I had looked up Delmar Nautica address on the web, which had a promising description in the pilot book being in the industrial area of town on the edge of the port, therefore I thought it sounded big and well stocked. It was located on a long road starting at the very far end of the port in the La Isleta area (peninsular north of Las Palmas), the building number 75. We were hoping it was going to be at the Las Palmas end of the road.
We set off walking through the centre of Las Palmas stopped briefly at the El Corte Ingles supermarket / department store in the ever continuing search for English cut bacon, which is not more streak than bacon. El Corte Ingles turned out to be a big department store covering a huge area and taking both sides of the road. The supermarket was amazing, the biggest selection of fresh food I have ever seen, racks and racks of Palma ham legs, guineafowl, goose, pate, cheeses, hundreds of types of sausage, but despite the promising name (Ingles = English), no English bacon.
We carried on past the naval dock and through the edge of Plaza del Castillo de Luz , a large pubic park containing the ancient fort which is one of the oldest building in the area we have now learned. That was not obvious at the time as it is surrounded by half collapsed metal fencing covered in tattered mesh and the surrounding area is open earth with trenches everywhere. There is a half built cheap concrete panel building half pored with the metal supports sticking out the top. Not really being paraded in the way you might expect.
We stopped for lunch at the park having now walked for about 90mins, then we set off again, now only about 10mins from the start of the road. We turned in to the exit from the roundabout and had huge oil / diesel tanks on the port side and some sort of barracks to the other so we walked for another 20mins before we even found a house number. By now we are surrounded by car dealerships at number 316, arrghh, either the road numbering ran the other way or the buildings on the right below the road by the fuel tanks were it. “Let’s walk to the top of the hill then stop”. Still no sign, a petrol station, another hill, heat of the day, 2 hours of walking, can’t turn back after coming this far. “Just to the top of that hill then that’s definitely it”. Then, we see the sea again on our left (i.e. we can see the other coast of Gran Canaria, how far have we come?!). Another turn and another hill and the building numbers were less than 100, nearly there, may as well carry on, except it’s now after siesta closing time would normally start….arrgghh. We finally get to number 75 and it is a huge warehouse building, with a small door in the front which is open, success! We step through the door into a massive building with a few speed boats to the back and one desk, one glass display cabinet, two shelves and a small display of about 5 very old looking coils of rope (obviously not in the colour / size we want) in the middle of an effective empty warehouse. We stop about 2 minutes before realising this was a completely waited trip!
Off we go again, we are rewarded by some great views of the city from the tops of the hill (sorry too tired by now to take photo’s - the 11inch difference in height between Kevin and I translates to a rather faster pace of walking than I’m used to!). We arrive back to the Sailor bar, an oasis of cold beer we have been dreaming of during the last 4 hours of walking and down a couple of beers very quickly! We calculate we have walked about 10 mile round trip (we managed to get a map on route)!
By now we really don’t care about completing anymore jobs today, in fact the first beers have gone down extremely well! We decide to head over to our usual Tropical bar over looking the marina. However it all turned out to be closed, there is some big celebration going on related to a motorbike sponsorship deal between Alice an internet brand and Ducatti from what I can gather on the web.
Alice... funny name for a motorbike
There are red carpets everywhere and the Johnnie Walker bar on the ground floor closed off and the Tropical bar as the VIP suite. So we are sent to the Heineken bar, where we make a fatal discovery… there are self service pumps on every table…..!!
Life tough when you have to serve yourself..Kevin in 7th heaven as the Ventura cruise ship leaves dock in the background
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