Gran Canaria: An Unforgettable Nature and Nurture Journey
There was a time when there were more tomatoes in Gran Canaria than tourists. Then European tourists discovered the island and ate all the tomatoes. What did the farmers of Gran Canaria do then? They grew more tomatoes! So, tomato-hungry tourists . . . what are you waiting for? Gran Canaria is ready for you.
In the Canary Islands, tourism has eclipsed agriculture as the leading industry. To lure tourists, a few of the volcanic islands engaged in some unusual practices. In Tenerife and Lanzarote, where destination beaches were lacking, the shorefront was cleared of rough lava rocks before tons of sand were brought over from the Sahara Desert to create the beaches European tourists craved.
It was a “Field Of Dreams” scenario, where if you build it, they will come. Since the 1970s, tourism supplanted the agricultural products of tomatoes, sugarcane, and bananas, to name a few, to become the number one revenue source.
Gran Canaria experienced a similar economic shift without having to build the beaches. A tsunami in the 1700s delivered the sand free of charge. The south side of the island is home to the Maspalomas Dunes Reserve – 10,000 acres of sand dunes bordered by nearly two miles of wide, sandy beach protected as a nature preserve since 1987. Walking along the beach in the warm, shallow water, you can see inundating waves of sand dunes stretching to the horizon.
In the past, the dunes were open to everyone. More recently, legislation was enacted to restrict access to the dunes to a bisecting path, leaving the vast reaches untrampled and littered by tourists, most of whom never learned to leave no trace but their footprints. After years of unfettered use, it is proving hard to enforce, but locals are convinced that eventually, the pristine beauty of the dunes will be preserved.
I got to explore the beach, the dunes, and the large lake nestled on the edge of the dunes both by walking the paved promenade along the lake and the beach, then hiking the sandy path through the dunes. The birdwatching was incredible.
I even saw my first spoonbill! The people watching was fantastic too, though not all of them were clothed. I didn’t think it was considerate to walk the clothing-optional section of the beach fully clothed, so I turned around each time I spotted naturists baring it all. (Note to self – Why is it that the people who are naked in public look like they should be the ones wearing clothes?)
The beach and dunes were readily visible from my balcony at the Seaside Palm Beach Hotel and just a short walkway from there, so I had plenty of opportunity to enjoy all the surf and sand and all the great food and amenities. There were pools and gardens and an immense breakfast buffet with a jamon carving station vying with the beach for my attention. It really is a great place to stay!
But my visit to Gran Canaria wasn’t all beachcombing voyeurism, it just seemed like it sometimes. No, there were wine and rum tastings, mountain hikes to scenic vistas, historic urban walks, and everywhere there was music.
The first Music Society in Spain was created in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the 19th century, but classical music there can be traced back to native composer Mateo Guerra in the mid-1700s.
Since then, the scene has grown until now. The International Festival of Classical Music, the largest winter music festival in the world, takes place every January and February. But there is more than classical music in the air, and it’s not just during the winter.
Historically, Spain is famous for its luthiers (think Antonio de Torres Jurado – a.k.a. Torres) and the musicians who perform on their instruments. (The champion of Torres’ guitars, Andres Segovia, elevated the guitar to orchestral status.)
Gran Canaria has its own luthiers making a local stringed instrument called a timple. It is smaller than a guitar – ukulele-sized – with 5 strings and a high-pitched sound that projects well. It is rarely used to play classics, more often for folk songs or dance accompaniment.
Music filled the soundtrack of my tour. (link to video) At Agala Winery, with David Diaz and Kevin Gonzalez on a guitar and the traditional Canary Island timple we had wine and folk music. They played their original song “In the Shadow of Nublo Rock” which towered behind them, visible through the window, while we tasted wine named for the altitude of the steep terraces where the grapes were grown in this mountainside vineyard. Agala Winery, on the Gran Canaria Wine Trail, is an excellent place to taste the local wine.
There was incidental music in the luthier Carlos Felix’s guitar display we visited in the historic part of the City of Arucas, in the Plaza de San Juan near the black, neogothic cathedral-looking Church of San Juan Bautista. The curator showed off the sounds of some of the many instruments he made.
Then, over lunch at the Seaside Palm Beach Hotel, we heard an electronic violin playing over the sound system before the violinist appeared at our table to serenade us. Her Bluetooth “violin”, little more than a sensuous piece of metal sculpture with strings attached, allowed her to play wirelessly as she strolled from table to table on the outdoor patio.
High Tea at the Santa Catalina, a Royal Hideaway Hotel, included a background of cello music, where a solo musician filled the grand ballroom with exquisite sound. Talking over him was one of the last vestiges of the British Empire guiltlessly espousing the imperialism of her generation on the island while slurping cava by the glassful and scarfing up petit fours from the sumptuous tower of nibbles the hotel provided. I really enjoyed the cello.
Finally, the best musical interval came at the beautiful Auditorio Alfredo Kraus designed by the gifted Catalan architect Oscar Tusquets. Before the concert there was a tour of the building from the principal performance space where the audience was assembling, to smaller stages below that level.
Each offered superb acoustics and the somewhat hokey wall art that kept with the overall water and sea creature decorations of the main auditorium. Eventually, we reached the backstage areas where the musicians were engaged in pre-concert warmups. Hearing such a discordant cacophony made it difficult to imagine the cohesive sound that would later beguile us.
