Gran Canaria

From Tenerife, we returned to Gran Canaria and the anchorage off its capital city, Las Palmas. It was a strange place to anchor – off a lovely sandy beach, complete with palm trees in one corner, but with the bustling city as a backdrop to it all, and the regular ‘Bu-Be-Boop’ of ambulance and police sirens wailing past.

On the opposite side, we looked out towards the commercial side of the harbour, piled high with coloured shipping containers, where cranes were kept busy loading and unloading container ships – on average four or five ships a day. Tug boats chuffed out black smoke as they helped the container ships in and out of harbour, and cruise ships and inter-island ferries passed through frequently to the stone quays further up the harbour.

Anchorage off Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Despite all this commercial activity, there was plenty of leisure activity too. A local club launched kayaks and paddle-boards from the beach several times a day, and often used our boat as a ‘target’ to paddle out and around. The adjacent ‘club nautico’ (sailing club) had a huge fleet of lasers (small, sailing dinghies), which went out daily, often right out past the harbour entrance in pretty choppy conditions.

Lasers sailing inside harbour

The day after we arrived, I came down with the flu and was out of action for four days, just about managing to do ‘school’ each morning. Dave did the daily bread run, and took the children ashore in the afternoons. As soon as I was back on my feet, Katie was the next victim, followed, to a lesser extent by Dave. So the first ten days were spent pretty much on board watching all the comings and goings around us.

There weren’t many boats in the anchorage so we were very pleased to see a familiar boat arrive one morning – a little blue yacht called ‘Aristophanes’. They were a young British couple on board who we had bumped into several times along the coasts of Spain and Portugal. They were brave enough to come over to our ‘quarantine ship’ and it was great to catch up with them. They had stopped to watch a surfing festival in Portugal, visited Madeira briefly, and spent a month exploring Morocco. Reuben took a real shine to the very patient Brandy, who he renamed ‘Brownburger!’

Brandy, aka Brownburger!

Dave took the opportunity of being in one place to order a new water pump for the generator, which had stopped working. The part was only available in the US, so we put in an order and arranged express carriage to the marina via UPS. They estimated the delivery at 3-5 working days, which we thought may have been optimistic, but we went to check at the marina office daily just in case!

Even the walk round to the marina office was a struggle during this time. The marina was huge, catering for up to 2,000 boats, and the walk to the office led you around three sides of the marina, almost a mile walk. For several days after our illness, Katie & I had wobbly legs, and the trek around the marina seemed beyond our capabilities! It was brightened up by the boat paintings along the outer breakwater. The Las Palmas marina is the starting point for the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), and several hundred boats congregate here each November before setting off for the Caribbean. Many of them leave their mark on the rocks along the breakwater, some of which are highly artistic.

Boat paintings along harbour wall

We spent a lot of time on the local beach during our recuperation. The children splashed and paddled and built sandcastles. We took juggling balls ashore and played catch, and practised hitting tennis balls with racquets – tricky on a beach when the balls don’t bounce!

It wasn’t the most scenic beach, with the busy road behind and a view over a commercial harbour, but it was very popular locals’ beach. It was often dotted with sun worshippers in the day and well-used at weekends for football and volleyball.

The sand was a soft golden brown and raked clean every day by tractor. One day, hundreds of little squishy grey pellets appeared along the water’s edge, Dave thinks they came from a ship cleaning out its tanks. Extra raking measures were taken throughout the afternoon, and by the next morning, hardly a trace of them was left.

Once we were all healthy again, we were ready to explore. We walked north through the city, the streets of which stretched in all directions in a grid system. The streets were lined with shops and busy with cars, until you reached the Parque Santa Catalina, 15 minutes walk away. This seemed to be a major hub of activity, with open pedestrianised streets and rows of cafes around the park. They were setting up the stage for Carnival here on our first brief visit, and hosted a car rally there one weekend.

