There’s a wide range of accommodation ranging from luxury air-conditioned apartments in Puerto Mogan with a swimming pool to economical self-catering apartments in Puerto Rico or perhaps you’d like or somewhere with a stunning sea-view in Playa del Cura.

Apart from basking in the sun on one of the beaches, there are lots of other things to do on the Costa Mogan. For the energetic there are activities such as sport-fishing and diving, hiking in the mountains, golf, tennis and other sports. Visit local attractions and galleries, take a trip along the coast by ferry or see the underwater world by submarine – you’ll find plenty to occupy your time. And of course, shopping – there are lots of facilities for your regular dose of retail therapy, including markets in Arguineguin and Puerto Mogan.

If you like to relax over a meal and a drink you’ll find a vast array of bars and restaurants. With such a choice the question is where to go? There are restauramnts serving Spanish dishes and Canarian specialities, traditional English fare, a Indian curries, a Chinese, Italian, German or Greek food or French cuisine – the choice is yours!

There’s plenty of nightlife – shows, karaoke and discos, especially in Puerto Rico. You can enjoy a wide range of live music including traditional Canarian and Spanish folk, blues and rock, and we’re pleased to be able to tell you that Elvis has NOT left the island!

If you are a fitness fanatic then there are several gyms and fitness centres so that you don’t slip behind with your training schedule.
There is a whole range of complementary therapies available in the locality, including reiki, thalasotherapy, acupuncture and various kinds of massage, and if you require herbal or homoeopathic remedies there are several health food shops (herbolarios).

Arguineguín

Arguineguin is the main commercial and residential town of the Costa Mogan. It has a busy fishing port and two beaches with the local sand. Market day here is on a Tuesday.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is the largest holiday resort on the Costa Mogan. It has a sheltered beach, two marinas and excellent facilities for water-sports and other activities. The two main centres have shops, supermarkets, restaurants and there is live entertainment at numerous bars, clubs and discotheques.

Taurito

Taurito, with its beach of native sand, is in a spectacularly steep-sided and narrow barranco (valley) and has an excellent lido and a recreation area.

Veneguera

It’s a long way to the beach at Veneguera, but worth the journey if you don’t mind driving down the long unmade road past banana and papaya plantations. The track is pretty rough in places but once you arrive, this undeveloped beach is ideal for a picnic and a quiet lazy time. Take everything you’ll need with you – it’s a long way back to the shops!

Playa Amadores – “Lovers’ Beach”

Amadores beach, with its white sand and beautiful blue water is one of the most popular beaches in the area. There are plenty of bars and restaurants and pedaloes can be hired hire.
There are showering facilities, lots of parking and a frequent bus service.

Tauro

The beach-front at Tauro is relatively undeveloped, though big changes are on their way as the new golf resort just inland is developed. Currently there are just two beach-side bars serving seafood and local specialities.

Mogán

This typical small Canarian town, in a spectacular setting with a backdrop of mountains is the administrative centre for the municipality of Mogan and is less touristy than the resorts on the coast. There are several bars and some excellent restaurants, serving mainly traditional Spanish and Canarian dishes.

Patalavaca – “Foot of the Cow”

Patalavaca is a resort linked to Arguineguín, many of whose hotels are built on the face of the cliff below the costa road, and so one enters many of them on the top floor.

Puerto de Mogan

Puerto de Mogan, on the south-west coast of Gran Canaria is the most picturesque resort on the island.

The original fishing village of Playa Mogán with its narrow passageways and steps is a jumble of houses and apartments clinging to the cliff and the Mirador at the very top has one of the best views of the resort.

The harbour area, known as the "Venice of the Canaries", is a pedestrianised development of two-storey apartment blocks with roof terraces bursting with bougainvillea and other gloriously colourful plants and is dotted with gardens of banana and papaya trees, palms and bird-of-paradise plants.

The new development on the beach-front and stretching back up the valley includes new hotels and luxury apartment complexes, some with great views up the valley or over the beach and of the sea, cliffs and marina.

Puerto de Mogan is packed with excellent restaurants serving local fish landed at the fishing harbour and other Canarian and international specialities. It has several banks and supermarkets, and shops selling clothes, souvenirs, jewellery and much more. If you want a haircut or a tattoo, there is a choice of salons or studios, and if you need to send an email or surf the web, there are several places where you can get connected.

