Saturday 16 February the Ryan Air flight from Bristol arrived on schedule bringing Paul, Jane and Charlotte to Dutch Link.
On Sunday we drove to hillside village of Terror to enjoy their famous Sunday Market. Unlike our previous trip here, the skies were blue with no rain in sight.
Visited the interesting old courtyard house/museum Casa Museo de los Patrones de la Virgen.
We were intrigued by this contraption for safely picking prickly pears which was being demonstrated by its inventor in one of the market stalls.
Please click on arrow to start video clip:-
Later visited the impressive Neo-Gothic church of San Juan in Arucas
Spied a fine example of a Streliza flower
Later went to the Montana de Arucas just behind the town from which one had wonderful views of the the surrounding area including, amazingly, the 3718 meter high peak of Mount Teide on the neighbouring island of Tenerife some 60 nautical miles away (over 110 kilometers). (Mt Teide is the peak in the haze to the left of centre, the closer peak to the right of centre is the 434 meter high Pico de Galdar .
Monday saw us exploring the old part of Las Palmas - picture below shows the Cathedral of Santa Anna
A visit to the old town is not complete without visiting the skull room in the Museo Canario - the skulls and skeletons were taken from the various Guanche burial caves around the island.
Impossible to leave the old town without a stop at our favourite icecream parlour.
A walk along the northern beach brought us to the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium which has a Titanic-like "bowsprit"
Alfredo Kraus's sculpture majestically dominates the view over the bay.
The sand sculpture which was started during Colin and Jocelyn's visit has become a true masterpiece of the art. It is related to a Charlie Chaplin film.
The detail in this sculpture is amazing - click on picture to enlarge to see rat, cats, split bottle, rubbish bin, fish etc.
Sunsets like this inspire sun-salutations
Tuesday saw us at the Jardin Botanica Canario
where we were lucky enough to find a large lizard
A truely huge cactus
Close by is the magnificent Caldera de Bandama, named after a Dutch merchant Daniel von Damme who, in the 16th century grew vines inside the crater.
Later we drove south to the the Barranco de Guayadeque which has many caves in the hill sides
The Almond trees were still in blossom
and had a drink in one of the cave bars
Back on Dutch Link we had a relaxing game of Perudo
Wednesday saw us on the hike to Roque Nublo. Instead of wind , cold, cloud and rain which we unfortunately experienced with Colin and Jocelyn, we were very fortunate this time to have superb weather
At the foot of the 60 meter high Basalt Monolith
Afterwards climbed to the base of Roque Bentayga, another rock thought to have been sacred to the Guanches
At the base of the Roque Bentayga there were several caves , Charlotte chose this one
In the neighbouring town of Tejeda, we sampled various Almond pastries and Almond cream icecream - yummy!
Thursday we had a trip down south to visit the more popular tourist part of Gran Canaria. First stop was the pleasant Puerto Mogan where the ladies were tempted to have a swim.
and later joined the men who had found a good spot to watch and have nice cool cerveza
Stopped at the famous Maspalomas Dunes - apparently not as impressive as those at Merthyr Mawr in South Wales !
Friday we had an excellent fish lunch at the Amigo Camilo fish restaurant close to La Isleta
Saturday, the ladies went "winkelen" whilst the men explored the port of Las Palmas
The local sports fishermen were out in force
We were treated to a rusty far eastern fishing boat being manoevered off the quay to make room for it's facelifted sister ship
and inspected the repair yard
and the container port
Saturday 26th February arrived all too quickly and we reluctantly had to bid farewell to Paul Jane and Charlotte.
