Dateline: Las Palmas, the Canary Islands. We have discovered another nice place that most Americans know little about. Yesterday we landed on Grand Canary Island in this Spanish territory. It is off the coast of Africa, but looks like a little piece of Europe.
A chain of 8 volcanic islands, the two largest are Grand Canary and Tenerife. Each of these two has about 40% of the islands’ 2 million population, with the remaining 20% scattered over the remaining six smaller islands. The climate is a cross between North Africa and Hawaii and so is the vegetation. The population appears to be mostly Spanish, except for the tourists, who are mostly European.
The roads are very narrow, winding and mountainous. The architecture feels Mediterranean, as would be expected from a Spanish dependency. The highest mountain runs to nearly 7000 ft. and gets a dusting of snow every few years, including this one. The islands are off the Sahara coast and are thus relatively dry. Grand Canary has no rivers and drinking water is an issue; we were told they import it from Europe. They produce water for other uses by partially desalinating sea water.
Another way in which the Canary Islands resemble Hawaii is that there is a substantial military presence in the islands, in this case the Spanish military of course. That and tourism are probably the major sources of outside revenue.