The golden beach, of sand imported from the Sahara, faces south and is protected by a rocky mole, which makes it ideal for safe and easy swimming, and there are sunloungers, parasols, pedaloes and canoes for hire. Outside the enclosed area is good for those who are more adventurous and like to snorkel.

For those who want a bit more excitement, there are jet skis for hire, parascending, scuba diving lessons, sport fishing excursions. And if you’re not feeling so energetic you could try a submarine trip round a local wreck, a dolphin spotting trip or taker the ferry to Puerto Rico, Anfi del Mar or Arguineguín.

On Fridays there is a large open-air market which fills the two plazas on the marina side of Puerto Mogan and the area behind the beach. There are stalls selling shoes, clothes, leather goods and watches, many bearing designer logos – try your hand at getting a real bargain. You can buy African carvings and drums, cheap and cheerful jewellery, second hand books, fruit and vegetables, beach towels, sarongs and swimwear.

Gran Canaria ist adequate for activity holidays and sports.

Today we have two tips for ventures and leisure time activities on Gran Canaria.

Firstly we want to inform you about the website ofv Grancanaria-Excursions.com. On this website you find a huge offer of excursions all over the island. At Grancanariaexcursions.com you can book many kinds of day trips to different places and destinations.

In the range you find a trip to Las Palmas, on wich you can discover the capitol of Gran Canaria, with its famous quarter of La Vegueta full of shops and sights. For those who are interested in the history of Gran Canaria, we recomment the Ancient History Tour, starting in Guadedeque, where you can view some caves from the aborigines of Gran Canaria. This half day trip guides you to different viewpoints and characteristic places of the isle. Another excursion offered, ist the Gran Premium Tour. During this day trip you can view the giant pine of Teror (Pino de Teror) and visit other, interesting villages on Gran Canaria.

On the webpage of Grancanariaexcursions.com you can book day trips and half day trips on the island as well as boat trips on the Atlantic Ocean.

If you are interested at the excursions of Grancanariaexcursions.com, you can have a look on their website below:
Grancanariaexcursions.com

One of the most favorite trips for a holiday is a sport fishing boat trip. Therefore you find at your disposal a modern boat with space for up to six sport fishers. This boat is called Blue Marlin 3 and it is as well available for a private charter. You have the possibility to join a trip on the Blue Marlin 3 without being a sport fisher. A boat trip with Blue Marlin 3 can be a spectacular holiday experience and you can be witness of great fishing.

If you would like to know more about sport fishing trips on Blue Marlin 3 ahead the costs of Gran Canaria, you can join the website below: Blue Marlin 3

On Cosascanarias.com you find Audio/TV items, pets and pet accesories as well as goods for house and garden. For all who are interested in antiques, Cosascanarias.com sometimes has attractive offers. Cars and accesories are as well anounced on this webpage.

Another rubric on the page of Cosascanarias.com ist Real Estate, where you can find offers for properties and rental objects in the area of the Canary archipelago.

If you are looking for private contacts with people to share leisure time and hobbies, you can have a look at the announces on Cosascanarias.com.

Vacations, journeys and excursions are as well offered on this variable website. There is as well a category about employment on the Cosascanarias.com site.

Cosascanarias.com is lika a virtual market place on the Canary Isles, which offers you anything you can imagine.

If you are intersted or you are looking for something, you can have a look at their site: Cosascanarias.com

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.

To improve efficiency, director Francisco Macho confirmed an expandation of Gran Canaria Airport completed by the year 2020. The expandation will effect an increase of flight operations up to 80 flights per hour and is to be realised in three steps.

The first construction phase should be finished in 2011 containing the extension of parking sites. The second period includes the constitution of a third runway.

For this purpose the motorway GC-1 will be diverted. Start of construction is in 2015. Five years later the expandation of the airport should be completed implying the launch of the new runway.

After this the Gran Canaria Airport will be able to handle over 15 million passengers per year.

Several beaches are visited everyday by hundreds of tourists. You can either sit in the sun, have a nice bath in the very clean water or one can do all kinds of watersport activities.

Puerto Mogan was build around the port and is a typical fishing village. People say that you will find no fresher fish in the restaurants then in Puerto Mogan. Some of the best fish restaurants of the island are situated in the village.

Because of the channels that reach from the port towards the village, Puerto Mogan is called Venice of the south.

Even though there is a huge frequency of tourists comin to Puerto Mogan every year, the village kept its typical fisher-village-identy. One reason might be that it is not allowed to build houses that are higher then two levels.

