It is named after Alfredo Kraus, a famous spanish tenor who died in 1999 and was considered to be one of the last Grandseigneurs of opera. Designed by the architect Oscar Tusquets and the sculptor Juan Bordes it was first opened on December 5th in 1997.

The auditory hosts many cultural and social events like the annual Canary Islands’ Music Festival, wich takes place at each years beginning, or the Las Palmas of Gran Canaria Film Festival, which is organized in corporation with the city council of Las Palmas.

Throughout the year many events are running in the auditory. Many own concerts, as well as the Las Palmas Philharmony Society concerts and the annual Jazz and Guitar Festivals are taking place in here.

But also modern acts can be seen here, as it’s the cutural and social centre of the city.

WOMAD festivals take place in over 20 countries, on 4 continents.

The original idea of Peter Gabriel – the founder of the festival, was to evoke interest in celebrating, and first of all, in sharing the world music, arts and dance.

WOMAD in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a real feast for those who seek for great multicultural atmosphere in a beautiful surrounding. It also gives the opportunity to taste the food and to buy souvenirs from all around the globe.

It is a place, where you can just “taste the world”.

Only some of the highlights of nature are idyllic bays and marvellous beaches, imposing cliffs, hidden paradises, majestic mountains, impressing volcanic craters, breathtaking ravines mixed with a subtropical vegetation. The isle of Gran Canaria sustains many nature reserves and national parks.

Due to the consciousness of tradition of the Canary Islands the origins of some of these events, or so called fiestas, lead back even to the time of the aborigines.

Most of the religios celebrations are in honor of a certain protection saint, givings thanks and heralding the end of the harvest time.

The southwest and west is dominated by rocky cliffs, the coast is very varied in the north and northeast with numerous beaches and little bays. The centre of the island is hilly with a couple of high peaks and many ravines which lead to the sea.

if not the most famous, ‘fiesta’ on Gran Canaria is “La Rama“, which literally means ‘the branch’ but is at the same time short for “La Bajada de la Rama” or ‘the descent of the branch’, is held every year in August 4th, which would be tomorrow.

Traditionally the celebration is about going up the valley of Agaete dancing to the sound of a marching band, getting some tree branches, previously taken from trees in the ‘tamadaba forrest’, and taking them down (always dancing) to the ‘port of Las Nieves’ (the port of Agaete) to Our Lady of Las Nieves, who reside in the port hermitage, as an offering, after hitting the ports’ waters with them.

The mayor and the different neighbourhood associations of Agaete have decided not to carry branches this year, as a gesture of solidarity for the catastrophe suffered by the island due to the forrest fires. Only a few selected people, the usual devotees, will carry some, and the rest will get green handkerchiefs at the same place where they would normally get their branch.

Wow…, i got no words for this…
That is a really really nice gesture.

to provide sunshine wherever it’s needed and we on Gran Canaria fortunately have plenty of it. The Red Cross organizes from this monday till mid september and initiative to help handicaped people enjoy the beach as much as we do. The “leisure at the beach program” gives people with mobility problems the oportunity to take walk at the shore or a dip of the ‘Las Canteras‘ beach in Las Palmas.

For those living in Las Palmas the program includes a “pick-up service” in the morning for those who need it and then from 11:30 till 16:30, several volunteers will help take care of them. Other activities are planed too, swapping the seashore with visits to different places of Gran Canaria.

Now that is one good news i think. Great guys!!

Don’t think it’s intentionally but a students life is busy while the exams last.
Please be patient, i finish this Tuesday and hopefully be posting again from then onwards

Thank you, Rayco.

Don’t get alarmed tonight,

if the entire island seems to be submerged in chaos with bonfires everywhere. We are neither under attack nor have been hit by a meteor shower.
If you don’t have nothing to do tonight, i higly recomend you wherever you are on the isle, but specially those near to the Playa del Inlges (San Bartolomé) and the Canteras (Las Palmas) beaches to visit these beaches around 12:00 PM.

Like every year in june, normally coinciding with days around the summer solstice, the night of the 23rd to 24th, we celebrate
“San Juan”. In this peculiar festivity there is a large fireworks spectacle and people make huge bonfires almost everywhere but the bigest are seen at the beaches. This was originally made to “strengthen the sun”, since the days will get shorter every day until the winter solstice.

