Wednesday 31 January 2018

Gran Canaria, January 2018
I have always known about Gran Canaria – the place to visit for a relaxing sun-beach holiday. I wanted to escape the dark, cold weather in January and take a sun-beach holiday. I found Gran Canaria the place to visit in the cold, dark time of the year. The country island has only two days of rain in a year. Given the cheap prices and the weather I booked a trip to Gran Canaria.


Day 1 – Saturday – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

I was travelling alone to Gran Canaria – I needed some sun and time to relax. A young mountain biker was sitting next to my right side and a retired old lady to my left side, both were Irish. All of us were heading to different areas in Gran Canaria. I was heading north to Las Palmas, the old lady was heading south to Maspalomas and the mountain biker was heading center to the hills. The Irish man was apparently a professional mountain biker who got injured and was recovering from his injury. He was going to meet one of his mates in the island to train for a week. We ended up talking until he had to claim his luggage and we said our goodbyes. I was only allowed to pay for single bus tickets. It was about one hour bus drive from the airport to the Big Fish hostel – the hostel staff were young, friendly foreigners. 

I arrived quite late and took a stroll around the area, I found more locals than tourists. It made me think of the old lady in the plane – all the tourists are probably in the south. The city had a couple of restaurants that served kebab and supermarkets such as SuperDino and Supervalu. I went walked along the coast and when I reached the very end of the beach, I found a local bar called Nono. I was told they had cheap, good food. I have never tasted calamari before  I’m not a big fan of squid. I asked what the waiter recommended and he mentioned calamari. I ended up trying it for the first time. I had a medium plate of calamari and some bread  it didn’t look pleasant when I got it and unfortunately it didn’t have the best taste either.

I went back to the hostel and became friends with Sany, a German girl that was about five years older than me. She had inherited some money from her grandmother’s will to buy a car but choose instead to travel with the money. She had already been in the hostel three days before me and recommended a couple of things that was arranged with the hostel. On Friday nights, they would arrange a tapas night. On Thursdays, you could book a guided tour up in the hills followed with wine tasting. Also, she told me it was raining and there were strong winds during her stay but she was told it wouldn’t get worse than that since those days were the coldest days in Gran Canaria. I was quite lucky to arrive when the sun was shining.
There would be a marathon tomorrow called Cajasiete Gran Canaria Marathon, it had a route along the coast, hence some areas would be blocked. I wanted to see the marathon in the morning and swim and explore the south. Sany was heading that direction tomorrow since she wanted to see the famous chair on the cliff and it was warmer in the south – it was about 2degrees warmer. Therefore, we planned to go there together.


Day 2 –  Sunday – South Gran Canaria 

Sany and I took a bus and got off at the very last stop which was Puerto de Mogán. We strolled around, and found a handful of shops. The shop that I found fascinating was the Aloe Vera shop. The staff sold both plants and medicines and were very skilled in the different types of the plant. We went to the beach and enjoyed the sun and the ocean. Some people were snorkeling.

We went to the very end of the cliffs and found an abandon chair – what clever person decided to put a chair on the cliff? That chair must be renowned as numerous people were standing in line to take photos with the chair. We found a restaurant called Resturante Playa de Mogán, just around the corner and ordered fish paella and wine. The waiter told us we had to wait about 45 min for our fish paella and we asked if we could pay now and then come back. We tried to understand the reason for the long waiting time and his explanation was that it was the last fish paella – I still don’t get it. We took a walk and randomly met some people from the hostel– talk about a small island. Apparently, they were working both in the Maspalomas and Las Palmas hostel. We went back for our food and it was worth the wait – the combination of rise, salmon, squid, mussels, shrimps and fruits was incredible. We headed back to the beach and had a final swim before we had some candy. I suggested the idea of walking along the south coast and catch the last bus – I’m glad she agreed.

We took the bus to Amadores and then walked to Puerto Rico where I took a night swim. I was literally the only person in the ocean. However, there was only us and three other people on the beach. We continued our journey and had to take a turn from the coast. We ended up passing a mountain in the dark, it was about seven in the evening. Except from the person living in a cave, it was dead silence. The cave person had a torch on his head and was reading a book. Every time we talked he would turn to our direction and gaze. The path was hard to see, hence we used the torch in our phones. By margin we noticed the deep dark hole next to the path. One wrong step and we would have fallen about 100m down and probably have died. After surviving the turn, we had to cross the highway and pass through a hotel to get back to the coast again. Just before reaching del Mar, we discovered a pleasant, romantic park with a small pond. It reminded me of the parks in China. We reached the beach and not far from there, was a show with smoke, dance and music. We didn’t stay too long since we had a bus to catch.
We reached Arguineguin Center just one minute before the last bus was scheduled to arrive. We waited more than ten minutes – did we miss the bus? We were about to leave to find a cab when suddenly, a drunk middle-aged man came out of nowhere, approaching us saying “no bus”. Sany continued talking to him and just when we were about to leave for the second time, the last bus arrived – I must say we were quite lucky.