If you love nature, then you should go and see the “Parque Natural de Ojeda, Inagua y Pajonales“, which is just next to Puerto Mogan. This park has a wonderful landscape and very interesting flora and fauna.

In this context approximately 20 kilometres (42%) of the altogether 48 kilometres long route will take their course subterrestrial, further 3.7 (7%) kilometres will be made up of crossovers. The remaining distance of about 24,28 kilometres (51%) shall be covered abovegroundly.

Up to now 9 stages are regarded as fix points, such as Parque de San Telmo (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), the hospital Insular, Jinamar, Telde, the airport, Carrizal, Arinaga, Vecindario and finally Playa del Ingles.

Nevertheless, the basically given approval of the isle administration does not state concrete aspects concerning the real start of construction of the train connection because a significant amount of details has to be clarified yet.

With this project idea other communes were also made considering similar ventures. Arranging a study checking the actual feasibility of an additional connection to Agaete in the north of the isle as well as the efficiency and profitability of the “Gran Canaria- Express” is the essential challenge at this time, Román Rodríguez declared at a press conference.

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

For the past eight years, the Parque de Santa Catalina – a city square close to spectacular the Playa de las Canteras beach – has been the heart of the festival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
During these 3-4 days, you can not only enjoy various live musical performances, but also workshops, stalls, night shows, DJ sessions, as well as children events.

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.

Now, the festival attracts crowds of fans and artists. What is more, it promotes the international artists and boosts their careers.

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”.

The “Aquasur” finally turned into “Aqualand” in the course of the years and makes the largest leisure park of the isle by now. Covering a surface area of about 90.000 square metres this theme park aims at offering a great amount of water- based attractions such as for example more than 30 water slides. There is a certain area addressing at children which also contains a great variety of the park’s mascot, the “Aqualand”- ape.

Another amazing attraction is the famous “Tornado”, a closed flume entertaining visitors by presenting light- and sound effects while sliding. Furthermore there are tourist features like the “Mamut” for four persons, the “Crazy Race” with nine parallel water slides, a “mini park” for kid, the two “Kamikaze” slides (meaning high speed), “Rapids” as special rafting adventures as well as “Aquamania”, “Congo River” and a swimming pool with artificial waves for relaxing.

Situated at a tropical oasis in the southern part of the isle “Aqualand” is not far away from Maspalomas and is open to the public all- season because of its advantageous constantly warm temperatures.

Without renting a hire car the amusement park is approachable by using public transport. So there are two bus routes, one of them line 45 (Playa del Ingles / San Agustin) and the other one line 70 (Puerto Rico / Faro Maspalomas).

Gran Canaria’s landscape varies from desert, like dunes, over pinewoods to ~2000m high mountains in the centre of the island. The big variety of landscapes available on this relatively small island invites visitors to go hiking or even to discover by backpacking.

In additon, the cathedral of Santa Ana and the boulevard Calle Mayor de Triana in Las Palmas, the capital of the island, are very popular destinations for culture-interested visitors.

The Palmitos Park near Maspalomas is a beautiful botanical garden which also acommodates monkeys, crocodiles, an orchid house, an aquarium with different species of fishes and coral displays, and Europe’s largest butterfly house.

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.

You can pick from anything really – sailboat or catamaran are the most usual posibilities. The many harbors and marinas along the island offer something for anybodys taste.

Excursions for a whole day are a popular break from relaxing on the beach and you can choose to either explore the waters close to the island and get some spectacular views, or go out further and really get your feet wet in the clear, blue ocean.

One of the most popular cruises are trips to watch dolphins. The boats are usually equipped with binoculars for early spotting of these majestic animals.

Few other places in Europe offer such a unique opportunity and you’re always welcome to go snorkeling or diving and explore the mysteries of the sea.

Dinner cruises are a personal favorite as there is almost nothing that compares to seeing a beautiful sunset when you’re out on the ocean. Throw in good music and a wonderful meal and you truly have a perfect evening.

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.

In Arucas they are distilling original canarian rum. You should have a shot at this. It’s delicous!

Between Gáldar and Agaete you will find a lot of caves. These are the places, the aboriginal Canarians, called “Guanches“, were living in.

The most spectacular one, I think, is the “Cueva Pintada” placed in Gáldar. You will discover cave-paintings in white, red and black colour.

