Advice or recommendations for the Canary Islands?

May 23, 2018 8:31 PM

I will be going on an artist residency in Agüimes, Gran Canaria for five weeks from June through early July. Any recommendations? My artwork is about ecologies and I am very interested in plants, animals, sanctuaries, botanical gardens, etc. I bought an underwater camera and want to do some artwork on the islands' marine biodiversity. I am also vegetarian, and like to do some tourism as well as work and exhibit.

Any advice or recommendations on anything at all would be helpful - is insect repellent necessary? Is the water warm? The weather seems to be quite temperate, actually, at highs of low 70s... Any things I must see? I think I'll be the only artist in residency at the time, so probably solo traveling/adventuring.

posted by vegartanipla to Travel & Transportation around Agüimes, Spain (5 answers total)

Best answer: Maybe you can pet some Chuchos Negros, from the Blue.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:45 PM on May 23, 2018

I spent 10 days on Gran Canaria island last December, and was horrified by the way every little cove along the coastline (well, to be fair, the part that I saw, covering - in clock-face terms - from 2 to 7 o'clock) was covered with tourist condos, from the coast all the way up the hillsides to the horizon, like ant-hills or bee-hives. A white carpet of dwellings. This would perhaps speak to the ecology element of your interests. Perhaps you will get a glimpse of this from your airplane on landing approach. Also to be fair, the inland areas I saw (like your Agüimes) were relatively unspoiled.
posted by aqsakal at 11:37 PM on May 23, 2018

Try to get off Gran Canaria, go to the small islands.
posted by Morpeth at 5:31 AM on May 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

A former coworker is from Tenerife. When he went home for a few weeks he and all his friends did some sort of guided or semi-guided trip hiking up on the mountain and ending the day kayaking. It looked like a long, super fun day.
posted by Phredward at 9:21 AM on May 24, 2018

We did some wine tours in Tenerife, which were also a good time.
posted by blurker at 3:15 PM on May 24, 2018