It is also the site of the brilliant Science Museum, where we were lured in by the front section of a real passenger plane ‘parked’ outside the building. We were all able to climb inside, open the hostess’ cupboards and sit in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. The number of buttons and dials is staggering! We were a bit confused to see that the pilot’s windows could open (??).

Pilot Reuben!

Pendulum Ball

Inside the museum, there was a whole variety of amazing exhibits, with plenty of buttons for children to press and clever optical illusions. We were entranced by the tall, tall pendulum ball hanging from the ceiling. It swung back and forth all day long, but it’s ‘line of swing’ changed throughout the day because of the rotation of the Earth. It was surrounded by a circle of metal ‘spikes’ and through the course of a day, it knocked them all down in turn. We sat and watched, spellbound, as it got closer and closer to one opposing pair of spikes and finally knocked them down. 

The city got narrower the further north you went, until it was literally just two or three streets wide. You could look down the street and see straight through from the harbour on the East side to the Atlantic coast on the other. Here there was a three-mile long beach called Playa de las Caletas, which seemed to be the main ‘tourist strip’ of the city. Unlike our beach, the promenade was lined with restaurants and cafes, and people earned money making intricate sand-carvings next to the promenade.

City beach, Playa de Las Caletas

 

Painstaking work!

The beach was mostly sandy, with rockpools galore for the children to play in. A line of reef protected the beach from swell, and the shallow water inside was a popular spot for snorkelling, diving or paddleboarding. Katie & I went snorkelling and saw lots of stripey fish. The swell sneaking in made the loose vegetation on the bottom surge to and fro, which looked unnervingly like the bottom was rocking! I saw the biggest shoal of fish so far pass under us.

Walking south from the marina, we followed the wide promenade alongside the main road right down to the old part of the city. The path followed along the top of the seawall, where Katie and Reuben had fun spotting huge red and black stone crabs on the rocks below. Reuben counted them up to one hundred and forty something before he lost track!

Counting crabs

Colourful stone crabs

‘Triana’ is the pedestrianised shopping and eating district, and ‘Vegueta’ is the historic centre of Las Palmas. It is full of grand houses and lovely old architecture from the early Spanish settlers in the late 15^th century.

The impressive Cathedral de Santa Ana looks out over a large square of merchant houses and the old town hall. It is the largest (and probably earliest) square in the city, guarded by bronze statues of Canary dogs. These were being sketched by a group of art students when we were there. We sat awhile enjoying the peaceful atmosphere while Reuben raced around chasing pigeons!

Fancy frontages in Triana

Pigeon chasing by Catedral Santa Ana 

Historic buildings in Vegueta

We visited the Museo Canaria, which is full of local history about the Guanche tribes who lived here before the Spanish arrived. They originated from Northern Africa and came to the islands sometime around 500 years BC. They built large stone dwellings, but also dug out networks of caves in the hillsides, to live in and to store grain. They had a complex social hierarchy, and life revolved around growing crops, rearing animals and catching fish. They sewed clothes from animal skins and wove their own mats and a coarse ‘fabric’ from palm fronds and vegetable fibres.

Wooden spoons as there was no metal on the island

They used this and animal skins to wrap their dead, which effectively mummified them. There has been extensive research on their remains judging by the number of skulls and skeletons on display in one room, which was morbidly fascinating. The round circle on each skull suggests they may have buried their dead with a coin on their foreheads, but I didn’t verify this.

Guanche skulls

The Guanche also made clay pots, and decorated these (and their caves) with colourful paints. The collection of ceramic and clay pots was rather less distressing to look at. They also tied in nicely with Katie’s school topic of Ancient Greece, for which she had also made a pot. It was a lot harder than we imagined and we can now appreciate better the skill involved!

Guanche pots

Katie's pot

We saw some of the Guanche caves for ourselves when we walked up to ‘La Isleta’, an ‘almost-island’, as they say in France. The rest of Gran Canaria is almost circular in shape and La Isleta is attached to it by the narrow isthmus at the north end of Las Palmas. The top end of La Isleta is barred off for military use, but you can walk a little way around the coast. First we passed a surfers’ beach, where there was some sort of dog competition going on. We stopped for a little break while the children had a quick look around the rockpools, where they found a lovely blue starfish.  