The biggest cave you will see in Tunte ( San Bartolomé de Tirajana), which has been the aboriginals living room and granary.

The small and pretty city, with it’s 56.000 friendly inhabitants offers you different options to spend your time as interesting as possible.

See the awesome landscape with the rocks and green fields, blotched with flowers.
Get impressed by the magnificent Costa de Agaete!

Visit the old castle of Santa Lucia de Tirajana and get in deep touch to Gran Canarian history!
Charter a boat at Puerto de Mogan and enjoy the ocean or catch your own fish for dinner!
Rent a bike and make a trip on your own or cruise leaded by one of the locals through the villages around.

Iff you don’t like any action like this lay down at the beach and relax.

Nearly everything is possible there and people are very friendly and helpful.

For dinner you should try Mirador de Sta. Lucía, its C/ Maestro José Enriquez Hernández,

The dunes are located near the popular town of Maspalomas on the south coast of Gran Canaria and can be reached easily from there.

The region is noteworthy, as it boasts some unique plants and species of animals that are native to that area and show ties to Africa.

The lagoon of Maspalomas, which is located in the middle of the dunes, is a major bird nesting center and popular for nature lovers and bird watchers.

The contrast between the dry, yellow coloured dunes that touch the horizon and the blue ocean beyond is truly spectacular and the dunes offer some of the best and most unique hiking opportunities on the whole island.

Recently, tourism has become a bit of a problem, but great measures have been taken to preserve the fauna and flora while allowing a tourism with it´s limit.

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.

Gran Canaria has become a cosmopolitan island where all over the year numerous cultural events take place everywhere on the island. Many events of music, dance, theatre and cinema or different festivals and many carnival shows and religios events are taking place in Gran Canaria.

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.

That is why you can find a lot of tourism here with a lot of hotels, appartments, restaurants, shops and tourist information points and other facilitys.

So you have to keep in mind that economically Playa del Ingles has elevated prices as it is usual for places frequented by tourists.

Playa del Ingles is especially favoured by gay people. If you like to have a drink or a party, you should take a look at the mall called Yumbo-Center.

If you prefer a calmer place for your holiday you should avoid the huge cities of Gran Canaria and visit the small villages abroad from the tourism, where you can join the traditons of the island.

It is beautifully situated on the southwest of the island and has retained much of its original charm. You wont find rambling hotel complexes here, as the government has forbidden any new buildings which are over two storeys tall. You will find a much cozier ambiance than in lots of similar villages.

Puerto de Mogán boasts a very nice fishing harbor which is connected to the lively marina through a number of canals.

That also earned the village its nickname – “Venice of the Canaries“. Along the marina you can find a multitude of restaurants and inviting bars, which are a popular stopover for yachts on their way to cross the atlantic.

Fridays are especially lively with a weekly market that attracts people from all over the island.

Additionally, it’s the perfect starting place for ferry rides to Puerto Rico and Arguineguin.

And the hills surrounding the village offer a wonderful opportunity for hikers and for those who like trekking.

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.

All the Canary Islands, also Gran Canaria are known because of numerous events and celebrations. Each commune has its own patron saint celebration and other special events. And that´s why all over the year there are celbrated several fiestas fro several reasons in several places.

is known to be very bad tasting. Though the sanitary quality of the water is acceptable already, enough to be drunk, the taste is not as good to be comparable with bottled water. This is about to change.

José Luís Talavera, the production director of ‘Emalsa’, Las Palmas‘ water company, stated that they’re testing a new system at the ‘Las Palmas III‘ desalination plant which will be working in a matter of more or less a month. This new system will treat the water to achieve a better taste of it, for now its rather disgusting than tasteful.

Well, that is good news. Its only thought to be done in Las Palmas at first, for its very expensive to be done anywhere else. Either way, great news, one step more towards future.

the night of sunday, a pipe which supplies the Unelco Power station with fuel-oil, the one situated at the entrance of Las Palmas, got damaged, causing a yet unknown amount of fuel-oil to get out and affect a shore stretch of 600m at the ‘Las Gaviotas’ beach near ‘Jinamar’. The same night ‘Disa’, the company in charge of the supply, was alerted of this problem aswell as the ‘Guardia Civil’ and the local environment office.

Though, there was barely nothing to do until the next day when the diggers started to clean the sand and the adjacent land, which luckily acted as a ’sponge’, impeding huge ammounts of fuel-oil getting into the water. The cleaning works still continue today as this last two days the workers have been removing as much as possible with shovels and their bare hands. Tomorrow they will continue but with pressurizee vapor stream guns.

