This Sunday the people on the Canary Islands celebrate. Everyone will be eating typical Canarian potatoes with a nice ‘mojo’ sauce, honey rum, fish prepared in water from the ocean, almogrote, and everything typical the locals like to eat and drink.
Of course there are little markets all over the place selling local products and to make everything even better the Monday after the party is a holiday as well!
In Las Palmas the carnival is celebrated in a lot of ways. Parades, costumes, parties, lots of drinking, shows, fireworks, burning sardines and a powder party. During the powder party (in honor of the original inhabitants of the island) everyone is dresses in all white and equipped with a few cans of powder.
The idea is that you walk through the shopping street Triana from the beginning to the end. There is a band playing music, and the people simply follow the band. It takes around three hours to move to the end and meanwhile you are in the middle of one huge partying mass inside an even bigger white cloud of powder. Very nice!
A harbour is a place where you really dont want to get lost. Strange types are walking around and there is a risk that heavy things might fall on you.
Even as a child we are taught by Popeye that there are always bad guys in the neighborhood of sailors. In Las Palmas it is the same as everywhere else. Rules don’t apply and even the roads don’t follow the normal rules but just run chaotically through all the cargo.
Two year ago more or less around the same time of year I wrote a little entry on this blog about some really bad weather in Las Palmas. That was two years ago, and today I am living a big dejavu. It’s raining big-time again! This morning the streets turned to little rivers and right now in the evening the same is happening again. Nice big drops of rain, just like in Holland.
A lot of years ago (I think I was 6 or 7 years old at the time) I visited agualand again. Agualand is a waterpark on the south of the island. I somehow remember it was a nice park, but it was a lot smaller then I remembered. I think all the attractions were exactly the same as almost 30 years ago. The only thing I did not remember from my previous visit as a little boy were the burning hot stones you needed to walk across to get to the slides. Also the park closes very early. Around 6 o clock the visitors were asked to leave the park.
It was a nice visit and I was happy I brought some sunscreen factor 50, because there was very little shadow in the park. The entrance fee was quite high, 20 euros if you provide a discount ticket worth 6 euros. These discount tickets you can get everywhere, for example in a lot of supermarkets. The part is fun and it is worth a visit. Be sure to bring flip flops that can get wet! You need these to walk to the slides and not burn your feet.
Last weekend I spend on the Güi-güi beach. A nice little beach in the middle of nowhere. We went there on Saturday morning and made the return trip on Sunday morning.
The big advantage of this beach is that it is almost deserted. The reason is simple: you need to walk for two and a half hours to get to the beach. Around one and a half hour is spend climbing a big hill and then you spend an hour going down towards the beach.
The beach is quite nice. The water is very clear and the surroundings are breathtakingly beautiful. Still it is quite a lot of effort you need to undertake. There is no shop or anything near the beach so you need to bring everything along; water, beers, a tent, towels, sunscreen, everything.
The route: Drive to Tasartico. In Tasartico the road changes from asphalt to dirt and stones. Following the path you reach a little parking place that will fit around 3 or 4 cars. This is where the path starts. First cover your body with sunscreen and then just follow the path. After a hike of about an hour and a half you will reach the top of the hill. Quite a hike and you should rest a little on top, before starting the descend. The way down made difficult because the path is covered with loose sand and little pebbles. Quite dangerous because you slip very easily. When you finally arrive the only thing left is to feel happy and proud of the hike you just did. Finally you can start enjoying this little piece of paradise.
Don’t worry. Except for a generally hot climate caused by the sun I haven’t seen any fire yet. Only on the TV. I live and work in the parts of Gran Canaria that are not effected by the big fire raging in the south of the island.
Today it is horribly hot! Luckily it’s only extremly hot in the south of Gran Canaria. This morning in the north it was nice and cool. I left home at 6:30 and when I arrived at 7:30 it was still a little dark. I did not see any sunshine. However, when I opened the door of my car there was such a hot air it was unbelievable. Without the sun such a terribly hot air I could not believe it. It’s almost impossible to remain outside a long time.
I was told it was the ‘Calima’ which is the name for a meteorological effect where hot air all the way from Africa is blown across the ocean and passes the Canary Islands. The result is a few days with a lot of heat. Pfff.
I’ll be in Gran Canaria from the 6th of April until the 14th. Ana wants to evaluate her future job and I will go and enjoy the sun for a week. Afterwards we’ll return to Madrid and we’ll have a decision to make. Do we or don’t we go to Gran Canaria for quite a long period. Who knows. In a few weeks I expect to have an update.