Top of La Isleta cordonned off for military use

8-legged blue starfish

The track then took us up to an elevated village full of colourful houses, appropriately called ‘Los Coloradas’. From the hilltop here, la Cruz de las Palmas, we had fantastic views right down over Las Palmas and both of its city shorelines, as well as the whole north coast of Gran Canaria.

View from Los Colorados

Cruz de Las Palmas, with view over the city

The Guanche caves had been built in the hillside underneath us, and although now starting to crumble, gave a glimpse of a lifestyle long since gone. They offered protection from the prevailing northeast winds in a sheltered spot with views over any potential invaders.

Guanche caves

Looking out from the caves

On the opposite side of the narrow isthmus, at the very top of the harbour, was the old Castillo de la Luz. Rather than simply preserving the ruins of the old lighthouse/castle, it had been restored in a very modern way and turned into an exhibition site for a local artist, Martin Chirino.

Each castle room was the backdrop for his swirling metal images and steel sculptures. Dave wasn’t sure he completely liked it, but I thought it provided a fantastic setting for showing off his work, as well as protecting the remains of the stone walls from the elements. The children liked the glass floors best of all!

Castillo de La Luz

Metal sculpture by Martin Chirino

Glass floors inside the castle

We wanted to see what the island was like outside the city so we hired a car for the weekend. Like Tenerife, Gran Canaria is a high mountainous island, which ‘catches’ the clouds. This leads to a distinct divide between the rainy, fertile north, and the dry south side. Las Palmas was a comfortable 20-odd degrees, but often cloudy, particularly in the afternoons. Unsurprisingly, most of the tourist resorts are on the sunny south coast!

We followed the motorway down the east coast to the resort of Maspalomas, at the southern tip of the island. We wanted to visit the famous sand dunes, and we weren’t disappointed. The sand had formed into a rolling ‘hillside’ - the inland part was quite green with vegetation (and a large part was cordoned off to keep it that way), but nearer the sea it was just pure sand, and the children had a whale of a time scrambling up and down the slopes, and launching themselves off the top!

Maspalomas Sand dunes

Sliding down the sand dunes!

After emptying our pockets of all the sand, we took our picnic to the beach. If today was anything to go by, the south side of the island was definitely HOT, even with the fresh onshore breeze that was now blowing the tops of the sand dunes off. We were glad to cool off in the sea, and Katie & I had fun jumping waves and trying to bodysurf in the choppy seas.

Maspalomas beach

The dunes themselves had been surprisingly empty of people, but the beach was busy, with a constant flow of people walking along the water’s edge. We joined them all as far as the tall lighthouse at the end of the beach, then followed the track back to our car. Here, a storm drain feeds a freshwater pool just in from the beach, which is now a nature reserve and bird sanctuary. The children spotted several herons and white egrets. And a rabbit!

Big prickly plant on sand dunes!

We wanted to check out the anchorages along this coast, which had been recommended on a fellow cruisers’ blog. The motorway fizzled out after Maspalomas, and we skirted the southwest corner of the island on an increasingly windy road which took us in, around and occasionally through the rocky cliffs. 

Impressive roads

The first place, Pasito Blanco, was a quiet and well-kept privately-owned village, which didn’t allow non-resident cars in. There was a nice little beach, a small shop and a marina lined with big sports fishing boats, several of whom were chopping up freshly-caught tuna.  

The second, Anfi del Mar, was a thriving resort with hotels and shops and marina complex set around a lovely curved beach, complete with a ‘man-made landscaped island’.

Finally, we reached Puerto de Mogan, which we really liked the look of (maybe just glad to get out of the car at this stage!) There was a bustling tourist town with bridges over a stream and pretty narrow streets set around a large marina. The anchorage was under tall cliffs just outside a little sandy beach, and there was a pebble beach at the other end of the marina. We enjoyed a lovely meal here in a local restaurant, where Reuben was delighted to choose his own fish!