You should witness this festivity, it is very spectacular.

has come to an agreement with the airline ‘Jet2‘ wich will offer, starting in October this year, low cost flights from the UK to Gran Canaria. Leeds, Manchester, NewCastle and Belfast are the cities chosen for this particular project which will offer one daily low cost flight from each city to Gran Canaria, increasing the actual air traffic between Gran Canaria and the UK in almost 10%.

In adition to this the Tourist Board has also made another agreement with ‘Nowegian Air‘ which will offer low cost flights from Oslo to Gran Canaria. This new service is supposed to start in winter this year.

How you like that ?!?! Kinda cool i think. That’ll give our tourism-based economy a little push.

June 8th the CAAM, the spanish acronym for Atlantic Center for Modern Art, offers an ‘open night’ due to the ‘Niki de Saint Phalle & Jean Tinguely’ exhibition titled L’Art et L’Amour. The center will not close its doors at 9 p.m. as usually and will remain open till 12 p.m. for this ‘open night’.

The exhibition will also include the performance of the ‘Rayko León Trío’ jazz group, but you will also be able to visit the rest of exhibition rooms of this museum.

I won’t be able to go but if anybody is, don’t hesitate to comment on this. I think It’ll be interesting to read more about it.

May 30th is the ‘dia de canarias‘, that is literally, the canaries day. The ‘dia de canarias’ celebrates the aniversary of the first session of the canarian parliament held in 1983, 10 months after we were publicly declared an autonomous region.

A lot of municipalities decorate the streets and organize special events. I would like to focus on th municipality of Mogan, where there’ll be a lot of interesting things done. Today will be the official start of the ‘San Antonio’ festivities in Mogan. At the 30th there will be a craftwork and gastronomy fair held in the ‘Plaza de las Marañuelas’ in Arguineguin at 18:00 which is something i highly recomend you.

Have a nice ‘canaries day’

One of these days i’ll finish uploading all the info on the main page on appartments and homes to rent, hotels, cottages, etc… here on Gran Canaria. When i have everything uploaded i’ll post again with all the main links, but i think you’ll find it very interesting to have a look at its’ content.

Stay tuned for the upcoming info.

where i posted the different museums on the isle but with their spanish names, so i thought to myself they wouldn’t mean anything to you if you didn’t live here for a long time or even speak spanish.

Therefore here is a downloadable file for those of you who would like a printable version of the table. Plus, i added som extra info, a small description so you’d know what the museums are all about.
I hope its usefull: Museums

and you’re planing to take a trip to Las Palmas, i would highly recomend you the ‘old part’ of the city, Vegueta. In this beautiful area, which is being renewed to be only pedestrian, you can find the market of Vegueta and several restaurants in which you can enjoy typical canarian food. I personally would recomend you “El Herreño”.

The streets of Vegueta are very beautiful, have a look:

You can also find in Vegueta, the “house of Columbus” which is a museum about Chistopher Columbus.

i had the chance to take a trip with a friend on a Cessna, flying over the south of Gran Canaria, and i have to say it was just great. And as you might have noticed it seems that i have always my camera with me…
Here are some of the best shots i took:

Thanks for the ride Krile…

Look at the amazing beach day we had today in “Anfi” (Anfi Del Mar, after Arguineguín in the municipality of Mogan). 28º degrees and no sign of any wind. Just glorious.
Doesn’t this look like the damn paradise …Sure it does!!

is the last carnival weekend. Last weeks saturday the carnival queen of maspalomas was elected. Cristina Mahuego was the winning candidate wearing a dress named "La Joya del Nilo" (the Jewel of the Nile) representing the "El Muelle" Shopping Center in Las Palmas.

Yesterday night took place the Drag Queen Gala and tomorrow will be the big carnival parade going through all “Playa del Ingles”, Gran Canarias‘ “touristic heart” in San Bartolomé.

As almost every carnival event we highly recomend you to have a look at it. You surely won’t be disappointed.

said goodbye to their carnival fests burning the typical huge sardine, made out of wire and paperpaste. Normally during the “sardines’ burying” all the participants in this parade dress like widows spending the entire parade crying out loudly.

