NORMAL LIFE: The Contrasts Of Gran Canaria

I wasn’t going to blog this, but after returning from a one-week break to Gran Canaria late last night and looking at the photos taken with my digital camera, I just had to get blogging!

It all started last Wednesday, on March 15th, when Bree and I boarded the early morning flight in Helsinki. One of my best friends was working as an Air Steward on this flight and, shortly after take-off, he offered Bree and I extra legroom seats at the front of the plane. It was a very welcome offer after a huge guy sat down next to me on the plane and the excess of his huge arms and legs were resting on me all the time. Urgh!

The flight went very quickly, watching the in-flight movie (Hitch, with Will Smith) and socialising with the cabin crew in the galleys during their break. The flight was rather long at six hours and when we landed just after lunchtime, we collected our luggage and were transferred to our villa at the ‘Sandy Golf’, a complex set in a wonderfully quiet part of Maspalomas near the Campo De Golf. Nearby, are the sand dunes that Gran Canaria is known for.

After unpacking rather hurriedly, we walked inland and up ‘the hill’ towards Plaza Del Hierro. Now hungry, we settled onto a terrace where we ate hamburgers while we enjoyed the view of the golf course with the sand dunes and sea beyond. Donning sunglasses, we were amazed at how you could be transported from –8°C to +25°C in a six-hour flight. Still, we wouldn’t moan. Instead, we would enjoy the heat that hit our pale, milky-white skin.

We continued our walk inland, checking out the many commercial centres that seem to plague the Canary Islands. Eventually, we came to CC Yumbo (Centro Commercial, in Spanish), known for its many gay bars and drag show venues. By day, it looks pretty unimpressive, a mass of concrete blocks full of outlets, most of which were closed during the day. The presence of a Lacosté store and many Perfumeries did it’s best to boost the image of the place, but then you saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken and Chinese restaurants offering €5 lunches so the place was a bit of a mish-mash, clearly aimed at anyone who was willing to buy!

We headed back to the apartment the way we came, stopping off at the supermarket to buy some food. We bought sandwich stuff, which was just as well because tiredness overwhelmed us and we decided to stay in for the night, tucking into ham and cheese rolls and Bacardi and Cokes!

When we woke up the next morning, my face was puffy and my eyes were sore. Clearly, I was allergic to something in the apartment and my guess was that it was the dust in the bedding; Bree and I agreed that the bedding was rather damp too, but just brushed it off and got on with our day. It was a wonderfully sunny morning, a rare site in Finland on these winter days.

We headed to the on-site restaurant where breakfast was included in the cost of our stay and, for the next seven mornings, we would be offered a select of cold meats, breads and sweet pastries. Yummy!

For a while after breakfast, we lounged around by the pool, slapping on the sun tan cream. Around noon, we headed along the Barranco De Maspalomas, a flood canal that stretches for as far as you can see inland down towards the Maspalomas Lighthouse. We reached the Ecological Area near the Camel Centre, which reminded me of the camel trip I went on with my sister in Lanzarote the previous September.

We walked along the promenade, passing the imposing lighthouse before settling down for lunch with a glass of Sangria. After a wander around along the shoreline, we headed back towards the Sandy Golf via Maspalomas’ famous sand dunes; Bree warned me that there might be naked people, but I didn’t think there would be that many!

The evening came and we headed to CC Yumbo. We ate Chinese then watched a drag show which lasted until midnight. I was quite surprised how few people there were – I thought there would be more people around than there was. There were many couples walking around, both gay and straight, and it was kind of liberating to be able to be who we are. We got into bed in the early hours of the morning, well and truly knackered.

Friday morning came with another clear blue sky and another round of sore, dry eyes. After our usual breakfast and morning sunbathing, we took a cab, heading towards CC Cita. Bree had been there before and wanted us to check out the stores and see if there were any potential restaurants for dinner in the evenings.

We walked around the many electronic stores and perfumeries, perhaps the two most annoying things that exist in the Canary Islands. It would be so nice to walk into one of these stores and be free to look around and ask for advice if I want it. Instead, once Bree had enquired about the cost of a Portable Sony Play Station, we were hounded everywhere we went.

