Rancho Texas | Lanzarote

Hello!

Happy new year!

So. I wrote a few blog posts about my time in Lanzarote, but after looking in my notepad, where I note down some blog post ideas and bullet points, I realised that there's one that I forgot to write anything about. (Also, I'm sorry that the photos are so poor in the post. The lightning wasn't blog photo friendly, and I didn't decide until I was in the taxi queue that I was going to write this post. I have tried to edit them so they're a bit better than the originals!)

As soon as we got off the plane, Kirstin talked about how she wanted to go to Rancho Texas. I didn't really know what that was, but my dad and Lorraine booked it for us, and on the Thursday, it was time to go. Now. Thursday just happened to be the same day that I went surfing, so I was honestly really tired.

I didn't know what to expect when we arrived, but it was a completely western theme. There were people alll around us dressed as cowboys, cowgirls and Native Americans. There's also a few other cool things around, like horses that children are able to visit (There was a pony ride later in the night), as well as a bucking bronco. Kirstin was a bit freaked out by all the costumes, but she eventually settled down as we were shown to our table, which was beside the dance floor. This is an important point that I'll circle back to.

Right now, you might be questioning why there's a Rancho Texas in Lanzarote. It seems a bit strange to place the canaries with southern America, but there's a really cool reason as to it's placement. The city of San Antonio in Texas was founded by 10 families from the Canary Islands, where over half were from Lanzarote. (This information is available on the Rancho Texas website.)

So. The tables. The tables you sit down at can seat 6 people, and if there aren't 6 of you, then other people will sit beside you. Basically, every available space is used up. You have beer and sangria on your table, as well as a range of soft drinks offered to you. For adults only, if your alcohol is running low, you shout the 'password' (Yeehaw) to get a top up. You also get your photo taken as you sit down, which you're able to purchase later on in the night. For food, which is included in the price, there's a buffet later on, but for dietry reqiurements, you can prebook your meal (something we didn't realise until it was called out, so I could have had a vegetarian meal instead of salad and chips. Oops.)


So, while you're all seated, the people I mentioned earlier who are dressed up perform for you. They perform dances, and songs, they tell you a story, and at one point there was a modern Burlesque. They played popular songs, such as 5,6,7,8 by Steps that Kirstin and I danced to while seated, as well as other songs like the Macarena that we went onto the dancefloor to dance to. Now. Do you remember that point about sitting next to the dance floor that I mentioned earlier?

There is an element of audience participation. They called asking for any children to come onto the dancefloor, and one child ran up immediately, and another reluctantly shortly afterwards. So, they began going for people in the audience. And a cowboy, the one that brought over our drinks earlier, came over to me, grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. I hate audience participation so I was trying to resist. (Not as bad as Dan Howell, I must admit). Then, Kirstin stood up offering to go up, and, making the assumption he'd let us both go, I agreed. But only I went up.

I got lassood, okay. I got lassood and then dragged along the dancefloor. That happened.

The night ended at about 11pm where we waited in line to get a taxi. A point I hadn't mentioned was that this entire night was in English. The performers were mostly English, and a few were Spanish. While in the queue a Spanish man came up to one of the performers and spoke in Spanish, where she replied in fluent Spanish and its just something that made me really happy, because languages are really important to me.

Rancho Texas, to put it short, was a really great night and I probably will go back at some point to enjoy it better. (Where I'm not exhausted after a day's surfing!) And if you ever get the chance to go, you should definitely consider going along. There are a lot of people but it is a really fun night.

Have you ever been to Rancho Texas? Is there anything about your experience that you'd add, and that I forgot about?

Until next time, be excellent to each other.