This winter, we had a couple of days off and were looking at places close to London to go for a couple of days of relaxation. As you would know, most of Europe is out of bounds for travel during winter unless you are in for skiing. So we searched around a bit and finally decided to go to the Canary Islands where the winter is a lot more sunnier and warmer than continental Europe.
And so there we were, on the island of Gran Canaria for 4 days around Christmas. The flight to Gran Canaria was pretty long given that it was still European territory and that is what led us to check the map and realise that we were closer to Africa than Europe!! Also made us wonder how the Spaniards managed to hold on to these islands when all the imperial powers were relinquishing their colonies. I guess the fact that these islands are in the middle of nowhere with no major local population, plus their being a warm holiday option in the winters must have been a major factor in this decision.
Anyways, Gran Canaria is a small round volcanic island in the middle of nowhere and looks like a jewel while landing onto this island. You can get a view of the other nearby Canary Islands (Tenerife and Colarejo) while landing. The first view of Gran Canaria was not what we had expected though! We had expected it to be a green lush island whereas it turned out to be a dry and bare island with limited vegetation. Hence, it looks more like a desert with very limited patches of green and honestly not as inviting as most holiday places would look. Apparently, there is a huge fresh water shortage on the island too and all water is imported from the mainland.
We landed at the capital city of Las Palmas and hired a car from the airport itself to drive to our hotel. I would suggest booking a car (in advance) while on the island as its not that easy to get around, with taxis being pretty expensive and places to visit being spread out around the island. For me, the driving was a bit hard initially, as it took me some time to figure out what to do on roundabouts, who has the right of way etc., but once I figured that out, the whole driving experience became a lot more enjoyable.
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| St Agustin |
We stayed at the Melia Tamarindos on St Agustin beach, but we were so busy that we did not get a chance to explore that area at all. The hotel was nice, the rooms were a little garish though. The pool outside is huge, and the hotel has multiple activities within, like tennis, mini-golf etc. to keep you busy (none of which we had a chance to enjoy though!). Melia also has its own casino which opens in the evening, plus a lounge on the ground floor which has live music everyday. We really liked the lounge a lot, it was a good place to unwind at the end of a busy day. Sit by the sofas and enjoy the performers singing and dancing every evening. The breakfast buffet at Melia was amazing, the spread was so huge that it was tough to decide what to eat and what not to! Can't say the same about their dinner though, being a preferential vegetarian, we had a tough time finding any stuff to eat!
Watersports
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| Scuttlefish |
When in Gran Canaria, people spend their time doing one of three things: water sports/other beach activites, chilling/partying or sightseeing/touristy stuff. For the first two days, we did scuba diving with Puerto Rico diving, located near the Amadores beach. The shop is run by Nina who is a Norwegian (as are half the tourists on this island!). The first day we dived at the Amadores beach itself and saw a couple of interesting fishes, like barracuda, octopus, scuttlefish, lobsters etc..
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| Stargazer |
The next day we dived in the Arinaga area and it turned out to be an amazing experience. For one, the sea wall there requires quite a lot of skill to navigate. But once inside, the whole wide sea world opens up right in front of your eyes.
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| Moray Eel |
We spotted many interesting sea life while in the water here; multiple moray eels of all kinds of slimy colours and shapes (yellow, brown, orange); a huge sting ray swimming to and fro flapping its huge wings inside a cave; a stargazer which ran out of the sand when the dive-master disturbed it and then swam a little distance and furiously burrowed itself inside the sand to catch hold of unsuspecting victims; the flounder which moves in the sand and is tough to spot but makes you feel immensely satisfied with yourself when you manage to spot one yourself. As I was saying, this whole diving experience was so different from the other places I have dived at and a really memorable experience.
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| Christmas underwater |
Since it was Christmas time, the local people had setup a Christmas tree, with a baby Jesus, Mary and three wise men in the deep waters. We all took photos next to them as a remembrance that we dived there on Christmas Eve. I found it slightly funny, when my diving group were almost apologetic that they were doing this, and mentioned multiple times that I (being a Hindu), did not need to do the same. I felt almost proud of being an Indian, where all religions co-exist and we all have been exposed to all religions while growing up. For me, it was no question at all, I would happily take a photograph with an underwater Christmas tree; where else will I get the option to do something like this again?
