Tuesday, 9 April 2024

Arrival in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Espana

It's 10pm and we have just returned to our hotel from a wonderful and very filling dinner at a bayside restaurant. The weather today has been cool and windy but the forecast for the rest of our time here, until Sunday, is warm and sunny.  I will report on our full day of adventures today, including a four-hour morning shore excursion to three lovely gardens, our debarkation and visit to the Immigration Office.

Yesterday we spent most of the day packing and preparing for our debarkation so I will continue with Tuesday morning.

 Tuesday, 9 April 2024, 9am

Las Palmas

After a good breakfast in the Terrace Cafe, we are ready for our final Sirena shore excursion, "The Gardens of Gran Canaria." An excellent local guide, originally from Sweden, takes us to three very different gardens. The first, Doramus, is a small symmetrical garden in the city center, exactly in front of the most expensive hotel in the city, the Santa Catalina, and fortuitously right across the street from our hotel, the Occidental Las Palmas.

This garden has several interesting sculptures and a very old Dragon's Blood Tree, which releases a red liquid when the bark is cut. It is believed by locals to have medicinal and magical qualities.

Dragon’s Blood Tree

New Friends Who Divide Their Time
 Between Washington State and Arizona

The second visit is the Canary Islands Botanical Garden, the largest in all of Spain, built up a steep hillside. There is enough of interest on the lower levels to keep us occupied without climbing the steps and hills. The garden contains both exotic and endemic plants (ones that grow only on Gran Canaria). Additionally, the visitor will find eclectic memorials and specialized gardens, such as the Japanese, with its iconic waterfall.

A Permanent Visitor in the Garden

An Old Viaduct Left Over from the Farms Formerly on the Garden’s Site

Schoolchildren on a Special Visit

Exotic Growths

Canadian Cactus—Very Different Than the Arizona Kind

Waterfall in Japanese Garden

Several miles south of the city lies the privately owned Marquesa de Arucas Garden, only recently opened to the general public. This garden is most famous for its large population of peacocks who make themselves loudly heard wherever we walk, and a very old Dragon’s Blood Tree. The peacocks are perfectly tame and make very colorful companions.

This garden also has a variety of important cultivated plants, including bananas, coffee, and almonds, pictured below, as well as papayas--all important products for local use and for export.

The original manor house of the Marquesa is also in the garden, although not open for visitors.

We are back at the ship at 1:15pm to enjoy lunch in the Terrace Cafe and say farewell to all the staff who have served us so well for the past two weeks.

Just before 3pm we bring our luggage down to the gangway on Deck 3 and some very kind housekeeping staff carry our bags off the ship and into the terminal area (something we did not expect, since we are leaving on our own). At exactly 3pm, as planned, a taxi driver arrives to take us to the nearby Immigration and Customs Office for our special appointment. Will can stay in the taxi and I bring the passports inside and they are quickly stamped and we are on our way in the same taxi to our hotel. The total taxi ride, including the visit to Immigration is less than 15 Euros (about $15), and the driver is most helpful getting our luggage into the hotel.

The Occidental Las Palmas is a newly-built 10-story structure, with a breakfast buffet in the basement and a rooftop lounge and bar. While not as luxurious or expensive as its sister, the afore-mentioned Santa Catalina Hotel, it is perfectly comfortable and clean. We have a lovely view from our third floor window that overlooks the garden we visited this morning as well as that other hotel.

After check-in we are ready for a long siesta. Meals in Spin are served later than anywhere else in the world; lunch is usually from 1-3pm, and dinner at most restaurants doesn’t even start until 9 or 10pm.

But the hotel directs us to a nearby restaurant, on the yacht basin, that caters to tourists and is quite busy when we arrive around 8pm. We enjoy an excellent dinner:  starting with tall, cold German beers, and local hummus and crudités for appetizer. Will has fillet of sea bass—two large pieces—with small wrinkled potatoes. I have a very tender flank steak, smeared with butter, along with fried potatoes. The portions are huge and we are much too full to order dessert.

The weather today has been cloudy and very windy, with highs around 70. But for tomorrow there is a yellow heat wave warning (the first of the season). Fortunately the excessive heat occurs only in the mountains and the southern beaches. The northern coastline, where Las Palmas sits, remains much more comfortable all year round.

We have a big touring day tomorrow so we are ready for sleep soon after returning from dinner.