Las Canarias

Back from 4 days of doing nothing but laying on the beach in the Canary Islands. Tuesday night in the airport wasn't too bad and there was NO ONE there. It was a ghost town, so we got our choice of sleeping spots- Starbucks couches. We got into Gran Canaria island around 11am and it was so hot out. Finally! We took a bus to the northeast shore, Las Palmas, and checked into our hostel. Then, immediately went to the beach. It was cloudy and with the wind off the ocean almost chilly, so we could only layout for an hour before we got too cold. That night we walked the entire boardwalk and took in the beatutiful coast. We had a fancy italian dinner on the boardwalk terrace.

I brilliantly suggested we swtich hostels cause I thouht we could get a better deal than the one we booked online. I found Hostel Perez, which looked a little dingier, but much cheaper, so we moved over Thursday morning. This turned out to be one of my worst ideas after we saw the "unsavory charachters" hangingout outside, got cat calls when we went into the co-owned restaurant/bar nextdoor, and worst of all realized a raspy, raging drunk man lived on the floor below us. That night when we went out for dinner, the man was screaming in his creepy voice at some woman (we're assuming because we heard a woman crying). It was really scary, but we managed to escape when we saw that he was out on his balcony. The police were at the hostel questioning him when we got back from dinner, but later when we were ready for bed, he started yelling again. ANYWAY, we spent as little time at the hostel as possible, and were on the beach all day (mom, you would have been proud, I don't think anyone but you could've lasted that long on the beach). Earlier in the day, it was cloudy and chilly, so sunscreen was not an obvious choice. By 6pm, we were completely roasted and only then realized we're pretty much on the freaking equator and the sun is insanely strong. That night, we ran along the coast on a wide sidewalk with tons of people biking, running, and walking. The ocean was soooo pretty at night. I took a freezing cold, but still very painful shower that night.

Friday morning, we checked out of the hostel from hell and stored our luggage while we spent the day on the beach- this time with ample sunscreen. (I literally used more than half of a big bottle, and still somehow got even more burned). We took some breaks from the beach this time- I really wanted a smoothie, so we found a fresh juice place. When I asked what my choices were, the guy at the counter told me there was a "house mixture of fruits", so I took the risk and got it. It was delicious! We watched the guy peel bananas, kiwis, oranges, strange melons, and more and put them into the juicer. I was in heaven. Once we finished our day on the beach, we took a bus from Las Palmas all the way to the south of the island to Playa del Ingles. We couldn't book a hostel in advance, so we figured we'd just find one when we got there. After wandering for an hour with heavy bags and no comfortable way to carry them cause my shoulders were in too much pain, we finally found an apartment complex that let us stay for the night. The place was soo nice- too bad we only used it to sleep. In our exhauastion, we signed up for a "club crawl" that we realized was a scam immediately after. Oh well. The huge pizza we had for dinner and the really good live music kind of made up for it.

Saturday we were leaving at 730pm, so we checked out of the "hotel" and spent the whole day at the beach. This one was a lot bigger than Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas, and somehow even more tolerant of nudity. They were everywhere- in the nudist sections, not in the nudist sections meaning right next to us in our section, frolicking in the ocean, standing at the snack bar... I thought Id be more used to it after 3 days on the north shore. nope. I also had enough sense to rent an umbrella today and minimized burning. On our walk along the beach, Renee spotted a Hooters, so of course we went for lunch. I don't know what beach trip would be complete without a trip to Hooters? Sadly, we left our tropical paraidise around 4 to catch a bus to the airport.

Despite the sketchiest hostel in the world, club scams, 3rd degree burns, and sand still coming out of my ears, I absolutely loved Las Canerias. I never had to leave Spain and saw a new and beautiful part of the country (It was kind of like Spain meets California-- aka Europe meets a beachy desert).

(just ignore the Wolverine-do) ^