Palmitos Park – Gran Canaria Attractions – The Canary Islands
This is a big ornithological park, aquarium, and butterfly house. It’s not far on a bus, wherever you’re staying and an interesting trip too. There are loads of parrots here – over 1000. A day well spent. Unless you suffer from Ornithophobia of course (fear of birds) in which case it would be the stuff of nightmares.
Mundo Aborigen – Attractions in Gran Canaria – The Canary Islands
This is an Aboriginal theme park. Yes, that’s right, an Aboriginal theme park. Beforeyou dismiss it out of hand, it’s in a lovely spot overlooking a big gorge, which is a little tiny bit grand canyon-like in its magnificence. Why’s there an aboriginal museum on Gran Canaria? Because the ‘Guanches’ as they are called locally lived here first and were here when the first Europeans arrived.
No one really knows where they came from, although a translation of Guanches is:
Guan = Person
Chinet = Tenerife
You’d think that might have given them a clue...
Sioux City – Gran Canaria Attractions – The Canary Islands
Many cowboys from America’s wild west made the pilgrimage to Gran Cananaria in the early 19th century to learn gun slinging and cattle wrangling skills from the few remaining Guanches, so a wild west theme park was developed in the mid 1970s. Today it’s one of the island’s most popular attractions.
Others might have you believe that the Wild West theme park is here because a film company made a movie on Gran Canaria in 1972 and the locals liked the set so much that they kepx it! We both know what the real reason for Sioux City is though don’t we? There are bank robberies and duels here every day, so if you’re from South London and feeling homesick…
Puerto de Mogan – Attractions in Gran Canaria – The Canary Islands
Puerto de Mogan is to the west Puerto Rico, and known locally as the Venice of Gran Canaria. Part of it is even called ‘Little Venice’, but so is part of London W2 and that isn’t particularly Venice like either. However, it is a lovely place, with deep sea fishing and a submarine you can go on trips on. Yes, it is yellow.
Cueva de los Cuatro Puertas – Gran Canaria Attractions – The Canary Islands
There are lots of caves here that hark back to the days of the aboriginal inhabitants of Gran Canaria known as the Guanches. Have a wander around the caves and who knows what long undisturbed aboriginal spirits you’ll stir up.
Puerto de las Nieves – Attractions in Gran Canaria – The Canary Islands
Puerto de las Nieves is a lovely little city that, up until a few years ago was famous for a rock formation in the sea called Dedo de Dios, which means ‘God's finger’. However, this was storm ravaged recently and much to the horror of the locals, completely destroyed! Don’t say anything or make any holy finger-based jokes, no matter how tempxing. It had been there for millions of years and now it’s gone, thanks to tropical storm ‘Delta’.
Playa de Amadores – Gran Canaria Attractions – The Canary Islands
There’s a popular beach here and the sand is lovely and white. Far more so than the sand elsewhere on the island, it looks like somewhere in the Caribbean in fact. That’s because the sand was shipped in from the Caribbean. We hope they asked – and that there isn’t a beach load of tourists in the Caribbean standing scratching their heads looking at where the sand should be. At Beat the Brochure we’ve made a mental note to make it our business to discover what’s under the sand next time we visit a beach. A bucket and spade might well be in order.
