So we woke up the next morning after the trip and went to Karin and Eric’s at 10am. We talked and they told us they saw whales on the trip - which we didn’t see by the way. We had a lovely time at theirs laughing and then we left to go to buy food because our fridge was plain empty.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is extremely different from Puerto Calero and Gran Tarajal. It’s overpopulated. It really surprised us when we came there as we aren’t used to the “big city”. The marina was right next to the motorway and the smell the petrol from vehicles needed to get used to. The old part of Las Palmas, however, was a little better. The buildings weren’t as tall to their modern counterparts making it feel less overwhelming. My least favourite part of the city was the promenade where dogs weren’t allowed because (frankly) I couldn’t understand why. That was on the other side of the city where the ‘nicer’ beaches were and you weren’t allowed to smoke or to go on the beach wearing shoes as well. Why can’t I wear shoes on the beach? It doesn’t make any sense! On the other hand, I liked the central food market there because you had everything you needed.
But, Las Palmas, in my opinion is the ugly duckling of Gran Canaria. It is full of tall block, concrete buildings housing small apartments in them that remind a lot me of Eastern Europe. It is also covered by clouds all the time which makes it an extremely dreary place to live in.
Once you get out of Las Palmas and into the mountains, it’s a different world. Gran Canaria is beautiful as a whole, it is greener than Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. It was the first time we saw grass in 2 months! They have beautiful pine forests, valleys full of palm trees and the landscape is really dramatic.
It had stunning views and beautiful roads but they’re really narrow causing my mum have panic attacks every time she saw another car on the road. At first I was afraid but then I got used to it and started teasing my mum (yeah I’m an angel!). The most adrenaline-filled roads are around Teror which you should visit if you are in Gran Canaria. The roads are usually very narrow and abrupt with only some exemptions like the motorways. I wouldn’t want to drive on them.
My most favourite part of Gran Canaria was the south - Maspalomas and Puerto de Mogan - probably because they have the best weather on the island. There are beautiful sand dunes in Maspalomas causing anyone to get lost in them and white beaches. In Puerto de Mogan there are old buildings and there is a really nice ambience. Although, when we were there, there weren’t many tourists, there was still a prominent touristic atmosphere. There were less people wearing masks outside and on the beaches than in Las Palmas. Yes! They wear masks OUTSIDE!!!!
In Gran Canaria we decided that we wanted to be energy independent so we hired a welder called Osvaldo to make our solar panel support as well as this we brought 4 solar panels. It took 3 weeks to make the support and to connect the panels to the batteries. In the meantime, we made friends learning that he was in fact an immigrant from Chile. We also met a boat in the shipyard with 7 crew who wanted to go the south and north poles for a 3 year excursion without going home.
We also met someone on the bicycle who turned out to be Romanian. We wanted to see each other again for coffee but it wasn't possible so we met with her husband. It turned out that they actually lived on the island for 30 years and prior to that they lived in the US. We made good friends with him and we still keep in touch. We would also like to thank him for the bibles he gave us as my mum started reading the bible for the first time and is enjoying it.
In conclusion we liked Gran Canaria a lot. I would certainly go there again on holiday.
