sailing - Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

---

We left Lanzarote on Nov 27, 2011 and got to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on Nov 28 in the morning. We stayed in anchorage for a week and then moved into the marina. The library in town is a 40 min walk from the marina and has free internet. There are yellow bikes everywhere that are free, even for tourists, you just need to register at City Hall to use them. Instructions can be found at each bike stand or go to www.biciambiental.org for more details. Once I started using the bikes, the library and everything else became very accessible.

I met someone with Alopecia universalis. I didn't know this condition existed—it must be our next step in the evolution of the human species since we're all supposed to become hairless at some point.

I didn't know this but everyone in Spain has 2 last names, one's father's and one's mother's. The amazing part is that if you are a woman, the name you pass on to your child is your mother's last name, not the combination of your father's and mother's last name. This means that all the women pass on their mother's last name ad infinitum provided that they continue to have daughters. The same for the men in that they have both parents' last names but pass on only their father's last name. This is the coolest system ever. I came across a local woman whose last name is LLIN because her grandmother's grandmother or some female ancestor was actually Chinese (it's the misspelled Chinese name LIN).

I got in touch with Cristina and she told me to meet her at the surfing beach of Las Palmas. I took bus 17 to the end where the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus is found. Right beside it is a very long surfing beach and there were tons of people surfing. I sat on the beach and watched while I waited for Cristina to finish surfing. When she was done, she drove me to Fataga, a village in the middle southern part of Gran Canaria where she has a small house. The house is actually a 19th century mill that she's converting into a cottage. We met a friend of Cristina's in Fataga who sold jewelry. She said that the law in Spain allows one to sell stuff in one's own house if it's stuff you make yourself.

The next day, we drove to Bentayga rock and climbed up to the top. There was a lot of scrambling and I loved it. There were caves at the top. On the way back, we kept hearing something banging in the trunk. Cristina stopped at a random village (Ayacata), where there was a parking lot, to check out the trunk. The parking lot was just opposite the town tavern and there was serious music happening so I went to look. There were so many people that there was no room inside so people were standing outside near the doorway. I tried to look inside and people saw me and started saying “turista, turista” and made me go into the centre of the action. There were tons of musicians with different instruments and they were singing and playing music and everyone in the tavern was singing along or enjoying the music. The musicians were a mix of men and women and they were extremely good; they would exchange instruments after each song and each person would lead a different song. When Cristina came in, she asked what's going on and it turned out that once a year, various professional musicians in Gran Canaria would gather together, rent a bus and pack all their instruments onto the bus and go around to various taverns in different villages and towns all around Gran Canaria, and just sing and play for everyone for free. They just happened to be there when we stopped by. What serendipity!! Cristina said this is the most authentic Canarian music you'll ever hear and the quality is incomparable to any show you might go to. And they all looked so happy since they were doing a road trip for fun and not for profit. The drive to Bentayga and back through the mountains was also spectacular. That was one of my best days in the Canaries.

The next day we took a long hike up the hill behind her house and then down into the valley where it was really lush and green. She showed me where the “Robinson Crusoe” houses were on the mountain sides just up from the river. The next day, she dropped me off at the airport and from there, I went back to town. The bus was €2.75 which went to the main bus depot near the library. From there, I took another bus to go to the marina.

Chinatown in Las Palmas is near the Mercado. There are a few decent Chinese grocery stores in that area. You can also find lots of specialty foods in Cortes Inglès. I found it funny that the Chinese would say ¡hola! to each other and then speak Chinese.

The Columbus House Museum had a really cool map of the world that showed the world geographically as well as historically and it was made in 1375 in Catalan.

---