EUROQUEST SideTracks

The Canary Islands, we have argued, are good for more than sun & beach - and Las Palmas de GC, capital of Gran Canaria & the archipelago's only metropolis with over half a million inhabitants, is a great destination for alternative visitors any time of year, but particularly during the busy carnival season. We have previously written about the special charms of Carnival in Las Palmas as well as Gran Canaria's third largest city, Arucas. At the heart of local Las Palmas, however, and in fact of the entire center of Carnival action, lies the neighborhood of Santa catalina at the northern end of Las Palmas. It is here that global meets local, where homeless coexist with hip beach goers, and carnival revelers are seen next to surfers on the Atlantic Coast. Not seldom may one and the same person play all these various roles at different times of day & year - but it is all possible here in the district of Santa catalina, from the port on one end to the yellow sands

Most visitors to Gran Canaria arrive on the island as part of a package deal vacation and are rushed to their hotels in the South near the tourist resorts of Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles. Many thus fail to look beyond the usual routine of Sun and Beach, unable to savor the true local spirit of Gran Canaria. In previous Sidetracks articles we covered some alternative trajectories for a culturally enriching stay in the Canary Islands, including our post on a Cultural-Immersion Carnival in Las Palmas over a year ago. In two subsequent articles, we would like to shed further light on Treasures off the Beaten Track Destinations on the island of Gran Canaria. Both focus on the less touristy North of the Island and offer viable alternatives to mass tourism and monotonous beach vacations. And both are centered in and around Las Palmas de GC, the administrative and cultural capital of the Eastern Canary Islands (Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura & Lanzarote). See the full gallery o