Nov 03.2009 - Las Palmas, Canary Islands

DKP : Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a Spanish city on the island, Gran Canaria, which is one of hte Canaray Islands located just 210 kilometers (130 miles) off the northwestern coast of the African continent within the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the capital city of the province of Las Palmas and the co-capital of the Canary Islands, sharing this status with Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

An interesting side note about the name Canary Islands... the name is derived from the latin for wild dogs, which were found on the Islands when the Romans arrived. The bird was called Canary because it came from these islands, not the other way around, interesting huh? You can thank our resident Genovase "tuck and roll" dictionary, Pietro Dodero, for that little nugget.

The population of the city of Las Palmas is around 375,000, making iththe largest city in the Canary islands and the 9th most populous city in Spain. The population of the whole urban area was estimated in 2005 to be 723,000, ranking as the eighth larges metropolitan area in Spain.

Las Palmas is toda a cosmoplitan city. It has three beaches (Las Canteras, Las Alcaravaneras and San Cristobal) and a big seaport (Puerto de la Luz harbor) - a very important on during the 70s and early 90s (that benefited greatly from the closure of the Suez Canal during the Arab-Isreali conflict).

Due to its situation as nexus of three continents and its importance as a touristic spot, many foreign workder have migrated and settled in the city. merchants and traders from AFrica, China, Russia and hte Middle East mingle with one another in the streets of the city's business centers. The Korean and Indian communities are the largest ones, although the majority have been acquiring Spanish citizenship over the years.

We did our first hermtically sealed bus tour with the folks today. It was necessary in order to cover as much of Gran Canaria as possible in our short time there, but it was also a great reminder as to why we do not do these types of tour more often. We sped by at least 100 outstanding shots that just broke my heart to have missed, but we did see a lot in a relatively small amount of time. It's always a tradeoff.

We did get our time to do our Euro floating in a large shopping area right next to the pier. Sandy and I hooked up with a couple of passengers from Gilroy (20 minutes to our North in California and home to the infamous Gilroy Garlic Festival) and headed out to find some necessary electronic items an some lunch. We found some of the best Paella in the "food court" complete with Estrella cerveza at a sweet outdoor view of the Dream stretching the entire length of the pier.

The sun was shining bright as we melted away our last moments of our time in Europe, whilst off the coast of Africa, before we set out for the "new" world. A bittersweet moment for sure that has come way too quickly. The deep blue calls and we set sail tonight for Bermuda.