Colin’s son, Neil, was flying in this afternoon to spend some with his dad and see us off tomorrow. After the chores were done, we still had time to kill before Neil’s arrival. We walked a few blocks north to the commercial district and meandered around, killing time. Here is the yacht club, which we passed on the way to the center. This wins the most unique yacht club building façade award.

We wandered into a department store called El Corte Ingles that has a grocery store, curious to see how it stacks up against our new favorite grocery store, Mark’s & Spencer’s. In most ways, El Corte Ingles is your typical nice grocery store, comparable to Carrefour that we have mentioned in previous postings. But it does have a lot of high end specialty products, including a gift basket section. Almost every single gift basket had an Iberian Ham in it. Wow, it must be popular. We made our way through the store and found an entire Iberian Ham department. Lucky us, they were on sale, down from $145 USD each to only $119 USD each, with the purchase of a particular brand of wine, olive oil or sausage. And, they even have the special holders in stock. If you look carefully at the photo, you can see the little hooves on each of the legs.

Colin had a look around the rest of the store and reports they stock the most diverse selection of goods he has ever seen before. In addition to the usual clothing, shoes, cosmetics and house wares departments all department stores, they also have a marine section with full SCUBA gear and life rafts, a camping section with the usual tents and sleeping bags, a car accessory section with oils, radio, helmets, and a full range of Honda motorcycles and scooters. Then we went to Mark’s & Spencer’s and were devastated to find this one only stocks clothes. We’ll do our passage stock up at El Corte Ingles, we suppose.

Neil met us in front of El Corte Ingles shortly after and we hopped on a red sightseeing bus like the one we had taken in Mallorca. Conveniently, it picked up right in front of the department store. Las Palmas is a larger city than we realized, quite sprawling. Like Mallorca, there are new and modern buildings alongside historic 18th century era buildings. And when we say modern buildings, we mean most of them are quite literally in the modernist style. There are a lot of interesting, cool looking newer buildings all over Las Palmas. Overall, from what we saw, it looks to be relatively clean and nice, no different from any other small city. From Lonely Planet’s description as a drug addled town filled with shady characters, we were expecting it to be more run down. Here is a traffic circle in the city center.

The first stop on our tour was up to a view point with panoramic views of the waterfront. We could see Kosmos down below us. The hill is a residential area with mostly cute cottage style homes. Most look like they are small multi-family dwellings with maybe 2 – 4 units.

On the way back down the hill we went by Doramas Park, a nicely landscaped area with an art gallery and a historic hotel. The hotel is the fanciest in Las Palmas, with a black tie only casino and real Turkish baths. Apparently, the area surrounding the park is the high rent district. The east side of the park borders the south marina entrance, so clearly we are not in as seedy of an area as we had originally thought. The first photo is the park, the second is a building across the street, and the third is a town square in front of some government administration offices.

From there the bus took us down to the historic district, where most of the buildings are 18th century era structures, possibly even older. We got off here and wandered around. Like most old cities, the streets are narrow, the buildings are closely set together, there is a huge cathedral, a few fancy, formal looking buildings, and couple nice public squares. The first photo is some houses. The second is called the Gabinete Lierario, a historic building that used to be a theater and is now a private club. The very orange building is a farmer’s market.

One of the things that has struck us as amusing is the Canary Islands mascot is dogs, and there are depictions of assorted breeds of dogs all over Las Palmas. Here are a Neil and Colin petting some statues in one of the town centers. And these were only 2 of the many dog statues there.

Earlier in the day, the weather had been fairly nice, warmer with less clouds. As the day progressed, it got colder and gloomier, and within a few minutes of getting off the bus, it started to rain. We took shelter in a nearby restaurant and ordered lunch.

After lunch the rain had stopped. We got back on the bus, which took us west towards the west coast on a road in a small valley between two hills. This road was a former river that had been diverted. On the south side is the Las Palmas Police station, which was originally built and used as a prison. On the north side and farther along on the north side, the hills are covered with bright, cheerful, colorful housing. They are obviously low end, small and boxy and Colin says they look distinctly North African in style. They were originally built for the dockworkers and sailors, who came from all over, including a lot of Moors. Before the river was diverted there must have been a dock on the west coast at the mouth of the river.

