Gran Canaria

Having survived the Dutch winter, my body was in need of sunshine. So I decided to spend a week on the sun-guaranteed  island of Gran Canaria. This Spanish island is situated in the Atlantic Ocean, close to the North-Western part of the African continent. That Gran Canaria isn’t a cultural backpacking scenery was proven at the airport of Las Palmas, where my backpack was the only one between the many suitcases in the baggage claim area.

I booked a hotel in Playa del Ingles, a sea resort town on the south of the island. Since years the bay is packed with hotels and the German language is more spoken then the Spanish. However, the large sandy beach gets less crowded when getting closer to the Maspalomas Dunes, a nature reserve between Playa del Ingles and the Maspalomas lighthouse.

I qualified the Atlantic Ocean as too cold for scuba diving and the available day-trips as not interesting enough for participation. So for six days my daily itinerary consisted of a walk through the dunes to the beach to spend hours on the sunbed before heading back to the hotel for diner. In the evenings I drunk wine in the hotel bar, followed by beers and gin-tonics in the bars at the Yumbo center.