This is our typical way of ending the carnival festivities and every city that has a carnival parade has this “burying” and is pretty funny.

If you have the oportunity to see this, i recomend it to you.

was the main carnival parade in Las Palmas which, according to the city’s “local police” mobilized about 200.000 people between viewers and participants. Pirates, policemen, prostitues, devils, men dressed as women, politicians, judges, attorneys and a huge et cetera lived up this years parade, which started at 17:00 at the “Castillo de la Luz” in the area known as “el Puerto”.

90 floats and decorated cars took part in this picturesque event, makin it come to an end around midnight. The animators on the floats also mentioned how well and ‘sweet’ the parade was going in contrast to the ‘sourness’ Tenerife had to be going through due to the controversy created at the Carnival Queen Gala which was directed by dancer Rafael ‘Amargo’ (which actually means SOUR).

Well, that unfortunately, will teach us not to bring people in who do not understand our carnival.

Las Palmas‘ night-life is completely stuck on carnival. The carnival queen has been elected, the “murgas” contest has already a winner and it’s still not over. This weekend, “the big weekend”, the most picturesque show is still to be run. The “judges” have made their decision, electing the 15 final candidates from out of 28, to be finalists and take part in this spectacular show, The Drag-Queen show.

It’ll be presented by spanish actress “Loles Leon” and will start at 21:00, at the stage of the “Santa Catalina” park. The show will feature the star performance of Gloria Gaynor.

I’ll try to make some pics and post them. This show is highly recomendable and you surely wouldn’t want to miss it. Just Great

more or less the first or second week of february, one of the most picturesque, atractive and traditional fests of Gran Canaria take place in Tejeda and in Valsequillo the week after. When the almond tree flowers sprout, announcing the begining of spring-time, the center of the island, where these trees grow, turns into one of the most beautiful landscapes you could possibly imagine.

Have a look at some pictures of it in Tejeda:

Thanks to Jose and his sister for the pics.

this will be a good news for you. The “Perez Galdós” theatre in Las Palmas that is being renewed is coming to an end. The 1016 new seats have been already installed are were presented by Las Palmas mayor “Pepa Luzardo”.

The seats have translators in which the spoken or sung text being interpreted will be shown in 7 different languages. This system and the stages’ motorized features are said by the architect in charge of the project to be the most difficult things to build. The air conditioning system and the curtains are already set up. When fnished, it is said to be the 3rd biggest theatre in Spain, right after Madrids’ “royal theatre” and Barcelonas’ “Liceo”.

Well then, nice to be known for that. The grand opening will be in April.

and i must say "what a deception". I truly expected more from it due to the good publicity they gave to it. If you’d like to go to the movies here, there’s a possibility. The "Yelmo Cineplex" cinema at the "Atlantico Shopping Center" in Vecindario(Santa Lucia) offers movies shown in it’s original language (normally english). So you might want to go, chek out the movies playing now:

Personally i’ve just seen “The Departed” and it’s very good, but i’ve been told that “A Good Year” is also worth seing.

the terraces will be structured in a different way. Due to past years access problem to them, the organization has decided to install 3 terraces. Two of them, “Can Can” and “Charlot”, in a closed space and the third one named “Boulevard” will will have no areal restrictions. “Boulevard” will then consist of 30 refreshment stalls, the so called “chiringuitos”.

Beside this, there will be 30 “chiringuitos” more of which (grancanariagay.com listen up ) 16 will be the as “chiringay” known stalls specially for the gay/lesbian comunity.
Also there’ll be 2 taverns, 3 fritter stalls, 9 candy stalls, 5 hamburger stalls and 5 other different stalls that’ll get along with the night life.

Have Fun!!

This last three days, the three phases of the “Murgas” contest had taken place at the “Santa Catalina” park in Las Palmas. A “Murga” (spelled:”moorgah” ) is a group of, normally 15 or more, people who dress up usually all the same and perform on the stage singing acid and critic lyrics dealing with politics as well as problems of todays society with a lot of humor and irony. Normally the songs are performed on popular songs, but with their own lyrics, just accompained with percussion and every members kazoo.