The bus made a U-turn shortly before getting to the west coast and went down to the waterfront, then followed the major highway north along the water past the marina to the Muelle de Santa Catalina. This is the quay the cruise ships dock at and there is a big shopping mall and attractive town square at the base of the quay. This area is actually man made land. The land to the north used to be a separate small island off the coast of Las Palmas, so they filled it in. Las Palmas was naturally a small peninsula, and in filling in the land, turned Las Palmas into large, funny shaped peninsula. Apparently, this area used to be all commercial maritime facilities, such as warehouses, and they have been working on revamping and modernizing it. The second photo is of the museum of science and technology, located in an old warehouse that has been modernized.

We passed by a nice beach on the west side of the narrow peninsula, and a nice park kind of in the middle of the east and west sides as we headed back towards the city center and exited the bus back at El Corte Ingles. We hadn’t stopped at any more of the stops for a few reasons. First of all, we still had things to do today and we couldn’t sightsee too late into the day. Second, the cold and rain made walking around outside less enticing. And third, none of the attractions sounded like things that we would be devastated to miss out on. Yes, some sounded interesting, and if we had more sightseeing time we would have liked to have gone to them, but only if we had more time.

We went to the grocery store and did an immense stock up. Our shopping trolley was literally overflowing with all the food. Colin had already been braced for what we like to eat at sea, but Neil seemed to be genuinely shocked by the copious amounts of chocolate, cookies, ice cream and other sweets. And there was not a single veggie in the bunch, unless you count the frozen vegetarian mini pizzas. Mom and dad, please disregard this paragraph.

We took a taxi back to the boat, then Neil and Colin went out for father/son bonding time while Eric and Christi continued on chores and went to bed early.

At 0800, we pulled out of our slip and headed to the fuel dock to top off. A big, custom passagemaker power boat and a small sailboat, both American flagged, had just beat us to the dock. The passagemaker was loading up with fuel for their crossing and would be there for a long time. Fortunately, they let us raft up next to them. The hose was long enough to reach our boat. We only took 1200 liters, but it took a long time because the pump wasn’t very fast. We put in every last drop we could fit in there. Fuel was 74 Euro cents a liter ($3.91 USD a gallon). We always put biocide into the fuel, and this time we also added Stanadyne fuel conditioner, as well. We brought the Stanadyne from San Diego and have been dragging it all around the world with us, only using it for the three big ocean crossings and after our Egypt fueling where the fuel was going to be sitting for a long time. Here is a shot of the marina from the fuel dock.

After we were done fueling, we headed over to the anchorage so Christi could clean the bottom. Despite the fact that the water in the marina is crystal clear with lots of schools of small fish swimming around, she refuses to get in the water in the marina. Since the water here isn’t nearly as warm as in the tropics, she covered every inch of her body for warmth, and even put on two hoods.

The waterline has a layer of green algae growth on the strip of bottom paint that sticks out above the waterline when we are not weighed down by fuel/water. In the front it came off reasonably easy, but in back it is thicker growth and stuck on like glue. She focused on the front since the back isn’t going to adversely affect our speed as much as the front will. The bottom looked pretty good, with a thin layer of brown slime in some spots that came off easily. The propellers and keel coolers were covered in growth. Most of it is the wormy shaped growth, with not that many round barnacles. Sigh. Christi thoroughly scraped the areas that really mattered, such as the propeller blades and between the metal ridges on the coolers. She decided not to worry too much about areas like the propeller shaft and the outside of the keel coolers. She was down for about 1 ½ hours. The current had really picked up and she was too tired to keep fighting the current that was getting stronger and stronger. Plus her arms were tired and she was getting cold. Figuring that it was a “good enough” cleaning, she called it quits.

We pulled back into the marina. Boats have been leaving every day, and now it is fairly empty in the marina. We picked a wide spot where no one was close to us on either side. Once we were tied up, we went to lunch at a tapas bar at the opposite end of the marina. We had some good stuff. We tried bravea, small round potatoes quartered and deep fried like French fries. They were topped with two sauces, one called mojo that was slightly spicy and a more traditional aioli. The two mixed together were fabulous. We also tried octopus “dani” style, which was marinated octopus and shrimp served cold with heavily seasoned chopped tomatoes. We got an avocado salad, which turned out to be pieces of avocado covered with the same chopped and seasoned tomato. Probably the best dish of the bunch were pork strips with cooked apples in a sweet, almost syrupy sauce that was to die for good. The apples in the sauce was like a dessert. The pork was probably oven baked, though it is possible it was pan fried. We noticed that they have a pig leg on the bar, too, though this one isn’t in as plain a view as the other two places we have seen them. What is up with these pig legs? Is this some kind of Canary Islands specialty ham product?

