Breathtaking Maspalomas desert on Gran Canaria
Maspalomas – the most popular resort in the island of Gran Canaria, which is one of the seven Canary Islands. The Canary Islands are far enough away from Europe, closer to Africa (just 100 km to Morocco). However, the Canary Islands belong to Spain, which is a part of the EU and Schengen zone.
So, Gran Canaria. This is the third largest island. When you walk along the cities and beaches, you can notice one thing, or maybe two: this is a heavenly place for rest of older people and same-sex preferences. Moreover, if you listen to conversations, it appears that only Germans are around, and sometimes you can hear Britons. It has become a tradition here that Germans, who have their lives behind, move forever to Gran Canaria, to these southern skies, or come to spend long time there, where there’s always about the same pressure, air and water temperature.
It is the city of Maspalomas, where you may find an unusual natural phenomenon in Europe – a wide desert, large dunes of sand. Not from anywhere, but from the very Sahara, which is 100 km along the Atlantic Ocean. This place is so vast that you need several hours to get from one end to another. But our acquaintance with this desert happened on the first day after arrival from Krakow. We woke up at 5 am to meet the sun, which we missed so much! So, we got ready in an hour, traced by the navigator a suggested access to the beach, and come to the end point. We were afraid to become disappointed with a small size of the desert. However, we came to the Lighthouse, which for a long time remained behind us and only hinted how far we have gone.
The ocean was playing with waves and showed its power next to us, frightening with noise and making use of the dark time of day. There’s no infrastructure in the whole desert, not to mention lanterns. All light was left behind. So we were walking with flashlights.
The desert seemed giant, high and unfamiliar to us at night. We climbed up the dunes, then down and up again. We were looking for the highest point, which opened a view of the sunrise and the desert. When it seemed that we found it, we sat in anticipation of the first rays. Tons of sand and endless waves of the ocean around. It was one of the most exciting mornings for the recent months. The very time gap in the darkness in an unfamiliar place, waiting for magic of the sun, which illuminates everything around and makes you able to see.
There are no icy nights and scorching sand in a day time in the Maspalomas desert. Everything is mild here. Sand, like glycerin, is fine and gentle. There are winds, but the sun warms you up.
That’s how we visited another world, the desert, in the middle of the ocean, near Africa.
The Desert impressed us, and didn’t disappoint with its size. It was at that time of the day when we came, when it’s the best to get acquainted with it.
The infrastructure is near the Lighthouse. And then only a giant piece only for sand that, with every strong blow of wind from Africa, steals to the center of Gran Canaria, closer to the mountains. Like eating the island in small bites.
And the ocean has more and more room for its waves.
There are several well-developed beaches along the coast, i.e. sun loungers with umbrellas, booths with vendors and rescuers. However, the beaches are mostly for gays and nudists. We have seen enough nudists, but haven’t often met gays. Actually, we didn’t hang out in public places where all people rest, or were there in the early hours. However, there are special locations only for gays. Souvenir shops sell various things in gay coloristics. That is the way of the world that Gran Canaria, except pensioners, is also a paradise for people with different orientation. And who said that there are no gays among older people) We saw them.
We came here to meet the sunrise, and at the same time observed what a small number of people get up so early to make a morning jog, meet a new wonderful day. Comparing with the number that comes in the day, it’s just miserable in the morning. You can meet different people here, single, older, tied with a long love bounds, running, walking, in sneakers, barefoot, but they all share one thing – they enjoy their lives, get inspired with a beautiful space and oceanic air.
There’s a tradition here on the beach to make figures of characters, strange abstractions, even cities that are strewed with snow, as if real. We found Bobby and Homer. Here they take care of them, abundantly water them for the sun burns all moisture during the day. Yet there are those who destroy – nobody will no longer be able to make photos with joyful Bob and other minions, because someone ripped off their heads (
The city itself is simple. It was of no interest for us. Hotels, shops, Chinese fakes and souvenirs. We were very surprised at how Europeans from the developed countries buy into Chinese rags and presentation of shopping centers, which are just ugly few-storied flea markets, which have nothing of value. There are areas in the first line of the ocean, where there are expensive hotels, famous brand shops and luxury restaurants, and a pile of perfumery products and conventional grocery markets next to them.
Maspalomas and other resort cities instill an idea into vacationers that they need to have an expensive watch. You meet gorgeous faces and stories at every step that speak that your life is bitter without this watch)
We came to the Canary Islands in December for the second time. Here everything and everywhere is decorated with Christmas cacti, you can see them on flowerbeds, windows, bushes in the garden. And they build sand cities covered with snow on the shore. That’s the whole winter in the Canary Islands. We wish we could quickly get used to the thought and feeling that you can walk in dresses and shorts in winter)
It’s perfect in the Canary Islands, if it’s cloudy during the day, a few minutes before sunset – the sun will look out anyway and say goodbye or hello vice versa! That was the case that day when we came to the lighthouse in the desert to observe the sunset. It was cloudy for an hour; we sat in a café to wait. It was still cloudy ten minutes before the sunset and we have put up with the thought that there would be no sun, were searching for something on the Internet. And then, accidentally, looked back, and the sun was watching us!
This was one of the best sunsets we have ever seen! Because it’s perfect here. Space, the lighthouse, waves on the shore make a smooth transparent surface of sand, like a strip of mirror. And almost all people left, just few remained, so nobody in the shot.
What colors! Fabulous!
When you travel to watch the world, nature, phenomena, and in our case, even shoot it all – it’s our happy and well-spent life. We don’t want to rest, we like to work hard and move forward every day!
We stayed in Maspalomas in the suits from Tisalaya Park hotel. Most hotels in these islands – are the complexes of similar composition that include cottages with a kitchen-studio, a bedroom, and a terrace. There’s a large area in the center of the complex with a pool and a restaurant for public use. If not for the kitchen, we would never opt for a hotel in the Canary Islands. Besides, you would not always find the best conditions on the airbnb, especially in some districts apartments may only be for solitude, that is, without the Internet – and we always need for work.
It’s also interesting to alternate such hotels, where your room is cleaned every day, with apartments in local houses. Each option has its pros and cons.
With love, RH.
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