I decided to share with you my hobby - low cost travelling. In my own, short life (25 years old :P) I visited close 30 countries. Maybe it is not a lot, but I discovered this kind of spending free time 3 years ago, when I started studying GEOGRAPHY. Yes, I am geographer right now (after bachelor degree).
Right now I am in 1st year of master degree and in last summer I decided to take part in Erasmus Program. I really wanted to go to country where I will have opportunity to learn SPANISH. The choice fell on GRAN CANARIA because my University collaborating only with this university in Spain.
Gran Canaria is one of the 8 islands of the Canary Islands archipelago. It covers an area of almost 1,600 km2 and has a population of 850,000. Informally, Gran Canaria is competing for dominance over the Canary Islands with Tenerife, which has a comparable population.
Map of Canary Island
Few first days in Gran Canaria were wonderful. The weather was beautiful. Therefore, without wasting time, taking advantage of the fact that at the beginning of the semester there are always fewer duties at the university, we decided to see the island. For the first two weeks, we spent time in the capital, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. It is one of the largest cities in the entire Canary Islands archipelago. The whole city is home to almost 400,000 people, almost half the island's population. The city has a port, service and industrial function.
Nice view on Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
For the first two weeks we managed to acclimate to the new reality. We also managed to play the schedule at the university in such a way that we could go to the beach three times a week. There are three beaches in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria:
-Las Canteras
-Playa del Confital
-Playa de las Alcaravaneras
The best of them is the beach of Las Canteras, which is long and typically sandy compared to the rocky Playa del Confital or the tiny sandy beach overlooking the port - Playa de las Alcaravaneras.
Las Canteras Beach
Below he will describe our trips to two places on the island before the whole pandemic situation:
Agaete
Road from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Agaete
Agaete is a typical coastal town. The town has less than 5000 inhabitants. In this town there is one of the most important pre-Columbian cemeteries, which unfortunately we did not manage to reach. Agaete has wonderful natural areas, mainly because it is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The most beautiful view stretches south of the town where the mountains end up in the ocean. This area is the Tambadaba National Park. In the city there is a very nice botanical garden - Huerto de las Flores, which we managed to visit. The entrance to the garden for students and adults is 1 and 1.5 Euro respectively. The park is really worth of a visit, as we can see about 50 species of various tropical trees and shrubs. It is tiny but it provides a moment's of rest on hot days, where you can hide from the sun in the shade of the trees, listening to birds singing.
Picture from inside the Huerto de las Flores
Puerto de las Nieves is a coastal part of town where you can feel like in a fishing village. We strolled through narrow streets between small blue-white houses, dominated by local shops, where you can buy jewelry made of volcanic rocks.
In the restaurants you can taste seafood and fish dishes typical for the region.
One of the local shop in Puerto de Las Nieves
Maspalomas
Road from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Maspalomas
The next trip was basically a week after the first one described above. It was very popular place among tourists, which was felt. Maspalomas is located in the very south of the island and it is a completely tourist-oriented city offering a lot of hotels and restaurants. It is also one of the most visited places on the island by tourists, mainly due to the dunes or Dunas de Maspalomas.
Dunes in Maspalomas
Tourists have many opportunities for entertainment and recreation, as well as an attractive nightlife that revolves around the beach. There are many secluded places for nudists on the long beach. However, sunbathing on this beach is not very pleasant mainly due to the wind that blows quite intensively and blows sand literally everywhere. Unfortunately, we were not lucky, because during our stay in Maspalomas, Kalima, a meteorological phenomenon that consists of blowing sand from the Sahara, came to the island. This occurs when sandstorms take place over the Sahara, and sand clouds and blows over the Canary Islands and sometimes even over mainland Spain. It is quite rare, and we were so lucky that it was the strongest Kalima since 2003. This phenomenon can last for 3-5 days in the air. Then you limit your exits, especially when you have asthma problems. To be honest, despite the windows being closed, you could smell the sand in your mouth and the cars were covered with a thick layer of orange dust on the street.
Several picture of kalima on Maspalomas beach:
And here view from our flat in Las Plamas de Gran Canaria with kalima and normal day with clear air.
Greetings
Dawid
