Gran Canaria Tourist Guide

fine local cuisine, and cutting edge à la carte menu. Don’t leave without visiting the Market, and on Sundays the open air craft market, with folkoric dancing at the historic Plaza de Pilar Nuevo, next to the Columbus House Museum. The Guiniguada ravine bed separates the colonial district of Vegueta from the Calle Mayor de Triana and surrounding areas, where the House Museum of writer Benito Pérez Galdós, who was born here, is located. The capital projects itself all along this open shopping and restaurant area as far as San Telmo Park, and the Bus Terminal, the gateway to the rest of the island. Also standing Between Vegueta and Triana are essential visitor attractions such as the afore-mentioned Pérez Galdós and the Gabinete Literario building, with a pleasant little square for passing through or for stopping at its pavement cafés. The district of Ciudad Jardín came about in the 1920s. It is a residential area around which stands the former Metropole Hotel, today a centre for Town Hall services, and the historic Santa Catalina Hotel, where English writer Agatha Christie stayed during the 20s and 30s to get some rest and to continue writing her novel The Mystery of the Blue Train. On the edge of this neighbourhood is the architectural complex of the Pueblo Canario, made by modernist artist Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, where the Néstor Museum is located, a real gem in the city. Also in this area is the Marina, from where the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) sets off every year in November bound for the Caribbean, and is a hub for cruisers and divers. At the northern end is the district of Alcaravaneras and its sports crazy beach, the front doorstep to the Port and the famous Las Canteras beach. The city has one of its main landscape features in the shape of La Isleta, a tiny peninsula presided by three majestic volcanoes. The Ports of La Luz and Las Palmas sit along this narrow isthmus on the one side, while the beaches of Las Canteras and El Confital are located on the other. They are two poles of economic and social life in the city, which on the side of the beach constitute a superb natural theme park. Right here, between La Puntilla (next to the Ciudad Jardín – the English Neighbourhood The City of sea, sun and sand

Las Canteras, one of the finest urban beachesin the world.

district of La Isleta), and the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium (in the neighbourhood of Guanarteme), visitors can enjoy three kilometres of golden sands and a range of different environments up and down this touristic beach, which is like a huge park and an ideal meeting point for local residents. Right next to the Auditorium, in the neighbourhood of Guanarteme, is La Cícer, the beach’s surfing and sports area. At the other end, from La Puntilla, tourists can stroll along the avenue of Los Nidillos as far as the natural setting of El Confital, an outstanding surfing spot with a viewpoint from where visitors are treated to simply stunning views over the city. Along the three kilometres of Las Canteras beach, visitors don’t just enjoy the fine weather that dominates the area throughout the year, and its fine waters. Sports activities, both on the sand and in the sea, plus the wealth of gastronomic choices at the many eateries all along the promenade complete the attractiveness of such a special

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LEISURE GUIDE OF GRAN CANARIA