The other groups who were diving at the same location also did a couple of celebratory acts given it was Christmas. One of their instructors wore a full Santa costume and dived in to surprise the others with a bell and Christmas gifts! I have over the last couple of years noticed the camaraderie that divers exhibit for each others. A motley group, all from different parts of the world but when they dive together, they follow the same rules, are in the same underwater world and are all there to help each other. Quite an interesting community divers are.
Other than the diving, we spent some time on a couple of other beaches too. Amadores, where we did our diving is apparently very popular with the tourists but to us, it did not seem as inviting. This was one of the couple of yellow sand beaches of the island where the sand has been imported from elsewhere. There were sunbeds everywhere on the beach, and so did not feel like a good place to spend time on.
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| Taurito beach |
Another beach we went to was the Taurito beach which had a resort right there nestled in between cliffs on both sides. It was a brown sand beach, and so not as inviting but we did some jetskiing there which was fun. At the Taurito, they also run jetski tours where a guide takes you around the island showing all the hidden and inaccessible beaches of the island; am sure it would be a fun activity to try. The road to Taurito offered us an interesting drive too, it runs along the mountains just next to the sea and has very nice views on the way. It does seem scary to drive there though, given the sheer fall down to the sea if you give all your attention to admiring the views:).
We also went to the Maspalomas beach one day but as it turned out, the eastern side of the island was facing high winds that day and so we did not get to spend much time on the beach or the water. There are sand dunes just next to the beach which do make for an interesting picture; sand dunes, lake, mountains and the sea. But again, this beach was a brown sand beach and not the yellow sand that one dreams about when thinking about a beachy holiday.
Chilling
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| Meloneras |
The island is full of restaurants everywhere. There are multiple areas which are the hotbed of water activities during the day and eating and dancing during the nights. One of the areas where we had dinner was the Meloneras beach. They have a couple of restaurants next to the beach with live music. Another beach we had dinner on was the Playa de Ingles. All these restaurants serve very average food frankly, a lot of meat and a lot of Italian. The only way these were still fun was because of their location, as all of them were in the open right next to the sounds of the roaring waves plus the Spanish singing and live dancing going on at each of these places. The Spanish are one fun-loving people, they just love to sing and dance whenever they can; which is fun to watch and be a part of.
There are a couple of malls too for shopping. I did wonder initially why would someone come on a vacation and shop? But then once we checked out the malls, we realised that shopping is so much cheaper in the islands, that it actually makes sense to buy stuff from there. Would definitely suggest checking out the local malls, especially Zara stores which being a Spanish brand are much cheaper than elsewhere.
Sightseeing
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| Guayadeque cave houses |
There were a couple of places listed in the tourist guides which sounded worth visiting. But honestly, I was not impressed. None of them were out of the world but they provided us good timepass for the day we were not diving, so we went there nevertheless. One was the Guayadeque caves which are located in the interior hills of the island. They have natural cave formations in this valley where the early natives lived and some people still reside. We went and checked out some of the houses, but not much as it did not seem fair to go into people's houses to see how they live. We did however have a coffee at the cave restaurant which was not bad. The drive to the caves was through narrow winding roads passing through the local colourful spanish villages which provided a nice kodak moment. The capital town of Las Palmas is also supposed to be culturally rich, we however did not get a chance to explore it.
On the whole, the island is good for a winter break as the temperature was in the 20s for most of the day (though it did vary by 3-4 degrees within the island too!). We also met an unproportionally high number of tourists from Norway, because apparently Gran Canaria is the favorite island for Norwegians in the winter months. People don't understand English much but you can get along using hand gestures, so its not as much of a problem. Food is very average, and you do not get tap water anywhere! On the whole, a good winter holiday spot but not much otherwise.
