Today was the end of more than a week of no surfing. Yay!

During my last surf session at Punta Gorda I sprained a muscle in my ribs. It did not feel serious, but it would hurt when twisting or stretching my upper body, enough to not be able to surf. Luckily it has been improving every day since, and today it was healed enough to start surfing again.

In addition, this past weekend, the Canary Islands were hit by a historic Calima, apparently the worst in 40 years. At least I did not miss out too much on good waves while recovering, but was instead “entertained” by witnessing this crazy weather phenomenon.

The Calima is a hot wind that blows dust from the Saharan desert over the Canary Islands. It’s a pretty common thing, and I had already experienced it several times already, but this time was very different. As very strong winds where forecasted, I found a nice sheltered spot in the city of Cotillo.

Not a lot of people on the streets.

And dust everywhere.

The visibility was reduced heavily.

It was still possible to take a walk and check out strange colors of the landscape.

Everything was colored in shades of dust.

My camera after a few minute outside the van.

Some people checking out the waves.

The surf actually looked pretty fun these days, and some people went out regardless of the dust.

Today, we are finally back to sunny skies.

I look forward to getting back in the water regularly after the past week.

This is how it looked from space.

Forecast for future reference