After lunch it was back to the grind. Eric did notice the tiniest of leaks on the cam shaft vent on the main engine and realized it was a broken O ring, probably broken in Malta while the valves were being adjusted. The men ran to the store to pick up and O ring and five minutes later it was changed. They also cleaned the anti-siphon valves that stop water from coming into the toilets from outside. They squeak at sea, and Eric thought cleaning them might stop the squeaking.

Christi did more cleaning. Something that we have forgotten to mention before is that we get lime deposits on all the indoor metals, probably from the salt and moisture in the air. Christi’s project de jour was polishing the indoor metals.

We went to dinner at a restaurant in the marina complex that we have already eaten at several times now. We hadn’t noticed a pig leg there, but this time we had our eyes peeled. And there it was, discreetly tucked in a corner of the bar. We have had the same waiter a few times now, and he has come to be quite friendly. So we asked him what the deal with the pig leg is and he explained it is Iberian Ham. He said it is a standard food in all of Spain and the whole leg is how it is always comes. Hmmm, so is what makes this ham so special that it comes as a whole leg?

So, onto the food… All olives taste different depending on how what they are cured in. Most are cured in some kind of brine solution, are salty, and have a distinct olivy taste. Tonight we tried the most different olives we have ever had. The olivy taste was incredibly light, there was zero bitterness, zero saltiness, and it was made with a mix of seasonings that aren’t normally used in olives. We suspect that if you were blindfolded, you wouldn’t identify the food as an olive.

We ordered a squid appetizer. Octopus came out. Fortunately, we like octopus as much as squid and it was excellent. Christi ordered fiduea, a vegetarian pasta. It was served like paella, in a deep dish pizza pan with the vegetables decorating the top. It was an angel hair pasta in an Asian stir fry sauce with stir fried veggies. Eric got duck. It was a huge piece and very tender. Colin was disappointed with his dinner. He ordered steak, which turned out to be a small piece served with French fries, which was kind of low brow for such an upscale place. We tried a local brand of wine made in nearby island of Lanzarote called Malvasia. We got a glass of both a sweet and a dry white wine that were excellent. Colin got a bottle of red wine from northern Spain called Vina Ardanza that was so lovely that we ordered another half bottle so we could all have some. Eric tried a unique dessert called a Dracula. It came in a glass. There was a layer of pureed berries at the bottom, a layer of cola with chopped ice, and a thick layer of whipped cream, with Pop Rocks sprinkled all over the cream.

Eric loved it, probably mostly because of the Pop Rocks Oh, the childhood memories Pop Rocks brings.

In the morning, Eric upgraded the software on our website. And, of course, a host of things stopped working. So he wound up spending most of the day fixing the problems. When everything was finally working again, he installed a fan in the forward stateroom directly in front of one of the dorad vents. The weather forecast for our Atlantic crossing is strong wind from the rear. Our engine room is “negatively pressurized” which means the air goes outside and not into the rest of the boat. When we get a lot of wind blowing in through the back vents, the engine room becomes “positively pressurized” and the hot, smelly engine room and bilge air blows into the staterooms. It can get unbearably hot and stuffy down below. The logic of the fan install is the fan will maximize the dorad vent’s air flow, circulating the fresh air into the rest of the downstairs. Please keep in mind that the stuffiness and smell is only an issue with strong tail winds. Other than that, it is usually fine downstairs.

On a side note, sometimes we wonder about how much fresh air the dorade vents really brought in until the weather turned cold. We have found out that every time there is a gust of heavy wind outside, a blast of icy air shoots through the downstairs.

Colin tightened all the screws on the boat. Mike had done that for us before the Indian crossing and we forgot to thank him for it on the blog. Thanks Mike and Colin! The vibration of the boat makes some screws loosen up, and if already loose, 19 solid days of vibration could lead to problems. We decided it was better to be safe and make sure everything is tight. Then Colin scrubbed all the dirt off the engine, which was a big job.