One guy asked where Bree was from. When he said ‘Finland’, the guy doubled his efforts saying ‘Suomi is rich!’ I was impressed that he knew the Finnish word for Finland was Suomi, but he really wasn’t going to make progress with us, as we were just not looking to buy. We passed a couple of more stores and one guy even offered to sell me batteries for my hearing device which was laughable as they are not even available on the open market! This is just how annoyingly persistent these people are! Grrr!

When we walked into a number of perfumeries, the hounding persisted. And an even more annoying thing was the price-fixing of aftershaves, deodorants and cosmetics. I asked one sales assistant why this was. She explained that, in the past, some shops offered really good deals while other tourists got ripped off and the price fixing ensures that all tourists get a fair deal. But why was everything costing the same as in Helsinki and the UK? I think I preferred the old system where I could shop around for the cheapest deal. Then again, having said that, the cheapest sometimes isn’t the ‘realist’ and I think this was the Island’s way of tackling the number of dodgy goods being sold.

The sales assistant was charming, chatting with us for quite some time. Her genuine friendliness earned her more than €60 of sales and she even threw in a load of free samples. Afterwards, we walked to nearby CC Yumbo for a toasted sandwich, apple crumble and coffee, before heading back to the apartment.

In the evening, we went back to Cita and, over a jug of Sangria, watched a hilarious drag show featuring various performers. One of them was voluptuous with surgically enhanced breasts and he/she clearly loved to perform and flirt with the male members of the mainly German audience. We ate very late that evening, downing Paella in a nearby Grill Restaurant. Yummy!

Saturday morning came around at lightning speed and would be a day of rest, an opportunity to get some serious rays and, hopefully, a tan! I made progress with my Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. An amazing book… That Rowling woman must be a little bit sick in the head. I mean, how do people dream up these things?

Bree made me laugh when he got my attention and nodded in the direction of a woman in her sixties who was topless and bent over, reaching for something in her bag. "I shouldn’t have to look at that," he said!

Having rested for most of the day, we decided to head to Maspalomas Lighthouse on foot for the evening. We got a bit lost along the way, but came across a rather impressive statue of Christopher Columbus atop of a huge column. We ended up on a highway, but the Lighthouse was unmistakable and headed in that direction. When we got into town, we walked along the sea front, indecisive as to where we should eat.

We settled for an Italian restaurant, which was just marvellous. I ate Caprese Salad, followed by Spaghetti alla Scoglio. Together, we shared a bottle of Torres Rosé de Casta. The atmosphere was very busy, the seating of tables very close to create a very cosy environment. Bree chose cognac rather than a sweet desert. When the waiter proceeded to pour the huge measure of cognac into the glass at the table, I was worried. You see, when Bree drinks cognac, he gets merry. Merry and silly.

When we got to Yumbo later that evening, Bree especially enjoyed the liberating atmosphere by playfully holding my hand and cuddling me, much to the amusement of straight couples who passed by! We found a bar where a team of men dressed up as women, miming to a series of well known songs. Tina Turner was one of the acts and I was quite impressed, I have to say. I couldn’t believe they were actually men. The evening went by very quickly and, before long, it was beddy-bye-byes!

After breakfast on the Sunday morning, we enquired at the reception as to the availability of rental cars. For €107, we got a Volkswagen Golf for that day and would get a Jeep for the next day. Bree wanted to travel around the Island so, with a map laid on a table, we plotted our route.

We drove passed Playa de las Meloneras and Playa de las Verga before reaching Puerto Rico. The shoreline had been very rocky in places, comparable to the cliff-edge routes of Monaco. The number of resorts being built was staggering, but most of the resorts we passed before we reached Puerto Rico resembled what can only be describe as building sites. Beyond Puerto Rico, however, we stopped at one particularly pretty place, Puerto de Mogán.

Bree had been here on an earlier visit and, true to his word, the narrow streets did look a little bit like those in Venice. Flanked by cliffs that resemble South Africa’s Table Mountain, Puerto de Mogán boasts a stunning marina full of luxurious yachts and speedboats.

After a brief wander around, we continued on our journey, heading inland on route GC-200. The first thirty minutes or so was quite pleasurable as we navigated our way past the many small towns, passing what could pass as teams of professional cyclists. However, after passing the town of Mogán itself, the route became very bendy, with motorists needing to double-back on themselves as we climbed higher and higher. My stomach churned and, at one point, I thought I was going to throw up.

