Day 9 Tuesday 12/3/24
Dave offered to hire a car and take us to the south for the day. The approximate geography of the island is that Trade Winds blow from the north and pile up cloud against the central mountains. So the north is relatively cloudy and wet compared to the south. North is green, south is a desert.
Tourists want sunshine, so that is where the biggest tourist resorts are. Dave got a Kia Rio, a small but surprisingly roomy car. His hotel is right next to the motorway which goes from Los Palmas all the way round to Puerto de Magan in about 50 minutes. Everywhere in the south has been built in about the last 50 years, and it’s all made of concrete. It’s the epitome of mass tourism. But hey, the beer is cheap and the sun is shining!
Puerto de Magan was a tiny fishing village at the end of a valley, which has been transformed by terraces of flats rising up both sides of the valley. It has a pretty little beach which looks good for swimming, and plenty of bars and restaurants. We got a coffee and strolled around town, like you do, looking at tat in the shops and being pleased I wasn’t there for a week. Some of the town is very pretty, and has cottages designed in an old local style which have bourganvillia growing over them. But much of the resort was tightly packed concrete boxes.
Our next stop was Puerto Rico, which was the Margate to Mogans Broadstairs. A bit more down market with fewer redeeming features. It follows the same pattern of beach, marina, shops, flats and restaurants, but has little charm. If you enjoy mini-golf, it’s the place for you.
This picture of Jo, Dave and Julie shows how the flats are stacked up on the volcanic hillside. It’s like a vision of Mars in a 100 years time when the terraforming has kicked in a bit, but the landscape is still shit.
Back in the car we drove east through tunnels to Maspalomas, which is a very big resort, and more upmarket than the others. The sea front is all big hotels and palm trees, and it has a long promenade. The most famous feature of the resort are the 400 hectares of dunes, which are quite spectacular. We started walking across them to the lighthouse, but then we saw a sign saying it was 3 kilometres. This is a holiday not a Royal Marines training exercise, so we went back to the car and drove.
After sniffing about for a while we found a restaurant called Piti y Flautas just off the promenade. What’s that name all about then? Does it mean “pity the flute-player”? Or is it something to do with floaters? I could look it up, but it’s more fun to speculate.
I drank a litre of lager (San Miguel) and ate a huge seafood pizza, and I feel slightly queezy but satisfied.
It was dark by the time we got back to Las Palmas, and all the drilling rigs were lit up like Christmas trees in Puerto de la Luz. Maybe that’s why it’s called port of the lights.
timharnesstravels 