Gran Canaria: Sunday

We arrived in Gran Canaria without any snags, though we were both quite tired given our inability to sleep on the airplanes. We decided at the last minute to rent a car (the verdict is still out as to whether or not this was a good idea, but it looks like the positives are going to outweigh the negatives). We drove straight from the airport to the south of the island. (We were worried that if we went straight to the hotel, we'd fall asleep.) To the south of the island of Gran Canaria is an area called Maspolomas. There are LOTS of beaches here, but also some sand dunes that are constantly changing. We walked out among them (we were asked to keep to the "marked paths"; you can see an example of one of the markers below; this particular path may have been missing some markers...). We then drove around to visit Fado de Maspolomas, where there was a lighthouse out on the pier and another quite popular beach. We decided that, since we had the car, we would take the scenic drive back to Las Palmas (the main city on the island, and where our hotel is). This turned out to be a harrowing experience; Tim stopped once for gas, not because we really needed it but because he wanted to calm his nerves. At one point, in the manual transmission car, he had to back up a very steep hill (from a stop), around a hairpin curve (think corkscrew) just to let a tour bus coming the other way get around the curve. You can see some views of the drive in the photos and the GPS trace of most of it, too. From the drive, we headed to our hotel, which is FABULOUS. It's an old hotel, all furnished (rooms included) with antique furniture. After showers and a brief telephone chat with Maya, we headed out to a restaurant Tim had picked out. After a 2.7 mile walk (round trip), we ended up eating in the hotel restaurant because the other one was closed. It worked out alright; the hotel restaurant was fabulous. We convinced mom and dad (who are still driving to Chicago) to stop at a Panera so we could video chat with Maya, and then we headed for bed.

Gran Canaria Day 1: Drive

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Gran Canaria Day 1: Walk to Dinner

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