Amerys travels from Gran Canaria 16th June 2009

Amerys Travels 2009 from Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

The Canary islands have a very African feeling to us, compared to mainland Spain- not surprising, as they are over 1,000 km from Spain and under 200 km from southern Morocco on the left hand bulge of Africa. Certainly the apartment development we are staying at is very “Arabian nights” in it’s design, as you can see from our first five photos.

And we are finding it very warm and pleasant- it gets up to around 30c at mid-day (our highest was 34c) and down to perhaps 22c at night. This is the dry side of the island, with only around 60 days with rain each year, which also means that the scenery is mostly sand and rock- more attractive than it sounds, softened by extensive plantings of flowering bougainvillea and oleander.

The island is circular could in theory be circumnavigated in a day, but it would be very tiring, as it’s very mountainous, and while a week would be a pleasant stay, two weeks here is ideal if you want to see it all.

The apartment was lent to us by Geraldine from Dublin, one of our home exchange friends, and it has a warm and cosy feeling to it, as the rough plastered walls are rounded into the ceilings in an almost cave like manner, and all doorways are arches. It also includes two rounded turrets (in the base of the towers seen in the photos) with one being a circular dining area and the other a semi-circular en suite bathroom (on the left end). Two good size bedrooms, two bathrooms, and as you can see, a large terrace overlooking the pool, the café and the sea, which is literally a stone’s throw away. With the windows open at night, the sound of the waves is soothing, and we can watch the early morning fishing boats passing close by from the bed in perfect privacy.

The lovely pool is very close to us, and along with the café nearby possibly might make it a bit noisy when the resort is full in high season (it’s a November to April European winter escape destination) but the terrace here is well above the public areas and pretty private- great for people watching. As we are here at the quietest time of year, there’s no noise at all.

The apartment complex and the other nearby developments have particularly bold and different architecture with lots of spiky minaret like bits and lots of contrasting ceramic tiles, and which is very attractive compared with the generally bland 1960’s style apartments in developments nearby. Although rocky in front of us, a sandy beach is three minutes walk on one side, and on the other it’s a 10 minute walk along the promenade to the village of Bahai Felix (Happy Bay). Designed as a small tourist resort, the village has a lovely amphitheatre style square surrounded by attractive buildings containing restaurants and bars- a bustling scene in the evening with lots of outside tables overlooking the kids playing in the square within sight of their parents dinner table. Perfect.

Next time, we will take you out to explore the mountains.

Richard (and of course Christine)