Cruise Port 16 – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

by Ed · June 21, 2023

Buenas dias!

It is May 21st, 2023, and we are in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, today! This is our third visit to the Canaries, but we don’t remember what we did on our first visit in 2008, and know we didn’t take any tour in 2019, so we are taking a tour today!

We wake as the Sojourn is approaching the island of Gran Canaria. The port appears to be very busy!

The sun is cutting through a lot of Saharan sand in the sky!

Inside the breakwater I see five oil derricks. We are told later that these are rigs brought here for maintenance and refurbishment.

Soon we tie up to the dock. Yay! A real terminal – not an industrial dock!

Captain Karas is in the wing bridge overseeing the docking! An aquarium is visible at the shore-end of the dock!

Joy and I board the tour bus – we are going to see “Maspalomas & Mogan Harbor”! Simon, our tour guide, reminds us the tour will see sand dunes in Maspalomas, and a fishing village at Mogan Harbor.

Simon tells us politically Gran Canaria is in Spain and the EU, geographically it is in Africa, but culturally it is South American!

We head north on the highway, and then make a u-turn to head south. I get two views of this funky building – the top of the building leans to one side!

I catch a glimpse of a very interesting church in the distance.

A half-hour later we arrive in Maspalomas.

As we drive through Maspalomas we see many high-end resorts – this is a big tourist town! Simon tells us the Spanish take 3-month holidays here!

Homes here cost 5,000-6,000€ per square meter – that’s $600 per square foot!

The bus arrives at the Riu Resort Hotel.

We walk through the hotel almost a quarter mile to this viewing platform. We’re here to see the amazing dunes of Maspalomas!

I hear someone say, “This doesn’t compare to the dunes we saw in Namibia!” I silently agree – this is pretty, but not noteworthy.

A large part of this along the ocean is protected reserve…

… but you can see people walk all over these dunes near the hotel!

A half-hour later we are back on the bus heading farther south and west. This island started out growing sugar cane, and the Canaries were known as the Sugar Islands. Agriculture was difficult, and canals were built everywhere to distribute the rainfall. Sugar cane moved to the Caribbean and the Canaries lost that market. But now there is very little rainfall. This was once a full river.

We stop at a pond to see some of the birds. Only a couple of people get off the bus with me!

I immediately see this Eurasian Spoonbill! It is likely a non-breeding adult. Breeding adults have magnificent plumage!

There is also a Black-Crowned Night Heron (it took a while to confirm what this is – very few images show the bird with the neck extended!). I also saw a Little Egret and Grey Heron but the images of them are not good enough to share – sorry, they are too far away.

The bus continues along the shore and I see the Maspalomas communication site NASA built here for the Apollo Program! According to my friend, Calvin, this site was still available during Shuttle operations. But it is now operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It also supports maritime emergency operations!

I see this sign for Mogan, but we keep driving a long way before we get to town!

The bus parks near the bus terminal and we get to walk into town!

Well, this isn’t the fishing village I expected to see! This is a huge resort town! Homes and condos soar up the cliffsides!

The little streets through town are lovely! Bougainvillea blooms are everywhere!

We catch our first glimpse of the harbor.

This isn’t a very convincing fishing village!

We keep walking.

We pass some homes that appear to be supporting Ukraine, but learn there is a planned paint pattern as we see this in several places.

We finally reach the fishing docks!

This boat appears to take out a lot of people on fishing expeditions. There are about 50 fishing poles on this boat!

Then I don’t know what to think about this one. I am surprised to see an American flag and dismayed to see it displayed this way.

Leaving the fishing pier we get a nice look at the beach and beachfront shops!

We must provide proof we are really here!

On our way back to the ship we pass the desalinization plant that provides 80% of the island’s potable water!

Capturing my attention along the ocean is this statue called “The Triton”! This statue is 30 feet tall!

Then we see our home away from home!

With an all-aboard time of 10:30 PM we decide to hop a taxi to Vegueta, the old town of Las Palomas. We’ve never made it to this part of town before. The taxi drops us off two blocks from Christopher Columbus’ house.

I notice the “Reyes Catolicos” (Catholic Kings) etched into the sidewalk.

Two blocks later we are in front of the Casa de Colon – Christopher Columbus’ House. Despite the name, Columbus only stayed here one night!

Next to the Casa de Colon is this staute of Nestor Alamo Hernandez. He was a composer and writer, born here in Las Palmas.

Around the corner we catch our first view of the Cathedral of Santa Ana of Canaria. Remember the church I saw this morning on our way to Maspalomas? This is it!

The Cathedral is guarded by eight bronze hounds!

They look pretty intense!

They sit at the front of the Plaza de Santa Ana. At the far end is the Las Palomas Town Hall!

Here is a better view of the front of the Cathedral, taken from the middle of the Plaza.

Back on the ship we have a very special evening performance! The Sonakay group performed flamenco dancing! The gentleman on the left sang and played the cajon (hand drum), the two ladies danced, and the man on the right played wonderful songs on the guitar!