spain: canary islands: gran canaria: las palmas

My original plan for my New Years holidays was to go to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. As it has for the last five years, that plan fell apart. When I looked for flights, I found reasonably priced flights to the Canary Islands. They hadn't been on my radar at all, but I hadn't been there previously, so hey, why not?

The flights I booked were the cheapest option, which meant two connections, neither one of them very convenient. I left Moscow on a Thursday night and arrived at my destination Saturday morning.

I slept overnight in the airports of Bratislava and Las Palmas. I didn't need to sleep in the last airport, but my flight arrived in the night, after public transport had stopped. I didn't want to pay for a taxi that would get me to accomodation only in time to sleep half the night. Call me cheap.

Saturday morning I took a bus from the airport on Gran Canaria to Las Palmas, then walked to my hostel. I was able to check in early, after which I laid around for a bit, just because I could. I didn't have a guidebook, and I didn't have a plan for my three week holiday. Oh well.

A few hours later I walked to the beach, and found a place to lay out for a few hours. The beach was mostly black (the Canary Islands are volcanic islands, so black sand is pretty normal, if it is a sandy beach.) It was also windy, so it wasn't as relaxing as I wanted. Still, after being in Moscow, which had almost no direct sun during the month of December, any sun felt good.

After enjoying the sun, I started walking down the beach, to see how far I could go. Nearly everything along the way was a cafe or store geared toward tourists.

A bit down the way I found an exhibition of sand sculptures, which was fun to see. It was free, which surprised me.

Sunset that evening took place while I was out walking. It wasn't stunning, but seeing a sunset at all was nice. Of course I tried to take photos.

The next day I walked into the city center, to try and find a guidebook. The route shown on my phone took me along a street higher up so I could see out quite a bit. At this point, I wasn't really sold on the views of Las Palmas, and really hoped that whereva I went next would be better looking.

My walk also took me through a park with a statue of a giraffe and boy looking at the giraffe. I have no idea why it was there, but I still took the photo. The walk also took me past a fountain made by a frog spitting water.

I didn't end up finding the guidebook I wanted, much to my annoyance. I found a Spanish version of what I wanted, but not an English version. Argh. I bought ice cream to splurge, and to get over not finding the guidebook. (I can always justify ice cream, whether I should be doing so or not.)

After the shopping attempt, I found the Catedral de Santa Ana. Since the Canaries are part of Spain, of course there are a few churches to be seen. This particular church is said to be the most religious place of the Canary Islands, I suppose that is rather subjective. Wikipedia tells me the church was originally built during the 16^th century.

There was an entrance fee of 2 euro, the entrance is around the side of the church. The initial entry is actually just into a cloister area, where a museum has been set up. It was interesting to see paintings and photos of previous bishops, as the style of their vestments has changed quite a bit over the centuries.

The church itself was nothing spectacular, but not awful either. My favourite parts were the stained glass windows, which weren't very big or very intricate. I liked them because the light was streaming in and visible on the floor. Beautiful to see the light that way. Im a sucker for stained glass windows.

From there I walked back to my hostel, put on my bikini, and went back to the beach for a couple more hours of sun. This time around I found an area where it wasn't so windy.

The next morning I walked to the bus station where the airport bus had originally dropped me off. I got lucky with my timing and caught the bus I wanted just as it was leaving. Around 30 minutes later I hopped off, near a place called Caldera de Bandama.

As the entire set of Canary Islands are made up of volcanic islands, there are great opportunities for hiking. Visiting this no longer active volcano was one of those opportunities. I found a path and followed it, it took me through a residential area, to the lip of the caldera.

From there I decided to go right, and see where I could go. I didn't make it all the way around, I have no idea if that is even possible. When I got to the furthest point I chose to go, I could see a path down in the bottom of the crater, but I don't know where that particular path started.

I loved the views of the caldera as I followed along the lip, but I didn't love the scree that made up the path. It kept getting stuck in my shoes, which wasn't fun. Take 5 steps, stop and shake out the shoes, take 5 steps, stop and shake out the shoes. Rather annoying.

Eventually I headed back to the bus stop, I only had to wait about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I got confused with the direction the bus would be going. I let a bus go by, thinking it would loop around and come back. It didn't, argh. I had to wait another hour for the next bus to come, and I spent the whole time thinking I was an idiot. Oh well.

When I got back to Las Palmas I walked along the east side of the city, more or less along the water. I saw a couple beaches of people playing volleyball, though they were mostly in the shade and wind by that point. The west side beaches have many more people in the afternoon.

I found an office for a ferry company, and bought a ticket (speaking only in Spanish, yay!!) for a ferry the next morning. Easy enough, then I walked over to the western side of town, and took in another sunset. This one was a whole lot better.

After dinner I walked back to my hostel and packed up. Since I knew I would be up early the next morning I didn't want to wake anyone else, and I wanted to sleep as long as I could. I warned my roommates that I would be up early, but would try to be as quiet as possible.

I don't think I woke anyone the next morning when I woke up and was out the door at 0600. I walked to the bus stop next to the ferry company office, then boarded their bus. 30 minutes later it departed and took everyone to the boat. Security and boarding were easy. I found a chair, then dozed a bit while the boat moved me from one island to another.

Las Palmas isn't a tourist destination. There are definitely hotels and restaurants geared toward tourists, but the beach isn't beautiful. It's the capital city of the island, and felt more like a place where people live a 'normal' life.