Christi continued spring cleaning.

We did venture out to get dinner, heading north towards the town center. Before actually making it to the center, we found a restaurant that looked like it would be good. It wound up being OK. Almost as soon as we sat down, the waiter hassled us to order right then. We asked for a few minutes to look over the menu, and he was back 30 seconds later, pressuring us to make a decision right then. Colin ordered a dish, and was told they were out of it. He ordered something else and the waiter told him no, get this instead. He wound up with a dish we have seen on several menus called pan fried peppers. It was a big plate full of whole mild chili peppers pan fried in olive oil and coated with lots of sea salt. They were good, but being as they were salty, you could only eat so much. Eric ordered fish tacos and got a platter of bite size pieces of white fish in a spicy green salsa, served with small whole potatoes. It was good, but not even close to what we were expecting. He also got mushrooms sautéed with big pieces of garlic, another popular tapas item in Spain. They were strong. Christi got Mexican chicken, which turned out to be breaded chicken in a bland brown gravy sauce, served with white rice and French fries. It was about as far from Mexican as you can get, and honestly was gross.

On the way back to the boat, we passed another restaurant, and from the door we could see a big pig leg mounted behind the bar. Hmmm, so that pig leg from the other night wasn’t an isolated incident. This requires further investigation.

And, since we are doing boat chores and maintenance, we thought we’d answer a couple related blog questions.

Q: Does Nordhavn provide a users manual that guides you through what work/maintenance needs to be done, some kind of checklist with instructions of how to do it? Or is this something you just figure out on your own? Maybe a combination of both?

A: Yes, Nordhavn does provide a comprehensive manual that is custom written for our boat. It has a maintenance checklist and recommended intervals, and it describes how to do some of the work. The engines, stabilizers, appliances, etc., also have manuals, which usually have specific instructions. If we are unsure, we just send and e-mail to Nordhavn or the manufacturer, and we get clarification. Usually it is all about having the right tools available to get the job done.

Q: Why didn’t you order spare main engine gaskets from Nordhavn when you were in Turkey and had ordered parts for the stabilizers? It seems like Nordhavn could have sent you the gasket at that time.

A: The stabilizers are not made by Nordhavn. The boat comes standard without stabilization and you can choose any kind of stabilization you want as an extra option. We chose American Bow Thruster active fin stabilizers. We dealt with ABT, not Nordhavn, regarding the stabilizer repairs.

As for the gaskets, we could have ordered them from Nordhavn at any point, but we just didn’t think about it. The gasket actually went bad after we left Turkey.

Christi has been doing spring cleaning. Knowing nothing will be cleaned for three weeks, she wants to get as everything as clean as possible before we go.

The other important thing is we went through all the emergency and safety gear on board. We made sure everyone knew exactly what we have and where it is located. This was a good review for Eric and Christi. Since we never use those things, it is easy to forget about them. We also reviewed emergency plans.

We are ashamed to admit that we only left the marina once, and that was to go to a restaurant literally across the street from the southern marina entrance. We have two excuses. The first is that it was windy with scattered showers both days. When it rained, it rained hard. And it was a long walk to get out of the marina, let alone go anywhere outside of it. We are pleased to report that this marina is nice and calm in all the wind. After all the rocking around in Mallorca and Gibraltar, we are extra appreciative of flat marinas.

The second is that Lonely Planet says that Las Palmas has some unsafe neighborhoods, and to take care, particularly at night. Since Las Palmas is a commercial port town, it has all the unsavory things that come with port towns, such as drugs, crime, prostitution and a high number of transients. There is a security car that constantly patrols the marina grounds and the gates all require keys, both to get in and out. Clearly, they take security seriously. We have seen many transients wandering up and down the docks asking each boat if they need crew. There are some scary looking people, too. We know that lots of boats take strangers on as crew and have no problems, but we don’t think we’d ever do such a thing. How do you know you aren’t letting Billy Zane aboard?

