MSC Poesia World Cruise 2024: Gran Canaria 12 Jan, 2024

Today, I elected to book a ship tour LPM02 Las Palmas and Bandama to use one of my “free” excursions. That means I was credited 65 Euros towards the excursion of my choice. After a late arrival in port, we left a half hour late at 10AM. 

Here is the description from the ship excursion booklet:

Leave the vessel and reach Doramas Park, a lovely and large urban park showing the local flora of the Canary Islands such as dragon trees, ficus, palm-trees and other local species. Its cascade fountains and the vast vegetation are locals' favorite spot for relaxation and strolling around.

• Then, continue to the oldest quarter of Las Palmas, called , a maze of narrow, cobblestones streets, passing by

"Plaza Santa Ana" with its bronze statues in honour of the dogs which gave the Canary Islands their name.

• You will also admire the Cathedral from outside before proceeding with the second part of the excursion that will take you to the residential area of "Tafira" to reach the vast volcanic crater of Bandama, an extinct volcano rising nearly 580 me-tres above sea level.
• Enjoy panoramic views before making a photo stop at

"Altavista" viewpoint with its magnificent panorama over Las Palmas, Las Canteras Beach and the port.

We stopped at Doramas park with a  statue of natives committing suicide rather than being captured by Spain and forced into slavery or sent away with Christopher Columbus and taken to the new world.

We walked around the park near the really awesome Grand Canary hotel. There was a nice fountain and a couple friendly street cats. It was very peaceful. However, the fountain inspired many of the other folks and they began to beg for restrooms. None were available.

We waited for the bus while some people tried to change the itinerary to get free time in town now and go to the bathroom.

In the end, the guide stuck with the original plan and headed to the volcano. There are lots of small volcanic eruptions and little earthquakes all the time here. However, the last major eruption was 2000 years ago. It smelled like sewage on the bus so I have to think the person begging for the bathroom break couldn’t wait. Hopefully they were wearing depends. I felt really bad for them.

Politically the Canary Islands are Spanish but geographically they are Africa. Because they are so close, they have a big immigration problem as they arrive by boat. That was said by the guide, but it was not visible during our tour. 

On top of the ridges are a lot of villas made by the British. They chose this area because it goes up 600m above sea level which makes the climate cooler and more British. Average of 23 degrees the whole year (77 degrees F) and always nice weather. Trade winds from the Azores and sea storms from Mexico that bring cold water. It was unclear to me if the immigration problem was the British or the Africans as they were both discussed in the same talk.

The Bandama Caldera was amazing!! It was steep and the roads were narrow. At one point 3 busses had to move incrementally on a corner so we could all progress up and down the mountain.

We went to the old part of town and walked around. By this point, some folks were absolutely desperate for a bathroom. She suggested they buy a coffee and use their restroom. They left the tour and were able to finally get some relief. Fortunately, she told the group where to meet at 1:15 and I went off on my own and used an ATM and bought a 1 euro 7up to get change for a 50 euro note. I walked around a bit on my own and kept the group in my sight line and explored a bit on my own.

I will be prepared for excursion in Mindelo if they want euro instead of USD. 

After the tour, we didn’t have free time and we went straight back to the ship.

Once again, no matter how fast I tried rushed through security, Today just missed lunch in the dining room. I was there at 1:39 and they closed at 1:30.

Up at the buffet I just couldn’t find that much that was appetizing. I ended up with a couple pieces of pizza and ate outside on the back deck behind the buffet. I had a nice view of the island.

You may not understand why a restaurant is such a big deal. As a solo in the buffet, if you get up to get a drink after you get your meal, by the time you get back, your food is gone. If you want seconds, your drink is gone.

My afternoon highlight was taking a nice nap. I showered and headed to dinner. No one showed up at my table so I jumped to the table next to me. 

I had the salmon and it was good as well as some mocha cake with a cafe americano.

After dinner, I waited in line at shore excursions and got a printout of my account before heading back to the room to post.

Gran Canaria is very walkable on your own. There is a hop on hop off bus. I heard from a woman on the ship who took public transport and hiked the Caldera. That would be an awesome future trip!

I skipped the show tonight because I figured out how to enable the HDMI port on my TV. The internet is so good on this ship (starlink) that I was able to watch the finale of a show on Netflix.

Happy Cruising!