Fish on offer at Puerto de Mogan

The following day, we ventured inland, towards the mountains. The roads climbed quickly and the temperature dropped with it - we were shivering at the first viewpoint stop! We passed through Arucas, with its stunning stone cathedral (unusual in a place of square white-washed churches), a place named Teror, and then we disappeared into the clouds. The trees by the roadside were suddenly draped with green moss and the children wound their windows down to grab handfuls of the chilly damp air – a novelty!

Into the clouds

We finally crested the mountaintops and emerged below the clouds into the volcano caldera at the centre of the island. We had a stunning view of sheer green hillsides dropping into the valley, and a lone rock formation standing proud in the middle – el Roque Nublo. We pulled up at Tejeda and found a perfect picnic spot to enjoy the view, if only it hadn’t been so cold!

Looking down over Tejeda

We warmed up with a wander around the town itself, which, although now a tourist hotspot, looked relatively untouched by time. Below us, the houses spread over a green ridge and the hillsides had been cut into terraced steps for cultivation. Almond trees were dotted around, obviously a local speciality as the bakery offered a whole variety of almond cakes, almond cookies and jars of almond paste.

Tejeda town

We had hoped to go for a walk in the National Park of Tamadaba, with its pine trees and lakes, but were unprepared for (and unimpressed by) the drizzly grey skies and chilly 8 degree temperatures. After a coffee stop in an stunning (but cold) natural cave café at Artenara, we cut our losses and headed back via the north coast, stopping briefly at San Felipe beach to watch the waves (and a couple of brave surfers) crashing in.

Waves on San Felipe beach, north coast

Back at the anchorage, the days passed and our parcel still didn’t arrive. ‘Aristophanes’ had gone on to Tenerife, where they were hauling out for the winter.

Reuben practised swimming on his own near the beach, and bravely decided he wanted to ‘swim out to the boat’. He hung onto the life ring again, and determinedly kicked all the way back to the boat, despite looking more and more cold and tired. Katie swam with him and I was on hand in the rescue boat (kayak), but he didn’t give up until he proudly reached our ladder. He and Katie did this three times during our stay there.

Swimming out to boat

nearly there!

We met a crazy Swedish guy on another small yacht. He had sailed the whole way here from Sweden in 85 days without stopping – on a twenty-foot boat! He had been swimming ashore from his boat until somebody gave him an old beach inflatable, which barely looked big enough to carry him. As you can imagine he was quite a character and had plenty of tales to tell. He was kind enough to give the children a pack of tennis balls before we left.

We also met up with Mike and Helen on ‘Island Drifter’, who had cruised the Canary Islands two years previously. We had been reading their blog which was full of useful information about places to moor on each island. They invited us to their boat for tea, where Reuben, for some reason, renamed Mike ‘Big Jim’!!

By this stage, we had waited nearly three weeks for our pump to arrive. The online tracking only served to frustrate us as we could see where the parcel had got held up, but couldn’t get any useful information from anybody to speed things up. It was good weather at sea and we wanted to get moving.

Eventually, the package left mainland Spain and we were promised delivery by the end of the day on Monday. We reluctantly sacrificed a whole weekend of fair weather, assuming we could get moving as soon as the package turned up on Monday. We spent the day in a state of high anticipation but at 6pm, there was yet another document hold-up. We ran out of patience at this point and headed out to sea!

Dolphins!

Dave on bobstay above the dolphins

We had decided not to visit the more westerly islands of el Hierro, La Palma, and Gomera. Not only would we be in marinas again but we were starting to think of the return journey. We would like to visit Madeira on the way back, and the eastern islands give a better angle to the wind to get there.

Also, we wanted to see our friends on ‘Magic Dragon’ again, so we headed to our old favourite anchorage off the Isla de Lobos, in Fuerteventura.

Happily, the parcel eventually found its way to us in Lanzarote. Thanks to Lee for the lift there, and thanks to Colin for chasing it up for us! We now have a fully operational generator again.