy wearing a long leather coat and a cowboy hat standing beside his horse!  We wandered out to the town square and there in the centre were cowboys standing holding their horses and another cowboy sitting on his wagon, it was brilliant.

We went to find out where the parrot show was going to be held and caught sight of the meerkat enclosure, they were so cute we had to force ourselves to leave to go to see the parrots.

The lady who ran the parrot show seemed to thoroughly enjoy her job and she was very good with the children in the audience, we’ve no idea what she was saying but she was so enthusiastic that wasn’t really an issue.

After the parrot show we went to the Saloon for a coffee. It felt very strange going in to the Saloon and finding we were the only customers in there and it became even more surreal when a couple dressed in Victorian clothing started playing a banjo and singing songs for us.

From there we went out into the square again and went up to balcony outside one of the buildings and watched a Wild West show about Jesse James being broken out of jail.  It had lots of great stunts in it, on one occasion one of the cowboys horses came galloping in dragging the cowboy along in the dirt behind him, that must have hurt.  It was a really good show and went on for a long time.

Following that there was a Can Can show in the Saloon.  I left Darren and the boys sitting at a table by the stage and I went upstairs to the gallery to take photos.  The man who was comparing was full of energy and made everyone laugh, he made a comment to the boys but they’ve no idea what he was asking them, he probably thinks they’re a bit simple because they just smiled at him. The can can dancers must have been very fit they were on stage for ages doing a very energetic dance.

After the show we went to find the restaurant for lunch.  The meal was great, the dining room was nicely laid out and there were lots of different dishes to choose from, unfortunately there was so much choice that when it came to dessert we were so full we could only find space for a spoonful of two of them.

We waddled out of the restaurant and went to explore the zoo properly.  We hadn’t realised how big it was until the boys pointed out a jeep and the statue of an elephant, way in the distance.  They also pointed out a stork perched on the elephant’s trunk, which I then spent ages photographing.  The zoo was huge, we spent ages walking around the grounds and watching the animals.  One of the animals (we couldn’t decide whether he was a goat or a sheep) had been a little too adventurous and had managed to get out of his compound, he’d obviously had enough of his adventure and was trying to find a way back to his friends on the other side of the fence!  I hope he succeeded!

We had a lovely day out, we left at closing time.

We had another Skype with Austyn when we got home.  Poor thing had been awake for hours due to a very bad storm threatening to blow the tent down.  While he was speaking to us it was still raining but not as heavily, it was the birds keeping him awake this time. He told us that he’d cooked Christmas lunch for a few of his friends the previous day and then it started raining.  He’d bought his friends Terry’s chocolate oranges but unfortunately they’d melted and when he’d put them in the cool box they’d got wet, it’s the thought that counts though.  He was leaving the campsite today and heading South to visit his cousin Shannan who was over from South Africa visiting her friend Megan.  We hoped that the roads weren’t going to be flooded on his long journey down there.

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas Day.