Gran Canaria


On the Canary islands it should be spring time in March, but this month started rather moderate. No problem, because there is a lot to see and enjoy in Las Palmas. It is an old city with some beautiful architecture PHOTO 2 and parcs with rows of palm trees. We even visited cultural highlights such as the Casa Colón, the Columbus house. During the past six months we encountered Columbus memorials almost daily. The guy has really been everywhere and visited almost every Canary island; but his favourite spot was La Gomera, because he had a girlfriend over there. PHOTO 1 The museum in Las Palmas is the most beautiful of all Columbus houses. The front is magnificent and inside you find a huge collection of antique instruments for navigation, and seacharts that were all copied by hand. Modern sailor's life is much easier! We still make copies from each others charts, but the medium is different. If Columbus had had a computer, he could have spent more time on other things. And we might have been some years ahead and now sailing around with computer screens showing an overlap of radar screen and seachart.	Gran Canaria is a very attractive island, so we rented a car for one more day. This time we drove along the north and west coast and were rewarded with the most spectacular views. The beautiful green ravines, and of course the coastline with its white waves in turquoise bays, and sharp rock formations ending in the clear blue sea PHOTO 3. Further outside of the coast the water is deeper blue. When you sail between the islands in depths of 4000 m, it seems as if you are sailing in an ink pot. On the southwest side of the island, the coastal route takes you more inland. Again beautiful valleys, all shades of green, and flowers everywhere. PHOTO 5. In Puerto de Mogan on the SW-coast we met Danish friends who experienced lots of trouble. They were so sad that they even wanted to sail home, but sometimes moral support can help: listening and talking about their and our own experiences and the many even worse things that happened to others. So two days later they continued their trip and we met again in Las Palmas.	We have been looking around for a nice little home that could be a good investment. But we have quite a lot of demands compared to the small amount of money we want to spend (typical Dutch). Furthermore, buying a house in Spain is not very easy, as many things are not clear (is the seller really the proprietor of the house?). The Dutch consulate has already been very helpful and if we really buy something, we'll definitely need a lawyer. But in the meantime we have done quite a lot of free sight-seeing with the broker, we had a lot of fun and Petra now can make nice Spanish conversation. The climate on the Canaries is not always ideal. Every now and then, the islands are subject to the so-called “calima”: the air is full of Sahara sand which covers the islands like a thick fog. During a few days in January, 62.000 tons of sands came down in the whole area (this includes the sea); and now in March we suffered again from this bad weather. The calima is caused by an easterly wind, which is terribly dry as well. Very uncomfortable if combined with temperatures of 25 to 30°C (85°F).