The indigenous aboriginal people that were living here when the Spanish invaded in 1403 were called the Guanches. They couldn’t remember how they got there but it is assumed that they came in boats from the African coast but they also couldn’t remember how to sail anymore either. They had never seen a wheel, had no knowledge of metals and were living in the Stone Age. They were normally naked and traversed down steep hillsides on wooden poles like pole vaulters. They lived in tune with the land and made “gofio” (a type of flour made from toasted barley and wheat). They also kept pigs, goats and sheep using their milk, skins, bone and meat. They consisted of two social divisions, the nobles and the peasants who were easily distinguished by their shaved heads. The Guanche name Tamaran in the title means “Land of the Brave”.
The Spanish were driven away on this first attack but returned in force in 1478 killing most of them and putting the remaining ones that hadn’t committed ritual suicide into slavery. Christopher Columbus stopped here on route to India in 1492. Francis Drake launched an unsuccessful attack on Las Palmas, the capital in 1595 after his victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588. Driven back from Las Palmas, he sailed to the Caribbean where he died of dysentery and was buried at sea. His defeat at Las Palmas is still commemorated every year on 6 October with a festival.
Today Grand Canaries’ main business (about 80%) is tourism here they receive around 5 million visitors a year, most of which seem to be staying near us. We had a great flight but our transfer took 90 minutes before we were put off about ½ a mile from our reception. The bus seemed to drop one person at each of the most remote hotels on the island before stumbling across ours. Each square meter of sandy beach in the island is worth over £80,000 in tourist turnover; substantially more than the fertile land that they grow their tomatoes in which is their second largest export. It is thought that the name Canaries originally came from Latin for the large dogs that used to live here with the local aborigines. The bird canaries that are indigenous here were named after the islands. They are not as brightly coloured as our canaries which have suffered 400 years of selection.
We had a lovely time staying at the hotel near the airport but still had to get up earlier than I would have liked. We are also very pleased with our apartment, its amazing for the money. We seem to have pools all around us and with few people using them I am sure that we will make use of them. It’s a large apartment but we still couldn’t find the kitchen until Claire looked inside the large wardrobe and found an Ikea micro kitchen. Still, its adequate for our needs with two hot plates, microwave, kettle, toaster and oven. We will probably sample the local cuisine most lunch times and eat breakfast and evening snacks at home. We are taking it easy this first day and found a restaurant a short walk away where we sampled a set 3 course meal for 6.95Euros each. Not bad, when it included, bread and a beer for the price. We started with avocado king prawns and then I had the chicken Cordon Blue which was basically chicken schnitzel with cheese and ham inside with chips and salad. We treated ourselves to a local red wine with our meal after the first beer which was only 8Euros for that. We bought a few more bottles in the supermarket next door of varying prices and we assume qualities but we have just opened the cheapest one that was 2.30Euros a bottle and we both like it very much. Talking of exchange rates, I saw that the Australian Dollar is down to 1.55 earlier this week. It was 1.80 when we went last year and had only just come down from 2 dollars to the pound. It is actually higher than the American dollar now.
I am doing this first blog entry from sunny Grand Canaria but I think Claire will be doing most of the others this time leaving me time to start back on my book again. I haven’t added a single word to it this year; however, I have been doing lots of research reading at least 3 books a week. Anyway, I will tell you more about that upon our return home and also about my new job in Milton Keynes which I have been doing since the day we returned from Goa in the snow.
Last Friday I started a new head cold, which is unusual for me as it normally goes straight for my chest which is my weakest part. I’m not saying that my head is very strong, but it is stronger than my chest. Anyway, it reached a climax on Sunday and Monday but has now started to fade. However, Claire seems to have contracted it now and she can’t stop sneezing and sniffling all day which is driving me mad, especially on the long journey today. I do feel sorry for her really she is quite poorly but of course, not as poorly as me. I had a “Man Cold”!
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