Here are some pictures i managed to take:

Really sad , lets just hope they’re able to clean all that mess up… :S

PICTURE SOURCE : www.canarias7.es – Borja Suárez

wasn’t hard enough, as people give up all their savings for just an opportunity to make it alive to a 1st world country, to try for a better life, risking their lives and normaly resulting in an almost certain repatriation, things like this unluckily happen more often every time.

The tragedy happened yesterday at daybreak when a ‘patera‘, those small, unstable boats, subsaharian immigrants use to get here from Africa, arrived at the ‘risco verde‘ beach in Agüimes at darkness, or at least that is what the occupants thought. What really happened is that they docked to an underwater rock formation, 20 meters off shore, which the immigrants thought to be the beach, but which in reality was surrounded by 2 meters(6 feet) of water, causing 10 of the 16 immigrants to drown.

The Chief of the ‘GEAS‘, the special group for scuba activities from the ‘Guardia Civil‘(one of our police corps), Juan Ortega Machín said that it wasn’t clear that the reason for them to drown was that they couldn’t swim since, even if they could, they all arrive exhausted and numb, packed with clothes and tend to drown instantaneously.

According to the ‘GEAS‘, 5 of the 10 casualties were said to be between age 16 and 20. The other 6 occupants survived and were taken to the hospital affected with hypoglycemia and hypothermia.

Really sad

Not a ‘million dollar, baby,’

but 380 mil. € is the estimated budget of the project for the new Gando Airport Runway. The president of the Gran Canaria Council, José Miguel Pérez, advanced yesterday some details of the project that soon will be presented by the ‘furtherance ministry’.

The time-frame is estimated to be 38 months but the beginning hasn’t been determined yet. The new runway will be connected to the actual one and will have a length of 1.100 meters and will also be suitable for class F aircrafts, like the new Airbus A380.
This new runway will make Gran Canaria a very important enclave for trans atlantic flights.

Well…, though good for us on the one side, the environmental impact of this will be also considerable.

naturist association has been demanding a nudist area at the ‘Las Canteras‘ beach in Las Palmas for years, an idea that is now being overthought by the local coastal councillorship. Last July 15th was the international “swimsuitless day” and due to this the canary islands naturist association (Aniscan) wanted to state their claim for a nudist area at the ‘Las Canteras‘ beach.

Paco Ojeda, the president of Aniscan, is greatful that the Las Palmas council is going through this idea, which he stated would be a great touristic appeal for those naturists who decide to stay at the south of Gran Canaria since there are only nudist areas in this part of the isle.

Well, good news for those who like to hang around the beach in their birthday suit

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.

that the fire, though still active, is ‘under control’. It has affected 20.000 hectares and about 5000 people who start to get back to their homes progressively.

Beside the firemen/women, the emergency intervention group, civil protection and the red cross, the gando UME (military emergency unit) took also part in the extinction works with help from units from Valencia, Zaragoza and Madrid.

This has unfortunately been the worst natural disaster ever for Gran Canaria.

listening to the constant radio reports about the fires i didn’t realize how close the fire was to Maspalomas until my mother gave me a call and told me: “…go out and take some pictures of the red sun…”. So i took my cam and went outside and saw that the smoke was almost over us. The smell of burnt wood was impossible to go unnoticed:

I couldn’t really see much, so i took my car and went to higher grounds, i made it a few kilometers above ‘El Salobre’, the neighbourhood over ‘El Tablero’. Here is what i saw:

Really sad

which was aparently controlled, was stoked up due to the high temperatures and the extreme wind that hit us last night. The municipality of Mogan got the worst part, since there have been people evacuated from their homes to avoid human casualties. Almost 60 to 70 homes have been already affected by the fire and around 2000 people evacuated. The towns of Ayacata, La Plata, Veneguera, Barranquillo de San Andrés and Cercados de Araña are within the heavily affected area.

The area burnt until yesterday was about 3500 hectares, wich should be unfortunately way over 4000 hectares. Lets hope all the firemen and all volunteers manage to extinguish it as soon as possible.

Some of the evacuated people shelter at the beach in ‘Mogan Playa’ were the ashes carried by the wind fall to their feet.
In Maspalomas we had 42º degrees at midnight with extreme strong wind gusts and now we are at 47º.