New Year’s Memoir – 2024 Edition
February
In Late February I went to Gran Canaria, mostly Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with my partner of the time, E. I was really excited to partake in this culture of taking a pause from Czechia’s temperate winter to enjoy some pleasant dips in the Ocean. The sea was often full of these beautiful polyp colonies called Portuguese man o’ war and the beach was otherwise fairly scenic with moderate surf aside from a surfing area (which I didn’t enter much due to the difficulty of avoiding stings 😅).
One of the reasons we chose Las Palmas is for their relative abundance of gluten-free food options. Pastelería Singlutencake had quite a good selection of delicious pastries. The donut was quite sooooft ~ 🤤.
We had the good fortune of booking tickets precisely at their Carnival. The full-city cosplay party atmosphere was really nice on Tuesday, Feb 21.
The local youth were friendly at the electronic music stage, too 😊🖕.
Next I went to Barranco de Guayadeque, the reserve of tranquility, an archealogical site, and supposedly quite scenically beautiful.
I’m not sure what this woman is doing with the goat by the bus stop on the way there.
The busses in Gran Canaria are called Guaguas and internet sources implied that a “Taxi Guagua” would take me to Montaña de las Tierras where I could start the hike, leaving once at 8 am a few days a week. I asked some locals in Las Palmas and they were unsure what it was.
Turns out it’s just a normal car, so an extra affordable taxi service. The driver seemed very happy to have a passenger.
The drive up looked quite mystical 😍.
This ravine hump has some lodges and a neat restaurant. I might recommend considering staying overnight because it’s only a 10km hike from here to some of the highest peaks on the island, such as Pico de las Nieves.
The hike down involved a small diversity of hang-out locations.
The town of Agüimes is surprisingly cute and could make for a pleasant stay, too 😋. Alas, my phone ran out of power a few kilometers before I made it there, so the images are of the mind’s eye :D.
Next up is the sand dunes of Maspalomas, which E accompanied me to. I think they were her first sand dunes (and she wasn’t much more experienced with the beach :D).
The final party night of the Carnaval was much cooler than the daytime party on Tuesday. Memes came to life and salsa geishas danced the streets. (Gosh, I should really go to Brazil!)
The people were quite jovial, friendly, and open to spontaneously breaking into salsa together (despite the fact that I hardly know the steps).
🕺💃🪩🥳