This constest is very popular on the canary islands and due to their acid humor and irony always something to laugh about, since normally if they don’t sing about politics in general (Spain-wide) “Murgas” from Las Palmas mock Tenerife and viceversa.

The finals of this contest are held tomorrow at 20:00 with free entrance at the “Santa Catalina” park. I’ll try topost some pictures asap. If you’re interested about it……drop by.

Here are the names and e-mail addresses of the golf-courts we have on Gran Canaria. Please, if you want to know something specific, you can always post a comment and we’ll answer as soon as possible.

Real Club de Golf De Las Palmas – cglp@realclubgolfdelaspalmas.com

Lopesan Meloneras Golf – melonerasgolf@lopesanhr.com

Campo de Golf Maspalomas – reservas@maspalomasgolf.net

Salobre Golf & Resort – reservation@salobregolfresort.com

El Cortijo Club de Campo – clubcampo@elcortijo.es

El Cortijo Golf Center – insular@airtel.net

Anfi Tauro Golf – golf@anfi.es

Have fun.

You like hanging around the pool all day long getting toasted by the sun? Sick of carrying home 2 buckets of beach sand? Got kids and tired of them brabbling all day long. Maybe this can help. AQUASUR, Gran Canarias‘ biggest water-slide park is near you. It has 13 attractions and all in all 33 slides, as well as several pools, souvenir-shops and a cafeteria within a surface of 90.000m².

Thanks to our splendid weather the park opens daily (except in case of bad weather conditions) from 10:00 to 17:00. Adults pay 22,50€ and kids pay 16,00€ and it’s situated on the road to “Palmitos Park” km 3. You can get here also by bus, taking line 45 or line 70, depending where you’re coming from.

Try it!! You and your kids will enjoy it.

as you might have noticed from the name is a park for reptiles in the municipality of Gáldar, part of Gran Canarias’ north shore.
This great park shows a large variety of reptilian species such as poisonous snakes, tarantulas, giant turtles, iguanas, crocodiles, alligators etc… With 10.000m² of ground it offers a lagre amount of different terrariums in which the species’ origal habitats are recreated. The park is open every day from 11:00 till 17:00 and feeding time is around 15:00.

This park is the largest of all 7 isles and famous for holding the largest saurians alive in an open terrarium: The Komodo Dragons.
Jim Pether, director of this park, was also the one to manage this species to breed in captivity for the first time in europe. 2 and a half years ago, 17 youngs were born from which 14 were given away to other park around the world, being this part of an exchange program among scientists to keep this species alive. The 3 left are now 1,5m long but their mother died a year ago.

Therefore and due to this exchange program, the park is getting in April a new female dragon named "Flora", coming from Chester, in the UK.

This park is highly recomendable.

like every year around this date, it’s time to start thinking about carnival. Since we have a one of the most picturesque carnival celebrations and unique Drag Queen Galas. This will probably mean more to the gay community on the isle, but anyway, i’m pround to announce that the main performer at the 2007 Drag Queen Gala in Las Palmas will be no other than “Gloria Gaynor” together with “Bananarama“.

The carnival in Las Palmas will start february 2nd and end the 24th. Their theme this year: Belle Epoque.
 - Election of the Carnival Queen: february 9th
 - Drag Queen Gala: february 16th
 - The Big Carnival Parade: february 17th

The carnival here in Maspalomas/Playa del Ingles, San Bartolomé, will be from february 22nd till march 4th and will officially be inspired the Europe of the early 20′s.
 - Election of the Carnival Queen: february 24th
 - Drag Queen Gala: march 2nd
 - The Big Carnival Parade: march 3rd

How you like that !!… Oh and by the way, greetings to the people of grancanariagay.com. Thanks for your support guys.

the first clearance sales of the year started yesterday. If you want you might want to have a look. They’re across almost every store in non-touristic areas, since they have to get all the “winter-stuff” out to make space for the new seasons’ clothes.

This clearance sales will last until March 7th and in some stores have a discount of up to 60% or more. Prices will keep going down through out this period, so there’s no need to hurry, things will get cheaper.