Las Palmas

The archipelago's capital, with 352.641 inhabitants, surprises the visitor with its highly original and individual architecture showing influences of all five continents, and its colorfully painted houses. Ambience is very lively, being evidence of a population of southern temperament not always taking life at its most serious. This city offers attractive festivities and highly recommendable cuisine, regional and international.

Less than 20 kilometres from the Airport, moving North, lies the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the capital of the island, situated in the extreme NE. The city was recently included in the American Consumer Travel Association magazine as one of the ten cities with the best climate of the world. The motorway runs along the seafront past the old quarters of the city towards the mountains of La Isleta, the heart of the Puerto de La Luz which has always been the driving force and hub of trade in the archipelago, attracting all the fishing activity from the Sahara and servicing the most important fishing fleets of the world, amongst these, the Japanese and the Koreans.

The road from the airport is a trip back in Time. First, we drive through the original site of the city in Vegueta on the left bank of the former gulley of Guiniguada, up which now runs the motorway to the centre of the island. The former Town Hall, the Diocesis Bishopric and the Courts of Justice are all centred round the Plaza de Santa Ana which is presided over by the massive monument of the Cathedral. The narrow streets which remain the same as ever take us hither and thither through the museums, churches and airy mansions of the Past. After crossing what was the former gulley of the Guiniguada, we enter into the hustle and bustle of the busy shopping area of Triana ending in Bravo Murillo where still, halfway through the XIXth century, a XVIth century wall, running from the sea to the Castle of Mata , marked the confines of the former city. In Bravo Murillo, the quarter known as Arenales (Sandlands, literally in English) began and this ran into Ciudad Jardín (the Garden City) the model of a 'linear city' and the site of the Jardines de Doramas and the majestic Hotel Santa Catalina. Thereafter followed the district of Santa Catalina, then the Puerto de La Luz and Las Canteras.
La Isleta was formerly united to Gran Canaria via a thin sandy isthmus which disappeared at high tide. The Isthmus has now been totally built upon and to its right lie the modern and dynamic port facilities whilst to the left, snake round the five kilometres of the Playa de Las Canteras. At the North-West tip of the beach, the ‘Alfredo Kraus’ Auditorium and Canary Islands Convention Centre towers majestically above the Atlantic.

 

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