Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

After the stresses of the day before where for a while it looked like we would have to rearrange our wedding for a fourth time, we decided to preserve our Sunday day of rest. I did a small amount of laptop back-up tasks I am trying to complete to make sure we have at least two copies of everything and restore disks for each.

We then decided to head to the Catalina Park which is 5 minutes walk from the boat and which Rafael had suggested had live music on Sundays at noon. We headed through the tunnel under the main road beside the marina and followed our ears until we came across a small square opposite the Nestor museum holding a large gathering of people. At the front of the crowd was a group of singers and musicians all in colourful local dress. We managed to find a spot at the side and enjoyed an hour of singing and local dancing. It reminded me a little of a Ceidhls we’d been to at New Year’s / Hogmanay on the Isle of Skye a few years before, there were definitely some similarities in the dancing. The music however was guitar based and quite different. I suppose the nearest I have seen in England would be Morris men, although this took place in the middle of a city you could certainly imagine it occurring in town square somewhere and there were more locals watching than tourists. It was all very good natured and the performers definitely seemed to be enjoying themselves, they even got members of the audience up to dance for the last song.



When the show was over we wondered around the park, it was full of locals with their children and was a little oasis with lots of fountains into a big pond full of the most enormous koy carp I have seen. There was lots of greenery and butterflies and people wandering on this pleasant Sunday afternoon. We had learned from Rafael the importance of leisure time to the Spanish and we have certainly witnessed how they seem to make the most of it whilst we have been in the Canaries. I suppose the climate probably helps, but every evening wherever we have been there is always many people out walking as a family or busy with watersports etc.