Spanish in Gran Canaria

14.11.20 to 13.12.20

We settle in on the island and organize ourselves personally and technically. In addition to swotting, we explore the island.

Destilerías Arehucas

As Bordeaux and single malt lovers, we really wanted to visit the world-famous Canarian rum distillery Arehucas. The visit was nice, but not super exciting, as no sugar cane was being processed at the moment and so there was no production taking place. Sugar cane has evidently been grown on a large scale in the Canary Islands for a long time. As after every visit to a distillery, there was also a tasting at the end. The samples were poured out very generously! Nevertheless, we drove home. We wouldn’t have believed it, but next to Bordeaux and single malt there will also be a thirty-year old Canarian rum in our bar at home in future. We have been taken with the CAPITÁN KIDD a lot.

Happy moment

We want to stay in Gran Canaria for three months and learn Spanish. We arrived without Globi, so it goes without saying that we want to rent a vehicle to learn Spanish 😉. At the airport we contact all car rental companies and try to negotiate the best price. We get a Scoda Fabia Combi for € 10.00 per day for three months. In this case, the travel restrictions gave us a great advantage in the negotiations, as very few tourists are coming and going these days.

Encounters

In Order to finally stammer more than three words in Spanish, we need professional help. Already in Switzerland we asked all possible schools in Gran Canaria, but the schools are all closed because no tourists can come. So, we tried it on the island itself. Using local search sites, we were able to contact various teachers who were willing to teach us daily in our rented little house. After three trial lessons with different candidates, we decided on Maria Elena and have been very satisfied so far. Elena is a very likeable woman who can bear the slow progress we make. She was a stroke of luck.

Technology pitfalls

Water ingress can also occur in built houses. Since we live on the north side of the island, i.e., the green part of the island, it also rains here and there. One morning we found that our bedroom window was not airtight. We already had a small lake on the bottom. Since the floor is made of stone slabs, there was no real damage and Gabi’s water-filled shoes dried again in the sun. The windows are built here without a drip nose or seals, so the water can easily run in between the cracks.

For a smile

In the south of the island near Maspalomas we strolled along the famous local beach on one of our hikes. We found out that many stretches of beach were signposted and used as nudist beaches. Most brown-leather skin people, however, had already passed the mannequin age quite a while. Our signposted hiking trail led through the middle of this nudism zone, but luckily, we didn’t have to take off our clothes, we were allowed to hike through it. The southern part of the island seems to be known for homosexuals. Hence  there were significantly more male beauties. Despite this huge variety Gabi felt very uncomfortable with so much naked skinn and could not enjoy the unobstructed view at all.