This pic is taken of me in my pool in Gran Caneria, a very small Island but it has much to offer. I was there for just over 6 months & because its such a fantastic place I thought ild say a little something about what its like there.
There's so much to do there, from jet ski-ing to scuba diving, shopping to clubbing. It's also a very beautiful place with a post-card picture wherever you go. There's many high mountain walks & if you go to the right bar it's only 1euro a pint of beer :) the sun is nearly always shining & you can even have your Christmas dinner on the beach!!! I would recommend anyone to go there.
This place is even hotter than Tenerife, you can leave your cloves out to dry over night & they will be bone dry in the morning, I was mainly in Porto Rico, a very small but very beautiful place, on a clear day you can see Tenerife & Mount Teidy which is the Volcano in tenerife, the largest Volcano in Europe. be careful though as I was tricked one time into going into a bar (brothel) & was told it was 5euros a drink, then the girls came up to sit with us & the bar lady said are you getting the girls a drink? of cause I said yes, so she gave the girl a small beer, the girl took me to a room & asked if I wanted her to dance for me :) as we were talking I was told it was 50euros. I said what is that for? everything? little truble with translation but that was just for the small beer. I made my excuses & left ASAP.
Maspalonas is also a nice part & much bigger than Porto Rico, theres a MASSIVE beach with BIG sand-domes on it which people are always parashote jumping onto. also if you walk up the beack a bit it turns into a nudist beach :) there are also many pubs & night clubs here & its great for shopping & many nice resturants etc etc.
If you go to Gran Canaria, be sure to take the bus to Port Mogan! its not a massive area but its about the most beautiful place on the Island, & the bus ride there is something you wont forget in a hurry! part of the road is on the mountains & has a MASSIVE strait drop into the sea that would kill everybody on the bus if it went over, & the drivers drive VERY FAST around it. I was very shaken the first time I got the bus but after 2 or 3 times it just became a massive buzz for me & I loved it.
A WORD OF WARNING!
There are many Timeshare company's around & people will try to give you scratch cards on the streets. They know which cards are winners & losers as there are slightly differences on each card, you wont spot it unless you no what to look for though as it verys on all the cards, some have just an extra full stop on the small print. they will give you 1 winner & 1 loser, they will say the winner will give you a Free Laptop, or £1000 or a Free Holiday, or something like that. Then they will tell you to go to the resort & spend 1 hour listening to a holiday presentation to claim your "Star-Prize". They will tell you that its not Timeshare but just a holiday club where you can buy very cheap holidays & that they don't want any money.
Do not listen to them, do not even take a card of them, it IS Timeshare & if you fall for it they will try to keep you at least 3 hours at the resort in order to sell you a top Timeshare pack which will cost you around £25,000. They will even sort the finance out for you, if you cant afford it then they lower the pack & in the end they may bring it down to £3000 for a 5 year or so membership. when they give you the price it is a VERY hard sell & you will not like there attitudes as they puss you into buying the product.
Fact - the only prize you will get if your lucky is a holiday as they own the time in these apartments already. You will have to pay for the flight & you will also have to go though another Timeshare presentation on your free holiday & go though another hard sell.
I know all this as when I first lived in Spain this is what I was doing, I did not realize what it was myself though & would never do it again. If you hear any of them shout "ICE-CREAM", this means the police are near & they have to hide as in most country's it is illegal.
Do not fall victim to there traps.