Anyway, the restaurant across from the marina was a fancy restaurant. Colin ordered croquettes. Out came a whole tray of little deep fried balls. We think they are potatoes wrapped around a tasty cheese and small pieces of local ham. Eric ordered a local fish called cogote de merluza. It came baked in an earthenware deep dish pan, similar to what paella is served in. It was baked in a rich tomato sauce with onion and bell pepper. We also got a side dish of asparagus and were surprised when a completely different variety of asparagus than we are used to came out. It is fat, probably about ¾ inch in diameter, short, maybe 3 inches long, white, and tender. We got a dessert called milhojas de crema that is like a mille fleur, a puff pastry with a cream center. All the food was excellent.

However, the thing that most stands out in all our minds was the ham serving station. On display out in the open for everyone to see is an entire pig leg, from buttock all the way down to the hoof. It is put inside a purpose built holder. When someone orders ham, they just slice pieces off the leg. None of us have ever seen anything like that before and we were all flabbergasted. Sadly, the photo we took of it didn’t come out.

We did go out to eat at three more different restaurants within the marina complex. One of the places was always packed, and we mean always, because they have free wifi (there is no wifi to the boats here). In a break between showers, we packed up the computer and went over there for lunch. They only had 4 indoor tables, all occupied by people with laptops and long finished beverages. We sat down at an outside table and ordered food. It started to rain. We went inside and asked them to find us a dry table. Fortunately, the waitress made a table leave to accommodate us. Actually, one table took notice of us as soon as we walked in out of the rain. They must have known that whoever had gone the longest without ordering was going to have to clear out, because they suddenly became desperate for another round of beers right then. Sadly, for some reason we couldn’t connect to their wifi. Christi ordered pasta with pesto sauce. It was your typical basil pesto, but it was served with boiled potatoes and green beans mixed in. We don’t think we’ve ever seen potatoes served with pasta before.

Of course, we tried a few other interesting foods at the other restaurants. One was a local spreadable cheese called torta de la serena, which was served with croutons. It is not as soft as cream cheese, though it is creamy, strongly flavored, and viscous. The best way to describe it is that it tastes like concentrated cheese. Unless you put only a small quantity on the crouton, it is overpowering.

We finally tried Iberian ham. In Mallorca, almost every restaurant had Iberian ham on the menu and it was invariably the most expensive thing on the menu. For the price, we were expecting it to be magical. Our favorite kind of hams are soft, like proscuitto or parma. This was tougher, closer in texture to a jerky than the standard ham we get in America. Like the cheese, it has a strong, concentrated taste, almost like a gammon. It was good, but we didn’t think it was good enough to justify the cost.

Christi and Eric also tried black pudding (AKA blood sausage) for the first time. Black pudding is literally animal blood, a thickening agent, and seasonings stuffed into sausage wrappers. It is a traditional European dish. We tried the Burgos Iberian style, typical on mainland Spain, which is made with rice as the thickening agent. They were well seasoned and surprisingly tasty. The waiter told us that the Canary Islands version uses sweeter foods as thickening agents, so the taste is completely different than the ones we tried. Colin told us that in Scotland they use oatmeal as the thickening agent, and in England they put bits of fat in there.

We also tried a dessert called “Nougat Foam” topped with pine nuts and served with pistachio flavored ice cream. It is basically what the Italians call a semifreddo, an almost ice cream like nougat served cold.

We pulled into the bay around 0830 on our clock, 0730 on the new local time, just as the sun was starting to come up. Like Mallorca, the waves were big and rough until the second we were around the corner of the breakwater into the protected water. From what we could tell on our way in, Las Palmas looks like your typical modern city. Most buildings look to be modern, blocky mid to hi rise towers. The morning was gray and gloomy, and rain looked imminent. The bay is definitely geared at commercial shipping. In the bay there looks to be some kind of barge that off loads container ships.

We called the marina on the radio when we entered the bay. They said they had space available and to tie up somewhere until we could check in at 0900. Finding a place to tie up was easier said than done. There were boats rafted together at the hospitality dock. There were boats tied up at the fuel dock. We were tempted to pull into an empty med moor slip, but we resisted and eventually found an end tie spot to tie up to temporarily.

Even though we had 45 minutes until the office opened, Eric decided to walk over there as soon as we tied up. This turned out to be a very good plan. One, it turned out to be an unbelievably long walk to the marina office. Two, there was a herd of people waiting to check in, most of whom arrived a few minutes after Eric, so he didn’t have to wait in a long line. Check in was quick, and since we are still in the EU, no visits to officials of any sort to check into the country was needed. And, the marina staff even gave him a ride back on their dinghy.