At El Hoyo, we pulled over into a panoramic rest point from where we could see the coastal town of San Nicolas de Tolentino. I breathed deeply and made the effort to pose for a couple of photos with the neighbouring hills and cliffs as backdrops.

When we got back in the car, Bree made an effort to drive slower, but before long the route finally straightened out which made the drive much more of a pleasant experience. On the map, a place named Anden Verde had a camera sign indicating that it was a Kodak moment kind of place. When we got there, I was astounded by the beauty of this Island’s rugged coastline. We parked the car and headed down the well-maintained steps towards a rectangular observation deck. An Italian woman kindly took a photo of us with the amazing scenery as a backdrop.

To cut a long story short, the remainder of the day was spent driving along the north coast of the Island towards it’s capital, Las Palmas. It’s a surprisingly large city on a small island such as this one and we stopped at Las Arenas shopping centre with just thirty minutes of shopping time. We completely forgot it was Sunday and when we entered the shopping centre itself, all the retail stores were closed so we settled into a Tex Mex restaurant and downed fajitas with ice-cold Coke.

When we left Las Arenas, we drove for a minute or two towards the centre before we spotted a crowd of people down one of the boulevards. The nosey bastards that we are, we parked the car to check out what was going on, little realising that we shouldn’t have bothered; there was a live band of some twenty or so musicians dressed up like the Blue’s Brothers. The sound that they were emitting was truly awful, yet managed to entertain the several hundred people present in the square. We walked one block south where we reached the see.

Leaning against the wall of the seaside walk, we gazed out at the many surfers who were riding the huge waves that crashed to the shore. To our left, we could see Las Arenas, the shopping centre we had just left. To our right, we could see the City of Las Palmas and, even further along the shore, the tourist part of the Capital with it’s sprawling sandy beach.

From Las Palmas, we drove back to Maspalomas on Route GC-1, Gran Canaria’s main highway. We sped along the many industrial areas, passing the airport along the way. It had been a long day and we got back to our accommodation after 6pm.

That evening, we headed to nearby Bahia Feliz, a resort recommended by my friend who works for the airline. We had the hire car so we drove the ten or so kilometres there, walking around the shops before downing Prawn Cocktails and Pizzas. Yummy! The resort itself is quite small, popular with British families. When we returned to our accommodation, it was only about 10pm or so, but we stayed indoors, reading our books and relaxing for what would be another day of active sightseeing.

This time, the sightseeing was with a Jeep, an ideal vehicle for the itinerary we had planned for the day. Via the GC-500 semi-coastal route, we headed East, passing the towns of Vecindario, Doctoral and Cruce de Sardina. All of these towns were a hubbub of normal day-to-day activities for the locals; there was no evidence of tourism here. When we reached Cruce de Arinaga, we changed route onto the GC-100, bound for the neighbouring towns of Agüimes and Ingenio. Once again, the towns were very traditional with Ingenio featuring a very traditional Cathedral. We headed inland, towards a place called Guayadeque.

Bree had read in a guide book provided by the tour operator that people still lived in the caves of Guayadeque. It sounded interesting and, yes, the surrounding scenery was fantastic, but when we arrived at the end of the road I was like what the fuck is THIS?! When I think of caves, my mind conjures images of ancient writing and paintings on walls, perhaps some stalactites or stalagmites, but the people who lived in these caves lived quite comfortably. The ‘caves’ looked and felt like normal homes.

The area itself was unique in that it reminded me of the plantations in the remote places you sometimes see in National Geographic Magazine. The people who live here are seemingly cut off from the supply of television and telephone and, let’s face it, most of us would love to cut off these supplies at one point or another what with the crap advertising on TV and the non-stop text messaging.

It was with relief that we left Guayadeque; Bree actually admired the place, how they lived etc. and I was like what are you on? To all you Brits out there that get targeted with this excursion: don’t bother!

We drove back the way we came, gradually retreating from the valley into which we had driven. Our next destination was Pico de las Nieves (1,942m). Although the route was as bendy as yesterday’s drive had been, the roads were in much better condition so there was no threat of car-sickness today. In the one hour it took us to get there, we passed some extraordinary vistas, including a caldera (a cauldron, the remains of a volcanic eruption where the land has sunk) and a forest of Acorn trees.

