Las Palmas

I was sorting through a bunch of pics that were on my camera after I was done with the ukulele stuff and I came across these. They are from a trip to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria a few months ago. My supervisor published a a paper at a conference there but was unable to attend, so I took one for the team and volunteered to spend a few days in the Canary Islands. One of the perks of being a reasonably well-funded PhD student, such as myself, is that you get to travel to cool places. Usually you have to attend at least part of a conference and give some sort of talk or something but this time all I had to do was present somebody else's paper. I was pretty relaxed about it because if the crowd slated it, it wasn't really my problem as it wasn't my work; but at the same time it was very close to my work so I was able to give the impression that I knew what I was talking about.

I did a bit of sight-seeing when I was there. Although I used to live on La Palma, I only visited Gran Canaria a handful of times: once when I was about three or four and too young to remember anything except the Sahara-like dunes at Maspalomas and a couple of times when the boat to Cádiz stopped off for a few hours in Las Palmas and we got off to have a look around. I never really got an opportunity to explore the city and get to know the place until this trip.

Most of the pictures I took were of Vegueta, which is the old town, where the original military encampment was setup to subdue the aboriginal Guanche population and claim the island for Spain. As tends to be the case, it is centered around a main square with a cathedral:


There are a number of statues in front of the cathedral of different types of dogs. They are a reference to the origin of the name of the Canary Islands (from the latin Insula Canaria, meaning the Island of Dogs).


There is a fountain near the cathedral which is unusual in that it is covered. According to the official tourist pamphlet for the city, the locals say that it is covered so that it won't get wet when it rains. I think this sense of humour is one of the key aspects that distinguish the people of the Canary Islands from the rest of Spain. It is also probably a reason why, as an Irish family, we felt quite at home when we lived there.

The same pamphlet also says that the fountain was built during a particularly prosperous time for the city (which has had many very prosperous times as it was an important port for ships sailing to the new world and was also important for ships intent on getting to the Indian Ocean before the Suez Canal was opened (or during times when it was imprudent to venture into that part of the world)). This prosperity is reflected in the buildings that surround the fountain, many of them sporting typical embellishments of the period. Although these buildings are not open to the public, if nobody is around and you are not in a large group, it is worth wandering through any open doors to see what there is to be seen. I came across a statued courtyard with an old fresco and a particularly intricately decorated doorway depicting an armoured Spanish soldier.


The rest of the old town is less opulent, but very distinctly Canarian. The following pictures show different streets in Vegueta, but they could have been taken in just about any old city in the Canary Islands. At times as I was wandering around these streets, I almost felt like I was back home in Santa Cruz de La Palma.



Unfortunately, the modern part of the city of Las Palmas is not particularly attractive (although the beach is nice) and so I didn't really take any good pictures of it. Instead, I travelled to the nearby town of Arucas, which is the home of the famous (within the Canary Islands, at least!) Arehucas rum.




The Arehucas Rum Distillery, known locally as La Fábrica (The Factory), dominates the skyline with its imposing chimney. Those who arrive for a tour, like myself, are greeted by a statue of its founder, who is the grandfather of the current managing director. The tour itself is exceptionally informal. Upon arrival, I was asked to wait in a small room, where I was joined by a Spanish and a German couple. After about ten minutes, what appeared to be the foreman arrived and asked us to follow him.

The tour began in the main bodega, where they store the oldest rum. The barrels are mostly autographed by local and international celebrities, ranging from the local Las Palmas football team to Julio Iglesias and are probably worth a small fortune by themselves. We were guided around the barrels, then through to the factory itself where we saw the workers operating the various machines used for actually making the rum and packaging it in boxes. There didn't appear to be a script or anything; instead we wandered through and asked questions as they occurred to us. Occasionally we were introduced to somebody operating an interesting machine, but other than that the few workers present just went about their business. This was a significant contrast to other brewery/distillery tours that I have been on where there is a guided and scripted tour. I think I prefer the Arehucas approach.

The tour ended in the tasting room. The Factory makes several different varieties of rum and a few other liqueurs and spirits. Our guide opened a bottle of all except the 25-year-old variety, poduced a tray of shot glasses and asked us to help ourselves. I sampled four or five different varieties, all of which were delicious. The best part was that there was no suggestion of having to pay for any of it. The entire tour, from start to finish, was free. At the end of it, I visited the factory shop where I was able to buy three bottles of rum at factory prices. It is definitely the best distillery tour I have ever been on and the high-point of my visit to Las Palmas.