There were several floating docks that were completely empty where all the ARC boats were yesterday. Literally, at 0900 almost on the button, a conga line of boats came out of nowhere and started tying up to one particular dock on the north side of the marina. By the time Eric was back from check in at 0930, there were only a few spots left. We had been directed to the same dock, so we untied from our temporary spot and got in line. Literally, once the boat ahead of us had backed in and started tying up, we were backing in right next to them. And the minute we started tying up, the next boat in line backed in next to us. There were two marina workers making their way down the dock, helping each boat in turn. The workers made sure we were packed in like sardines, literally touching the boats on both sides of us. We aren’t sure why the marina wouldn’t let people tie up yesterday after the ARC boats left. We never asked.

We had been happy to see floating docks, and were even more happy when we found out we had two mooring lines. But for some reason, we couldn’t get one of the lines on. Eric was baffled at first, then figured out there was something wrong with the rope down at water level. One of the neighbors had his dinghy down, and Eric asked him to help us out and fix the line, which he graciously did. A few minutes later, we were properly moored on both sides.

We have actually finally gotten the hang of med mooring. It is a standard routine now, and we can do it reasonably fast and efficiently. No, were not pros, but we’re finally at least doing OK. Even so, it takes a long time to get the ropes situated just right so that the boat is the right distance from shore for the passarelle to reach. And it takes a while to get the passarelle set up.

Once we had settled in, we realized the parade of boats really weren’t coming out of nowhere. Many had been tied to inappropriate places around the marina, such as the previously mentioned fuel dock and courtesy dock. And many more were coming from the small anchorage directly north of the marina. We could see the anchorage was packed, and that was after a couple dozen boats had already left it. We are now glad we got held up in Gibraltar. We would have been nervous wrecks all the time in such a crowded anchorage.

This is a friendly place. Lots of people came by to say hi. We haven’t been to such a friendly community of boaters in a long, long time. We are even tied up near another couple from San Diego.

Once Kosmos was properly situated, we went in search of a restaurant. It was only 1030, so we weren’t sure what we would find. In Mallorca we had seen quite a few restaurants open for breakfast and we were hoping to find a breakfast place here, as well. It is a long walk to the closest marina exit, which is conveniently located next to the bathrooms. These bathrooms aren’t all that nice.

We were surprised when we exited the marina to find we were on a major highway. We walked north past the beach and anchorage until we got to a traffic light that would take us over to the other side of the highway, where all the business looked to be. Here is a photo of each side of the street, near the traffic light. You can see the anchorage in the middle and the marina in the background.

We wandered around the neighborhood aimlessly, with no clue what direction we should be going to get to the city center. This area is mostly residential apartment buildings, with only a few retail stores on the first floors. We saw a couple bars that looked like they only serve beverages, a couple restaurants that weren’t open yet, and an erotic bakery. We went into the bakery. As much as Eric loves bakery treats, especially for breakfast, he said he didn’t think he wanted any from here.

We eventually gave up on the directionless search and went back to the marina, where Eric had seen a couple restaurants open. Both were only serving cold sandwiches at the moment. We settled in at the nicer looking place and had surprisingly tasty chicken salad sandwiches.

After lunch we headed back to Kosmos to start getting ready for Colin’s arrival. Usually we don’t do anything at all the day we arrive from a passage, but since he was flying in today, we needed to make an effort. Eric quickly rinsed the boat. Christi changed the sheets on the forward bed and began tiding. After only 20 minutes, we decided we were too tired to do any more. He’d have to live with it messy.

It turns out we wouldn’t have gotten much more done before his arrival, anyway, because he arrived sooner than we expected. We spent a few hours getting to know each other, then went for a late lunch at the same restaurant. It turns out the water pump we ordered got held up in customs for a few days. He got a notice late yesterday saying they wouldn’t release the package until the $75 USD import duty was paid, and he could come and pay it this morning at the post office. Of course, his flight was early in the morning, well before the post office opened. Fortunately, the pump Colin had arranged to be hand delivered arrived according to plan. We are so thankful that Colin took the initiative to get us that pump. We could live with the one we have, but the 5.7 is so much better. Christi was having a hard time getting the shampoo out of her hair from the lack of water pressure with the 4.0.

