Visit to the centre of the island

I had looked into doing a trip to Tejeda in the central highlands of the island.  It proved too difficult by bus from Playa del Ingles and it was only marginally easier from Las Palmas.  Apart from the long travel time (about 2h), frequences were limited.

After breakfast on the roof at 0900 (when it opened), there wasn’t a great rush to go.  While there were plenty of buses from Las Palmas’ San Telmo station to the halfway town of San Mateo, there wasn’t a service from there to Tejeda till 1230.

So in theory I didn’t have to leave the hotel till 1100 but I was getting scratchy so left regardless at 1000.  Everything went too easily with the bus to San Telmo station and then the bus to San Mateo.  The windy road to San Mateo was lined with many gorgeous mansions in very tasteful Spanish style.  The scenery was also also greener than expected.  I had expected bleak rocky landscape with very few homes.

I had about 1h45 to kill in San Mateo.  I did wandered around a couple of times, sat in the square and went to the supermarket.  That killed most of the time and it was very painless. What looked like an inconvenient trip with a stop turned up to be quite nice.  It would have been nicer to have coffee and lunch but I wasn’t hungry.

Soon it was time to continue to Tejeda.  The road became more and more windy and there were few houses.  After nearly an hour, we saw a couple of rocky peaks.  I was feeling a tiny bit queasy.  We had arrived.

I was ready for lunch but only wanted a small sandwich so I could try the almond cakes, a specialty from the area.  I couldn’t find anything light and small so settled for two almond cakes instead.  I ate one and took the other home.

The town was nice but not as old and beautiful as Aguimes.  But the scenery was good.  OK, it wasn’t mind-blowingly gorgeous but it was a nice outing … I’m not the type to come to a place, sit on the beach only and not explore the rest of it.

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The bus rides home was more seamless with a short transit in San Mateo before continuing back to Las Palmas.  I changed to a local bus to Playa de la Canteras to have a Chinese buffet priced at EUR6.50 + tax of 7% (unusual to be tax exclusive here).

I wasn’t quite hungry but delayed myself until I couldn’t be bothered waiting any more.  There was quite a spread of meals with too many deep-fried items.  I stuck to the many stir-fried dishes but there wasn’t enough veges; it was all very good quality meaty stuff and seafood too.  My only criticism is it was all left lukewarm because of the timing of my visit.  Dessert followed with good quality fruit salad and help-yourself ice-cream (with caramelised walnuts to die for).

Quite expectedly they make up for the cheap price with expensive compulsory drinks.  My large Coke Zero was EUR3.75 + tax which is probably double what you pay elsewhere for a small one.

But overall it was still a good deal.  If only I was able to visit during peak time and get freshly cooked food.

Over dinner I thought to myself how lucky it was that I hadn’t rented a car for the Tejeda trip.  The roads were windy with many hairpin turns.  The roads were only 1.5 car width with no centrelines.  I could have easily killed myself with a car accident, especially when I don’t normally drive on the “other side” and never before with a manual gearbox on the “other side”.  I don’t know our big bus didn’t collide with any other vehicles on those blind turns.

I walked home to enjoy the rooftop with a couple of cuppas.  That was my last day on Gran Canaria, an island that is very easy to enjoy.  It seems to have a bit for everyone, eg. beaches, clear water, hot but dry weather and cheap (compared to parts of Europe).  While not for me, it also has theme parks, nightclubs and megastores (for both the 800,000 locals and tourists).

Back in Las Palmas; Senegalese dancers.