Monday, January 4, 2010

Gran Canaria, Spain

My three week vacation in Spain was amazing! It was so nice spending an entire week in one place and in a house - compared to my usual rushed weekend trips in hostels. My first stop was Gran Canaria, where I stayed with Miriam and her family. Gran Canaria was amazing! It was was 25-30 degrees celcius, which I believe is about 75-80 degrees farenheit for you Americans :) Miriam and I went to the beach every day, along with visiting various cities around the island.

I also got to eat all the typical Canarian/Spanish food - rabbit, empanadas, turron, fried bananas, octopus with mojo (canarian sauce you can only find in the islands), papas con mojos, spanish omelet and chorizo to name a few.

Arucas (the city where Miriam lives) and the cathedral






Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria. In Spain it is more common to make a Belen for Christmas than decorate a Christmas tree. A Belen is basically a nativity scene, but much bigger with landscape and all kinds of characters. In Spain they usually give presents on January 6th, the day of the wisemen. This is celebrating the day the wisemen brought the gifts to Jesus. Spanish children don't write letters to Santa Claus, they write to the wise men or sometimes just their favorite wiseman. This is a picture of a Belen that was made of sand on the beach in Las Palmas. Very impressive!



We saw a museum about Christopher Columbus. It was located near the church where he went and prayed right before settling off to discover America. There were parrots inside :)







This day Miriam's parents took us to the south of Gran Canaria where the best beaches are. This is La Playa del Ingles, my favorite beach filled with sand dunes! (notice the swimsuits... yes in DECEMBER!)





This day we drove up to the mountains. The views were amazing! All the green is banana trees... the best ones in the world are grown in the Canary Islands.



Then we went to an old town where there was a huge farmer's market



... and I tried chorizo! Soooo good!!

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