Day 3 – Monday – North Gran Canaria

Sany and I bought some breakfast and snacks from Supervalu and went to the beach. We just wanted to relax, swim and explore the north. Sany mentioned she was heading back at night but wasn’t sure how because the buses stop running at night time. We tried to find the best solution – she decided to take a cab to San Telmo and then a bus to the airport. I mentioned I wanted to experience the mountains in broad daylight and was planning to head to the botanical garden and Bandama tomorrow. She had been to the botanical garden but not Bandama. A guy overheard our conversation and asked what we were planning. Chris was interested in going there as well and we changed information. He was from Czech Republic and had moved to Las Palmas for an Erasmus exchange. He was busy attending water courses and finding a place to rent. He had signed up for a surfing course and had to leave.

Sany and I were enjoying the sun in the beach when a Polish guy approached us. He had snorkeling equipment with him. Sany talked to him while I didn’t even bother opening my eyes, they were talking about snorkeling and he even wanted to lend her his snorkeling equipment but she declined. He left his stuff nearby and went to snorkel. Sany and I walked further down the beach and found all the retired tourists. I would easily say most of the retired tourists were from Germany and Sweden. We headed back to the hostel and changed for the evening. We walked along the coast found a group of people still surfing. We then found Alfredo Kraus Hall, a concert hall with amazing architecture. Just across to the concert hall was Centro Comercial Las Arenas, one of the bigger malls in Las Palmas. We continued further down and found some closed restaurants. Apparently, all the restaurants are open one hour for lunch and then closes again and doesn’t open until seven in the evening.
We walked back towards the hostel and found a couple of Italian restaurants. We choose a restaurant randomly because we were starving. The waiter was a local from Las Palmas, he asked us where we were from and then started to speak some Swedish. Apparently, the owner was Swedish – I would guess most of the restaurants were owned by Swedes or Germans. We sat in the outdoor serving and later asked for some blankets, but they didn’t have any. The menu had pictures of the food and was also written in different European languages. We ordered some pizza, I don’t recall what the name of the pizza was but it was topped with everything meat, ham and shrimp. Even though the food wasn’t tasty, the staff were lovely and after we paid, the waiter gave us a sweet apple drink on the house.




Day 4 – Tuesday – Center Gran Canaria 

I woke up quite early and went to buy some breakfast and candy. I texted Chris to see if he was awake and wanted to meet earlier outside the hostel. He was fine with that but needed to find a place to change currency. We met and I explained to him that he just had to withdraw money from an ATM and he would get euros. He was surprised over this method since he believed he would have gotten Czech koruna.

We went to the bus station and took the bus to Jardin Botanico Viera y Clavijo. The scenery looked painted and the plants were colourful. To be honest, I didn’t believe such nature existed in Gran Canaria. We took the path to the right and had the view of a viaduct. We took the small stone steps down and reached the botanical garden. There were many colorful Aloe Vera plants and flowers. We even found a small waterfall and turtles swimming in some of the ponds. I would describe Jardin Botanico Viera y Clavijo as a tropical maze. We passed a couple of guided tours in Finnish. We walked for a while until we found a bench close to one of the ponds with the golden fishes jumping out of the water, trying to reach the sky. Chris had Spanish chorizo in his bag and I had leftover bread from breakfast. We ended up having sandwiches while enjoying the company of the fishes. We occasionally tossed some bread to the fishes. We went back and took the small stone stairs back up to the hill. At some point Chris climbed a tree like a monkey, because I dared him, I told him a funny story about my fearless sister doing it all the time as a child.

We headed to the bus stop, we had missed the bus and next one would arrive in 30min. We were short with time, since I had a flight to catch in the evening and Chris had a Kayak lesson and then a viewing. Chris suggested we would try to hitchhike. I had never done it before and would probably never do it alone. He had done it once before and was excited to do it once more. We tried for a while with no luck. We looked at the signs and thought maybe it is because they can choose two different paths. We crossed the highway and found us in the verge with only one direction, to Caldera de Bandama. The first car passing by was an ambulance, a lady was sitting in the next car. The lady couldn’t speak English, but Chris knew some Spanish and used his skills to make conversation. She was happy to take us halfway to our direction. We walked a bit to get to the top, on our way we found the bus stop and took some photos on the time table. We reached the top, 569m.a.s.l. - it was breath taking to see the volcano crater and rest of Gran Canaria.
We went back to the hostel and took a short swim in the ocean before I had to take the bus to the airport. I was wondering when Chris was leaving for his course and viewing and he said he decided not to go since he enjoyed my company and wanted to stay with me until I left to the airport. He followed me to the bus stop, I gave him a hug and we said our goodbyes.