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Gran Canaria! Hoody Hoo!

So we made it to Aida's spot in Gran Canaria.  She's got a super rad apartment overlooking the ocean near Playa del Ingles, in the south of the island.  We put our stuff down and went out for a cruise on the boardwalk.





Spain is full of street art.  Sick graffiti everywhere.  Here on the island are a lot of these sand artists.  Super elaborate sand statues!  Really sick!


Troy.... Funny fuckin' cat... He was doing this nose manny and I started calling him "Surf God".  Hysterical!  He did this nose manny 50 times and every time he looked like a surf god!!  While shredding, the UGLIEST, OLDEST white couples walked by and sneered at us skating.  This part of the island is FULL of German tourists and NOBODY else.  It was really weird.  Literally, we were the only younger people around.



Playa Del Ingles


The next day, we decided to take a bus up to the capitol of Gran Canaria, Las Palmas.  Troy and I planned to shred around the city and visit some of the parks there.  I had broken my skate in Fuerte, so we were also on the hunt for a shop.


The transportation in general is so cheap for the long distances you go.  This bus ride was about 45 minutes and only cost 2.10 euros, which is more or less 3.50 USD.  It's really rad and super motivating to explore new spots.  America needs to get it straight.


We got to Las Palmas and started scouring the streets for a second hand thrift store and a skate shop. 


A really cool aspect of Spain is street artists put up their pieces and the government doesn't paint over them.  This attitude towards a person's art maintains a mutual respect that creates well done art pieces versus shitty name tagging and heinous crossouts walls, i.e. Los Angeles, which is littered with different shades of white paint covering a person's superhero name.  People take pride in their art and make it nice enough to actually enjoy no matter your age, occupation, etc...  Well done Spain!




We came across this park amongst our search.  It was pretty bad ass.  Concrete, colorful, not a lot of people.  Perfect!  You're pouring sweat in 10 though!


Being the main city of the island, this boardwalk had even more elaborate sand art, which for most tourists is worth tossing a euro to see and photograph.  Many of these sculptures had political or life messages carved in them.  This one would never fly in the states.  Some whack citizen would either snitch and complain or even try to sue because THEY didn't like it.  But "Different strokes for different folks" seems to be the motto out in Europe.





This beach is packed with leathery skinned humans.


This thing was just on the bluff spinning around.  Super sick!






We went to the second hand store and CAME UP.  Everything was 1 euro.  Everything.  Best spot.  Aida met her friend while Troy, Mary, and I looked up the hillside and chose to cruise through these neighborhoods of colorful homes.  We wanted to get to high ground to scope the city as a whole.


I love the graffiti....  So much better than seeing "Lil' Joker" blasted on the side of a toilet stall.  People here actually got shit to say...


This neighborhood had a lot of make shift homes and doors that were once upon a time the entrance to a house.  Homemade barbed wire too... Broken glass bottles cemented at the top of a wall.. Recycling is cool.




Las Palmas is known for its plantains, or bananas.  The BEST bananas.  Here is  one of the many fields.






As we were navigating through the labyrinth of narrow walkways, locals were checking out the two long haired white boys and tall Catalana taking photos of their zones.  We meant no harm.  We would've been hyped to chill with them anyway.  Some folks stopped us to talk.  Troy would tell them he was Australian, I was from the states, and Mary was from Catalunya.  Good thing we had Mary to keep us rootsy.  Hahaha..





"Less Junkies and More Bananas"  True Shit.