It never did rain, but the gray and threatening clouds lingered all day.

There is an ancient Greek legend that Hercules had to go beyond the known world (marked by the Pillars of Hercules in the Strait of Gibraltar) to the paradisical Garden of Hesperides to retrieve golden apples. It is believed this mythological place was the Canary Islands. Furthermore, some believed that “Elysium”, the place where the Greeks believed the good spent their afterlife, is also the Canaries. And, many believe that the Canary Islands, along with the Cape Verde Islands to the south and Madeira and the Azores to the northeast, are all that remains of the sunken continent of Atlantis that Plato wrote about. Despite the fact that the Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans all knew of the fabled islands, the first hard evidence that any westerner landed there is in 40 AD when a North African regional king within the Roman Empire sent out an expedition.

The archeological data suggests with certainty that the islands were inhabited in 200 BC, but prior to that, the evidence is less clear. There were many different tribes, but the tribes seemed to be made up of two distinctive people groups. One group had dark hair and skin and were certainly descendents of the Berbers that are indigenous to North Africa, and the other people group was tall and powerfully built with fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Where this second group came from is a complete mystery and many theories abound. The indigenous people, called Guanches, were simplistic people. They did limited farming and herding, relying largely on hunting and gathering. Weapons were made from stone, wood and bone. Some tribes lived in caves, some lived in basic stone and wood houses. Interestingly, like the Egyptians, they worshipped a sun god and mummified nobility upon their death.

The islands were left alone until the late 1200’s or early 1300’s, when European explorers searching for gold in Africa and African slave traders made stops in the Canaries for supplies, and missionaries moved in to convert the locals. In 1402, a Norman lord named Jean de Bethencourt set out for the Canaries on his way to Africa to search for gold. He stopped in the northwest island of Lanzarote and quickly and easily conquered the island as his personal possession. In 1406, Bethencourt went to Castilla (a feudal state in what is now Spain) and convinced the king to give him money and troops to conquer all the islands for Castilla. He only managed to conquer four. De Bethencourt encouraged many Normans to settle in the conquered islands.

The indigenous people were heavily taxed and some were sold into slavery. The colonists continually squabbled with one another. Portugal attempted to lay claim to the islands, and the Vatican had to step in to settle the land dispute. Castilla won. The Castillans/Spanish (Spain was unified about this time) continued to try in vain to conquer the remaining three islands, but the locals, particularly the blondes, put up a fierce resistance. It took until 1483 to conquer Gran Canaria and 1492 to take La Palma. Tenerife probably would not have fallen had the Spaniards not brought a disease called Modorra (today believed to be influenza, pneumonia and encephalitis) to the island in 1494. The Spaniards who brought it got sick, but seemed to get over it. The Guanches became much sicker, with many dying. By 1495, the Guanches were simply too sick to fight anymore and surrendered. The Guanches had a hard time assimilating into the colonial lifestyle and religion, and the Spanish continued to ship them off as slaves. Many native Canarians voluntarily emigrated to the “New World”. The Guanches eventually faded away as a people group. Some refer to the conquering of the Canaries as a “dress rehearsal” for what was yet to come in the Americas.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set off for his Atlantic expedition from Gran Canaria, and from then on, the Canaries became a major shipping stop along the trade routes, bringing great wealth. The islands also grew sugar, and produced wine and cochineal (red dye made out of a certain type of bug that is still used today). From the mid-1600’s until almost 1800, the English would every now and again try to conquer the Canaries from the Spaniards, but never succeeded. The Ottoman Turks and the Dutch both tried, too.

In 1936, the much beloved General Francisco Franco was transferred from Morocco to the Canaries. Four months later, Franco executed a plot to overthrow the Spanish government. He quickly overthrew the Canary government with virtually no fighting, then headed off to Morocco to lead troops into the civil war he had just launched. The “years of hunger” hit the Canaries especially hard, and thousands emigrated. When Franco opened up the country to tourism, the Canaries flourished as a tourist center. With nicer weather than mainland Spain, it attracts many northern Europeans. Tourism accounts for 32% of the islands total GDP.