The temperatures are between 26 °C and 28 °C in the summer months and between 22°C and 24°C during the winter months. But not only the good weather and the sunny climate are the reason why Gran Canaria is so interesting to visit.

On the isle of Gran Canaria you can find such a big variety of landscapes as in nearly any other place. It has many sights to offer and many beaches to take a sunbath or practice water sports.

Another must on Gran Canaria is of the church of Santiago de los Caballeros. This church built in the baroque style dates from the 18th century. It is a jewel and all the culture interested holiday makers should visit it.

One of the most visited holiday resorts is Maspalomas with it´s spectacular sand dunes.

The isle is ideal as well for the ones who want to practice sports like for example hiking, mountain-biking, surfing, windsurfing and a lot more.

If you come to visit the isle of Gran Canaria you should taste something from the canary cuisine, which offers you a big variety on dishes and hot spicy sauces.

One of these specialities are for example “papas arrugadas” (wrinkle potatoes with salt crust) and the hot spicy sauce called “mojo”.

So if you feel well on Gran Canaria and you think about staying, you have the possibility to acquire a property on this wonderful piece of earth.

About three kilometers from the center of Castillo del Romeral you just have to follow the path in southern direction to get to this surfers paradise.

You will be suprised! Alltough this place is not that far away from Playa Ingles, it is not that touristy.

Near the rocky beach along the surfing spot you can find a nice little lake with lots of birds and little fishes.

And if you should become hungry by surfing, take a look at all these tiny seafood restaurant along the coast or just ask one of the locals where you could get something special to eat.

The truckers sell their products: every kind of vegetables, fruits, healing plants, flowers, etc.

Best of all their specialities is “chorizo del teror ” (a very hot paprika sausage). Then you can drive by Tejeda in direction to La Cumbre and enjoy a miraculous view.

It´s really worth visiting markets on Gran Canaria with their typical atmosphere and their valuable products and traditional specialities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

between farmers and “finca” propietors have started this initiative in order to promote the culturing of this tree. It’s ment to define different varieties of this species, look for one which is better for general production purposes and eventually breed new species. They’re also in charge of establishing other ways of marketing this product, since almonds have been a very important procduct in the last decades.

The municipalities taking part in this association are mainly Tejeda and Valsequillo, but other colindant areas dedicated to this trees’ culturing.

That is a good initiative. My “tip of the hat” for these people.

No, i’m not crazy. As a, not only canarian but, entirely spanish tradition we celebrate the countdown to the new year in a very particular way. The last 12 gongs, from normally a tower-clock, of the year when it gets 0:00 are ment to be accompained with a sigle grape with every gong. It normally broadcasted live on TV from the “Puerta del Sol” in Madrid, but since we have it one hour later, it’s normally done from a local church with tower-clock. It has its origin 1909 from wine growers who celebrated a good years harvest and is now one of the most deeply rooted habits.

You’d be probably tired of hearing this today and i don’t want to be the one to miss this chance to get on your nerves too.

A big hug for everybody, and have a !!! HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!.

after implanting new security measures for all european airports on november 6th, consisting one of them, not being able to carry liquids on board, there is already an exception.

Our famous “mojo-sauce” is now free of any restriction after representants of manufacturers of our most known sauce appealed to the justice ministry and won the judgement.
The canarian “mojo-sauce” can now be taken on board.

That is really cool, hahahaha   Wouldn’t have thought that possible.

And may the fat bearded man, leave a lot of presents for you under the tree.

another easy recipe, this time of the most commonly used sauce on canarian food. Since you can spice up almost evey meal with this sauce, i think it’ll be appropriate to let you know this tasty sauce before i let you know ther meals. Normally it’s given to you in a restaurant when you order fresh fish but certainly you can try it out on ribs, steak or any other kind of meat.

Ingredients:
Fresh coriander, garlic, cooking salt, red hot chili-peppers, white wine, oil and vinegar.

Preparation:
- First we’ll need to pound a bundle of fresh, well chopped coriander with a handful of salt and a few garlic cloves (the more you put in, the spicier the sauce would be; though it should never outbalance the flavour of the coriander).
- Pound everything very well ,add some chopped peppers and keep pounding.
- After that add a good spurt of oil and another one (more or less the same) of the white wine. Add vinegar (a little less than the oil) and that’s it. Just stir it well and voilá!!

Enjoy it!
Oh by the way, just like in the first recipe, “mojo” is pronounced like “moho”

another easy recipe of the most commonly used sauce on canarian food. Since you can spice up almost evey meal with this sauce, i think it’ll be appropriate to let you know this tasty sauce. Normally it’s give you in a restaurant when you orden fresh fish but certainly you can try it out on ribs, steak or any other kind of meat.

Ingredients:
Fresh coriander, garlic, cooking salt, red hot chili-peppers, white wine, oil and vinegar.

Preparation:
- First we’ll need to pound a bundle of fresh, well chopped coriander with a handful of salt and a few garlic cloves (the more you put in, the spicier the sauce would be; though it should never outbalance the flavour of the coriander).
- Pound everything very well ,add some chopped peppers and keep pounding.
- After that add a good spurt of oil and another one (more or less the same) of the white wine. Add vinegar (a little less than the oil) and that’s it. Just stir it well and voilá!!

Enjoy it!
Oh by the way, just like in the first recipe, “mojo” is pronounced like “moho”

here is the recipe of the most typical sauce made on the canary islands. Since today is the day of “Santa Lucía” and i already posted the recipe of the “Papas arrugadas”, i think i’ll be appropriate to let you know this saucy treasure of ours.

Ingredients:
Garlic, cooking salt, red hot chili peppers (not the band ), crumb, caraway, oil and vinegar.

Preparation:
- First we need to pound half a dozen garlic cloves with two fingers of salt (cooking salt) and half a tea-spoon of caraway until we get a homogeneous paste.
- Then we add a few chopped peppers (the more you put in, the hotter the sauce will get) and we continue pounding untill everything is even again.
- After that we add a piece of crumb (not big) that we’ve had in vinegar before. (Though, there are some cooks that leave the step of putting the crumb in vinegar aside.) We mix it very good and finally add oil and more vinegar (more or less in a 3:1 proportion).
- Watch out!, don’t let it get neither to oily nor to vinegary, so that its texture is not to thick and not to liquid.

Enjoy it!
Oh by the way, “mojo” is pronounced like “moho”

i might post a recipe from a typical canarian dish, so if you want, write it down or print it or whatever you like, and try it out. Maybe you can surprise you family and friends with something new.

“Papas arrugadas” – “crumpled potatoes” would be its direct translation.

There are actually different ways or styles of preparing them but basically its donde this way:

1) Pic small sized potatoes, like an egg, and wash them very good but leave the skin on.

2) Put them in a high saucepan, add a piece of lemon and a quarter kilo of salt for every kilo of potatoes (more or less: 1 pound = 0,454 kilo; 2.205 pounds = 1 kilo ). Fill the saucepan with water just enough to cover the potatoes on the top and boil them until they are ready.

3) When done, pour the water out and put the saucepan back on the fireand let the potatoes dry out, shaking them from time to time (this might take not more than 2 or 3 minutes)

4) After this, take them off the fire and leave them covered them with a dish towel for some minutes.

5) Serve them on a plate and pour "mojo" over them. (“mojo” is a tipical canarian spicy peppersauce)

Enjoy!    Hang on, next time i’ll post the “mojo” recipe.