Las Palmas, Grand Canaria

I was still worn out from the long walk through Taroudant the day before, but couldn't miss out on the Canary Islands. The four archipelagoes off of Europe/Africa are all volcanic in origin: Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, and Cape Verde islands.

We landed in Las Palmas, which is on Grand Canaria. Our first stop was at a botanical garden, where we saw the native palms and plants. Because the Canaries have a mixed climate, the garden featured tropical plants like hibiscus alongside cactus. In fact, the cactus garden was very impressive. They also have a native tree that's from the time of the dinosaurs, with foliage only at its top to prevent it from being eaten.

We then did a lot of walking around the capital, including short visits to two museums: the first dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the second to mostly pre-Columbian works of the native Canarians. The native population was fair-skinned, tall (1.7 meters), and dark-haired, and most of the language has been lost. Unfortunately, most native Canarians were sold into slavery or killed outright, as was the trend at that time. Our guide was proud of his native Canarian heritage; for his other faults as a guide (mostly not making sure we could hear him when outside; as the person who was always last, I missed 99% of the content because he was speaking only to the front of the group), I'm willing to overlook them for not glossing over the ugly bits of history. By the time we got to that museum, I was so tired that I couldn't possibly do it justice, so I sat in the main room in the first floor with an elderly woman who was similarly exhausted.

The architecture in the main city is quite interesting, and I took lots of photos. Possibly the most interesting architecture to me was the Columbus museum, so I skipped the content in favor of the details of the building itself.

We also ate at a local restaurant, and I believe the spicy garlic goo, tasty though it was, did not agree with me. It had a tomato base, and that is sometimes enough. Being celiac, gastrointestinal distress is common enough that I wouldn't report it unless it was unusually bad, and this was not.