The Voyage of Swift – Part IV

After two days sailing, a short trip for us, we anchored off Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands.

This port appears to be the shipping capital of the world as we dodge between large container ships and ferries

waiting to enter the harbor

Gran Canaria is a big island, almost 1000 square miles, with a population of 820K, nearly 400K of those said to live in the

capital Las Palmas, as you can see from all the high rise buildings that must be true. It is also the starting point for the annual Atlantic

Rally for Cruisers or ARC in which 225 or so sailing yachts set off for St Lucia each November.

We only spent the night in Las Palmas to rest before the next 50 miles down to the south coast.  We were booked into a marina for

three months starting September 1 to wait out the hurricane season but it was August 29, so with two nights to spare we stopped at Puerto Mogan

a resort town.  Puerto Mogan refers to itself as the Gran Canarian Venice because of the canals between the houses.  It was very lively with

lots of restaurants but we were glad we weren’t going to be living there for 3 months.

In the Village of Mogan just north of Puerto Mogan, there is this very tall Eucalyptus tree.

 

On September 1, we moved to Pasito Blanco, the trip along the coast was uneventful although we did pass this cement factory along the way,

In some lights you might imagine it was Cinderella’s  Fairy Castle, but no, it is a cement factory.

The sunniest part of the island is the south coast.  Pasito Blanco is next to the large tourist resort of Maspalomas, in the distance you can see the

lighthouse that marks the start of the huge beach.  The second picture looks at the lighthouse from the other side.

And here are the Dunes

The Marina is very quiet, most of the boats here are owned by locals, but it was a perfect place to settle and felt like a home after months of sailing. 

In addition to the marina there was a small, very pretty housing development, and a golf course.  Even a private beach and a small dog park! 

Although the southern part of the island is very dry and brown, we’ve had two days of rain in 3 months, Pasito Blanco itself is very green.

Just outside the gated entrance to the community is an area of future development and this is where we took Murphy for her walks. 

Many Spanish developments are like this with manicured gardens up to the boundary and then rubble right outside.  From the entrance

we walked to the top of the hill (right picture) and then headed west

This areas in days of old was used as a campground.  It has very recently been closed off, we think because they are going to develop it,

but in September we saw lots of tents and trailers.  There is no water, electrics or facilities of any kind, but people enjoy being on the ocean. 

This picture on the left is another camping site a bit further along (sorry it is a little blurry).  The one problem with these campsites is

that the campers do not take their trash home and all along our walk we see piles of trash like this.  We want to clean as we walk but

we’d need far too many trashbags!

However you can see the attraction of the beach.  This picture was taken on a windy day when there were waves for surfing, but normally

it is very quite.  During the weekday mornings the beach is very peaceful.  Murphy met a German ‘Rhodesian Ridgeback’ called Cayon

and was invited by his owner to visit the beach, she had a great time romping in the sand and playing with Cayon.

During the afternoons and weekends, the beach is packed.  On this holiday weekend there were many campers.  A little further

along there is another longer beach, it is a steep slope to get down to it, but many do.

The mountains of Gran Canaria are amazing too!  This is our view, but up close they are even more exciting.

 

We took a few trips up to the mountains, the hardest part was the driving, narrow roads, clinging to the side of the mountain.  Imagine

meeting a bus coming around a blind corner, we did!  The picture was taken at a mirador (scenic overlook) where the view was straight

down a very long way.

 

From the mountains, you can look back to those famous dunes of Maspalomas.

On another car tour of the island, we had views of the towering cliffs and valleys.  The road you see here wasn’t too bad, but earlier on the tour

we had to travel for about 10 miles where the road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass and you could look straight down to

the rocks and ocean far below.  The buses honked at the corner to let you know they were coming, but some seemed to wait until

the last minute.  We were too busy worrying and didn’t take any pictures.

                                                                                                                   

 

And that is Gran Canaria, it is a beautiful place and we have really enjoyed ‘living’ here.