Gran Canaria

Last weekend, I went to the Canary Islands; known for its blue waters, sky, and black sand beaches! We planned this trip to be more of a relaxing than sightseeing trip and that’s exactly what it was. We stayed at a hotel one block away from the beach and that’s also where we spent the majority of our time. Our hotel was great and breakfast and dinner were included in the price. The food was actually decent since it was a buffet and there was always a variety. The majority of the other guests at the hotel were older or retired so the atmosphere was definitely more geared towards them and the older crowd than anyone else.

The Canaries are a part of Spain which I wasn’t aware of until coming to Spain so nearly everyone that works there speaks Spanish. However, it is a very international culture unlike that of Zaragoza and other smaller cities in Spain. The majority of the workers appeared to be foreign-born and the majority of them were multilingual. What really surprised me was the number of German tourists there. Normally, when we travel to a touristy area, English is the preferred second language but not in the Canaries. All of the signs, advertisements, and many of the signs for stores and restaurants were in Spanish, followed by German, followed by English.

Location 

Our hotel near the beach

We stayed in the city of Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria and it was fantastic! The sun shone (most of the time) and I loved being able to relax instead of just sightseeing like we normally do. The weather is nearly perfect and only cools a little during the winter due to its closer proximity to the Equator. I did, however, get a sunburn so lots of sunscreen and aloe are necessities there. The one thing I wish I would have been able to do is travel towards the center of the island since it’s a volcano but we only had a limited amount of time so I guess I have to keep that in mind for a future trip. We talked to a travel agent about a Jeep excursion to the volcano and inner part of the island complete with a personal guide but were unable to do it in such a short amount of time.

In any case, I don’t have much more to write about because we didn’t actually “do” much there other than lay on the beach!

Thanks for reading and if you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account that has (finally) been completely updated!