A diary of an Irishman who moved to live permanently in Las Palmas Gran Canaria.
Panza Days.
The long hot days have been replaced in the past few weeks in Las Palmas by the Panza de Burro.
Its English name is the Donkeys Belly.
It is a cloud that covers the city and can sometimes reach as far as the Airport, over 20km away and into the middle of the interior on the Northern side.
Sometimes it affects just Las Palmas; you can drive ten minutes out of the city, and the sun is shining.
The Panza de Burro does not affect the south of Gran Canaria.
I have at times had to reassure people arriving on flights as we approached the Airport from the north that they would be ok if they were heading south.
For many, the Panza de Burro has been a godsend, lowing the recent high temperatures. For myself, I think it’s time for the Panza to go now as I know it will return again for sure.
Spain is to introduce measures to cut energy use from August the 10th.
Shops and monuments must turn off all display lights from 10 pm.
For businesses, heating cannot be set at more than 19c, and air conditioning is no less than 27c.
I have mentioned a recent stay at a hotel in Playa Del Ingles with the accommodation was infested with ants.
Insects are a way of life here, but this is on another scale.
Having been ignored by the hotel, I contacted booking.com. The hotel also ignored them. To be fair, booking.com did refund the commission they earned.
In my past life, I ran a hotel booking website, so I thought this was fair for them.
I have worked in the hotel game for a while, and I was just looking for an acknowledgement of the situation. My friend and I had some severe bites.
The Canaries are a great place to holiday, but as I have mentioned before, customer service tends to be a shrug of the shoulders if you are lucky to get a shrug.
The Islands are keen to get business from the U.S. This summer has seen a direct air connection from the U.S. to Tenerife. I am not sure the U.S. market will accept that type of service.
The summer is a great time for festivals in the Canaries. Last week I visited Agaete in Northern Gran Canaria for La Rama.
The Rama de Agaete is an ancient custom. It consists of people en masse going through the town’s streets carrying pine and eucalyptus branches.
A band follows them, and it’s great craic.
The party starts at 5 am and goes on until late. This year up to 30,000 people attended the event.
From September until the end of the year, public transport in the Canaries will receive a 50% subsidy from the Spanish government. This is to help with the cost of fuel and try to get people to use buses.
That means my monthly bus ticket will go down from an already fantastic value of €28 euro to just €14.
It’s been more than six months since I brought an apartment in Las Palmas.
Last week the building had its annual meeting. They discuss building issues and how much the monthly community charge will be.
They also elect people to take positions who deal with ongoing issues throughout the year.
One neighbour I know asked me why I did not attend. I said my level of Spanish is not good enough for this type of meeting.
He said it was just as well as I may have got a position I did not want.
I told him it’s different in Ireland. He asked how. I said it is when you don’t attend a meeting in Ireland that you will be elected to a position you did not want.
