Tenerife information for tourists and resident expats

Enjoying Your Holiday in Tenerife

Things to Do

Beauty Salons

Golfing in Tenerife
Golfing in Tenerife
Amarilla Bay Golf and Country Club
Buenavista Golf
Golf Costa Adeje
Golf Del Sur
Golf Las Americas
Los Palos Golf Centre
Real Club de Golf

Rock Climbing in Tenerife
Scuba Diving in Tenerife - Dive Centres
Visit Pico de Teide
Watersports, Marinas, Sailing

Accommodation

Holiday Apartments in Los Cristianos
Holiday Apartments in Las Americas
Holiday Villas Tenerife

Looky Looky Men - Pests or Patter Merchants?

There you soaking up the sun in Las Americas, enjoying a quiet tipple with your friends when a manically grinning black geezer appears out of nowhere, looms over your table and waves his glittering collection of ´real gold´ chains or ripped off CD´s in your face. What do you do? Tell him to sod off and that right sharpish or do you relax and let his patter wash over you for a few minutes before sending him on his way?

I have absolutely no statistics to go on, but I'd bet my bottom dollar that most of these men are in Tenerife illegally. I don't know of a single one that has obtained a license to sell as much as a button on the street, do you?

But you know what? I don't really care. In every instance I have come across these people I find them full of humour and bonhomie. I have yet to break down and buy a single item from any one of the looky-looky men in my area but they treat me with the same enormous smile every time. 

Many of the looky-looky men are Senagalese and speak several languages. French,  English and Arabic for starters. They are smart as whips and have a charming raffish air. My husband, who has Arabic roots, takes great pleasure in a banter with any of the LLM that pass our table. I´d sit back and follow the conversation in my poor French as best as I could, if it were not for one shameful fact. I have a racist dog. 

The minute an LLM looks like he is going to approach our table, Skye, the gentlest of dogs is on her hind legs, bristling down her back and slavering at the jaws. It's not as if she has the excuse of being badly treated by anyone. We've had her since she was a pup and no Looky-Looky Man has ever been anything but nice to her.

Her performance always deeply embarrasses me as I imagine the drinkers at surrounding tables whispering about the racist swine on table number three, but to my surprise, every time this has happened when I look round red-faced to apologise, I find someone giving me the thumbs up. They think I've trained my 28 kilo boxer to go nuclear every time she sees a black man. How sad!