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Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

‘Gran Canaria en los ojos de Pepe Dámaso’ (‘Gran Canaria through the eyes of Pepe Dámaso)

Pepe Dámaso, light of Gran Canaria

Several paintings  by the painter Pepe Dámaso light up Triana Tourist Information Office, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

When he comes on stage, one gets the feeling that the air lights up and a warm breeze starts to blow, as when the rays of the morning sun creep into a room with views of the ocean. Pepe Dámaso, born in Agaete (Gran Canaria) in 1933 and one of the Canary Islands most universal artists, is the ambassador of light and colour of his island birthplace. Pepe says that one has to “emborregar” (a local word for rolling in the sand) tourism in flour and give tourists a taste of fried moray eel, “toasted and salty like the sea”. When the painter speaks, his Gran Canaria speaks through him.


Agüimes

Agüimes, the art of life in Gran Canaria

The historic town centre of Villa de Agüimes, in the southeast of Gran Canaria, is a heady and empowering setting.

Life is art in Agüimes. Every corner of its old town centre looks like it has been chiselled out especially. These painstaking efforts have created a setting in which tradition and history have melted into one. A whole grid of main streets, backstreets, squares and alleyways have forged a quite heady beauty.


Perojo Street

Calle Perojo, the street in Gran Canaria that runs on forever

Calle Perojo, with its Site of Cultural Interest award, features a range of colourful, architectural styles and a passion for detail in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Architecture, colour and a passion for detail are the attractions along Calle Perojo in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a street that has been awarded the title of Site of Cultural Interest (BIC in Spanish) in the category of Historical Location, in recognition of its great beauty and artistic value. A walk around this emblematic street in the island’s capital is to delve into an elegant environment in which past and present go hand in hand to provide a memorable urban experience.


Risco Caído

Risco Caído, Gran Canaria’s Lost Temple

Risco Caído, discovered in 1996, is a shining example of Gran Canaria’s extraordinary archaeological legacy.

There are many timeless, mysterious places hidden away in the depths of Gran Canaria. Here, on an island that is visited by millions of tourists every year, long lost secrets continue to come to light up in the mountains. One of the most remarkable cases is the almogarén, a sacred site at Risco Caído, a place where aborigenes on the island would carry out rituals linked to astronomical cycles, with a sacred symbolism, at the heart of the colossal volcanic crater of Tejeda.


Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Vegueta, a stroll around the New World

The founding neighbourhood of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria offers history, culture, cuisine and the odd enigma.

A stroll around the district of Vegueta begins at a very distinct point, back to a time over five centuries ago. At the foot of Guiniguada Ravine, gigantic palm trees rose up and served as a beacon to guide boats bringing in Spanish troops deployed at this point since 1478. The roots of those first historic palm trees that stood tall in what we now call Vegueta are also the roots to the name of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.



A craftswoman working in her crafts workshop

Artisan pottery and Gastronomy, a love that shines through in Gran Canaria

They say a recipe itself doesn’t have a soul, rather it is the chef that provides it. Nevertheless, nobody doubts that crockery is a fundamental part of a recipe today: it enhances the dish, while each piece adds a dash of beauty to the end product.

This opinion is shared among critics and gastronomic experts all around the world, so much so that neuroscience has taken it on to study just how the shape of crockery, along with its colour, material and density all influence how, what and how much we eat.


Sancocho

Sancocho, a true date with Easter

Although Sancocho is not regularly made on a daily basis nowadays, it continues to be the most typical dish for Good Friday, and a highly regarded “plate-filler” any time of the year.

Up until the end of the 19th century, fish in Gran Canaria had to be sold daily, and was only consumed at coastal towns, as there were no ways of keeping it fresh. However, around the turn of the 20th century, changes began to creep in to our cuisine: our range of foods began to increase thanks to the technique of salting. Around this time sancocho made its presence felt.


A basket with Moya bizcochos and suspiros

The sweet link between Cuba and Gran Canaria

Many are the events, landmarks and relations that link Gran Canaria to the Caribbean island of Cuba. Yet, one of the sweetest of all these comes in the form of a recipe that has lasted the test of time and has gone beyond frontiers: the bizcocho sponge-cake of Moya.

Here at this northern Gran Canaria municipality, suspiros are not the only famous delicacy. Bizcochos are a highly popular sweet, the recipe for which came here from Cuba by the hand of Chá Manuela, who came to live in the town and passed the recipe on to two local neighbours, Seña Jacinta and Candelarita Rivero. Amelia Ojeda learnt the recipe from them, and proceeded to open her artisan factory with a hundred-year-old oven, and with the help of her brother started production.


Playa de La Aldea

A whole lifetime in La Aldea de Gran Canaria

Market day on the first Saturday of every month, and the visitors’ centre at the  micro área marina ‘El Roque’ are among the top attractions in La Aldea.

There is a place in Gran Canaria tucked away in the mountains, where a whole life seems to slot in. Its seabeds are home to gigantic sea anemones and it is the site of one of the most beautiful gorgonia coral fields in Europe. Back on dry land, and right in the historic town centre every first Saturday of the month, visitors are able to purchase local avocados, bananas and oranges, products that carry the seal of the island’s rich soil and warming sun, which boast a wholesome flavour only authentic products are able to.


Roque Nublo, behind flowering almond trees

The almond tree in bloom, the prelude to a great gastronomic treasure

The real secret behind the marzipan recipe is its fruit.

The sprouting flowers of the almond trees hail the arrival of spring in Gran Canaria, early on in the month of February. The hilly regions of the island are decked out in a pink carpet, and the beautiful trees provide the sought after fruit which for several centuries was the main driving force behind the local economy of the village of Tejeda.


Carnival "comparsa" dancing troupe. Las Canteras Avenue

Gran Canaria, Carnival is back home again

The spirit of the Carnival possesses a thousand different faces in Gran Canaria and reflects hundreds of years of tradition.

Ana lives in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Ever year she improvises with a couple of different fancy dress costumes, while there is one fancy dress that she uses year after year for carnival. She goes outdoors in the middle of the fiestas in her pyjamas, a pair of slippers, a worn-out but adorable blue-coloured teddy bear, and a mug with a camomile tea bag hanging on a thread. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what shapes the unbreakable spirit of the carnival, which, on the island of Gran Canaria, is a particularly lively and rowdy affair.