When we saw the acorn trees, Bree had an idea that we should top and take some of the freshly fallen acorns home as souvenirs. We did, collecting eight rather large acorns in perfect condition. We continued on our drive, reaching the cloudy circular turn around point of Pico de las Nieves. Situated right next to a military base, the peak was covered with fast-moving clouds. The only thing in the vicinity was a snack van from which we bought two hot chocolates and a KitKat.

We waited patiently, hoping for the cool swirls of cloud to lift. Fifteen minutes later, we were treated to a fantastic view of the surrounding peaks and could even see the snow-capped peak of Mount Teide on the neighbouring island of Tenerife. FANTASTIC! We quickly posed for photos and I took some shots of the scenery before me moved on to our next stop: Roque Nublo (1,817m).

The drive took just fifteen minutes, with the imposing Rock never leaving our view. As we approached, we saw a huge lake surrounded by forest, something that I never thought we would see in the Canary Islands. It was at this point that I realised just how different each of the Islands are. Tenerife is famous for it’s endless supply of beaches and Mount Teide, Lanzarote for it’s Lava Fields and moonlike appearance while Gran Canaria seemed to be surrounded by beautiful rugged coastlines with peaks resembling those of New Zealand and South Africa.

Roque Nublo is an 80m high monolith, and Gran Canaria’s second highest peak. We pulled to the side, staying just long enough to take some photos of the impressive rock.


The next hour or so would mark the start of our daredevil descent into the valleys below. It was when Bree wanted to take the dirt-track route back to Maspalomas via Cercados de Araña that I had to object. I realised that I had become a nervous drive, but I really didn’t wish to navigate along an unmarked, barrier-less stretch of road dotted with 200 metres drops! After a while, Bree and I turned back, getting back onto the GC-60 for the remainder of our trip back to base.

The rest of the journey went rather well, running alongside a huge valley that reminded me of my trip to South Africa in February 2005. When we got back to the apartment, we took naps before heading our to dinner at CC Cita. It would be a very early night as Bree was suddenly gripped by a fever. When we took the cab back to the Sandy Golf, he was shivering so violently that it was now time for him to take some medicine and to rest.

One thing that’s worth mentioning regarding driving in the Canary Islands is how cheap the petrol is. While most of Europe is paying well over the odds for petrol, the Canary Islands get a comparatively cheap oil supply from Africa. While one litre of unleaded petrol costs €1.20 in Finland, it costs just 73 cents in Gran Canaria.

When we woke up on the Tuesday morning, our last day in Gran Canaria, Bree was still feeling unwell. We decided to take it easy, resting by the pool, reading our books and absorbing as much sun as we could. This wasn’t easy for Bree as the cool breeze that often plagued our complex did nothing for his fever. We made our way to our own porch outside our apartment and spent the remainder of the day there, just resting, before my friend from the airline would join us for the evening.

I woke Bree up at 5.30pm. My friend was due to arrive at 7pm, but surprised us by turning up a little bit earlier, having asked reception where our exact apartment was. What a surprise it was when he stormed into our apartment! We spent a couple of hours drinking what remained of the Bacardi bottle we had bought at the beginning of the trip, before heading to the Grand Italia restaurant near the Maspalomas Lighthouse. It was a very nice evening and, sitting under one of those down-turned heaters that outdoor restaurants have now started to use, Bree was able to remain warm.

After our meal, my friend and I headed into town for some drinks, but we dropped off Bree at the apartment because he was wanted to rest. I felt terrible for leaving him, but the rest of the evening went very quickly and it wasn’t long before I was in bed, a little bit drink.

Bree woke me up the next morning at 8am… We only had just over an hour to eat our breakfast and to pack so the morning went very quickly. I was dreading the six-hour journey home and, after the very long transfer time, we checked in for our flight. On the departure board, it said that the temperature in Finland was –2°C. Oh, crumbs, I thought! Actually, the temperature didn’t bother me that much what with my dust allergy bothering me every night and Bree’s fever, which might have been caused by the dampness of our accommodation. We were both ready to go home for a rest!

Anyway, we boarded our flight and, as we took off, I glimpsed out at the peaks at Gran Canaria’s centre. Lovely, I thought, just lovely!