Then, at last call, when the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra members filed through a door to assemble for the concert, I was caught in their group and suddenly found myself onstage with the bass players, first looking out through the amazing backdrop of a window and then up over the assembling audience in the tiers of seats rising to the heavens. What an amazing view I thought before scrambling off the stage and into my seat.
The highlight of the concert, which was bookended with Igor Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique Op. 3 and his La Consagration de la primavera (The Rite of Spring), was the handsome young pianist Isaac Martinez Mederos, brilliantly performing Piano Concerto no. 3 in D major, op. 26 by Sergei Prokofiev. This completed the first half of the concert.
I noticed differences between audiences in the US and in Gran Canaria, but I don’t know if they extend to all of Spain, or all of Europe, for that matter. After the first movement of the Prokofiev concerto the entire audience applauded thunderously. That would never happen here, although there can be a few people who didn’t read the program offering a brief and tentative applause.
Then, after the second movement – total silence – as if the first applause and this silence were not mistakes. It was after the third and final movement that the applause almost brought the house down, but no one stood as we would here with that show of enthusiasm. Instead, they applauded loudly and hard, bringing the pianist back out on the stage twice for bows. And then something else I’d never seen before; the pianist sat down and did a short encore before the intermission! It was like icing on a cake, superfluous, but so good.
The Auditorio Alfredo Kraus is perfectly situated on the shore in the center of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows behind the stage looking west out over the ocean, covered to keep out the intense late afternoon sun as the concert started.
Sadly, we had to leave early; our schedule was very tight, but when the orchestra returned to the stage after intermission, the windows were uncovered, and the audience could regale in the Rites of Spring with the setting sun as a backdrop. Imagine the majesty and drama as the sun’s fading light illuminated the acoustically perfect hall. I was sorry we had to miss that. Next time….
When we weren’t surrounded by music, we were surrounded by the natural beauty of Gran Canaria. One day it was the shore, the next was the Sacred Mountains in the center of the island, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We hiked partway to the towering Nublo Rock, with vistas down through the valley to the ocean in the far distance, our trail lined with wildflowers and sentinel trees. Nearly half the island is protected as a natural preserve.
Another time, we walked along a narrow track skirting a mountaintop with cave homes dug into the cliff face rising to our right as the other side dropped down over the craggy ridges below. They looked like something I’d see in California, an alternative lifestyle clinging to the mountainside in a hodgepodge of colorful flowers and patios.
One was even an AirB&B. My reference to old hippies living there was quickly disparaged. Apparently, hippy does not have a good connotation there, but it is exactly what they reminded me of.
That walk ended at Torgor, a restaurant built into a cave in the mountain, too. We dined on the large patio overlooking Guayadeque Valley. It was a typical Spanish meal of so many plates of delicious appetizers – fried Padron peppers, gofio in fish broth, cheese, squid, grilled sausages – that we were full when the meat and ubiquitous plate of wrinkled potatoes with a red mojo sauce were served.
Here was a place that knew not to overcook the meat, a quality appreciated more because most Canary Island restaurants do not know what rare means. It was the perfect end to a long walk in the fresh mountain air.
For a different sort of cultural immersion, we visited the handicraft town of Ingenio to tour the Taller de Artesinia de Ingenio community center. Our visit purportedly was all about preserving the art of embroidery, which has a long history in Gran Canaria. “El Calado” embroideries were once very popular and a symbol of Canarian culture.
Today, a loosely formed group of mature women keep the tradition alive, meeting to work on their embroidery projects together, but in doing so, they achieve so much more. On our visit, the ladies were joined by young people learning the venerable art. It was exciting to see grade school and high school-aged children bent over their embroidery, exploring their abilities in a safe and nurturing environment.
In fact, while the “Caldoras” shared their passion and artistry with us, they inadvertently showed us how a community can come together to protect their vulnerable children, allowing them to grow and develop in their own ways. The community center also supports an award-winning folk dance group that has traveled to events here in the US and elsewhere around the world.
Twenty-seven-year-old Blas Diaz said he started at the center as a musician when he was three. He’s now a role model and mentor to the next generation. Other musicians, such as the ones who played at the Agala Winery, call the center home.
During our visit, two young ladies, Suadu Sene Faye and Cintia Diaz Ortega, showed off the striking gowns they made in an impromptu fashion show. And everyone there knows how to embroider. Regarding the youth of Ingenio, it does take a village, and they are doing a wonderful job!
On another inclusive note, during a tasting tour of the Arehucas Rum distillery (try their smooth-tasting Captain Kidd Rum), our guide, Cesar Arencibia, showed off the headdresses the distillery creates each year to present to the drag queen declared “Queen of the Pride Parade”. Gran Canaria has one of the largest Pride Parades in the Canary Islands, and everyone works hard to make it better every year. I was sorry to miss this year’s parade and even sorrier to think how badly we in the United States are mistreating drag queens in some parts of our own country.
So, Gran Canaria, called the “Continent Island” because it has such a diverse collection of natural wonders to show off, could be called the “Nurturing Island” because it has created a music-filled space where people are free to express themselves without fear or retribution. The food and wine were remarkable, the five-star accommodations and the scenery were incredible, but the people are the main reason I would return. They make Gran Canaria grand.
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