Las Palmas .... downmarket by the sea
Canteras Beach is a long sandy beach with a great traffic free promenade which was great for walking and people watching, but this area of the city is fairly down-market, so the restaurants and bars were nothing to write about.
Las Palmas is a sprawling city and the most interesting sections of the city (Vegueta with the cathedral and old houses) and Triana (main bus station and smart shops) are several miles from Santa Catalina and the Canteras Beach, so it took some time to get oriented.
Much of the city is 1960s modern and not of much interest to me and a special disappointment were the public gardens. It might have been a case of too many gardeners, because they were certainly all over the place. The problem was that the style is for them to clear the planting areas of all ground cover and sweep the soil so the plants are starkly plucked down in un-inspiring dirt.
The cathedral was closed so I went to the Canaria Museum, small but well organized with lovely ceramics, mummies and a whole room filled with skulls.
View from the old town
I loved this view from the area near the Museum Canaria.
The fine print
Date of travel : January 2008
Country information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Canaria