Carnival – Gran Canaria

A great, never ending, carnival in the city of Las Palmas

It’s a year ago since I landed on Gran Canaria, one of the biggest of the Canary Islands. The Canaries are a group of seven islands that are an autonomous community of Spain, close to Africa and placed in the Atlantic Ocean. I recognized a lot of things from my visits to Spain, and Portugal too, but the islands has its own culture and history. Visiting Gran Canaria was a very nice, and surprising, experience in many ways. I didn’t know that the island had so many different experiences to offer. I was traveling last winter too, but from winter in Sweden to a couple of cold, but nice, winter days in Iceland and New York. So, landing in the warmth and sun on Gran Canaria felt like a relief – there’s colors in the world, there are places where the sea hasn’t frozen to ice, and I could feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.

I spent a lot of time walking along the cliffs next to the sea, I went swimming, had food at nice restaurants in Las Palmas which is the capital of Gran Canaria founded in 1478, took a tour to the south of the island and discovered that caves are the hottest properties on the volcanic island in the mountains. What is it with me and volcanic islands? Because they are among my favourite places to visit. I think it must be something to do with the fact that you can see how the island was created, a lot of eruptions from the sea and earth that created a place where people now live. I feel closer to the creation of the earth.

To my surprise there was a great carnival in Las Palmas. A never ending parade of people and vehicles going through the city. There were so many people that were dressed up along the sidewalks too, cheering on the carnival parade. I started taking pictures, because that’s one of my favourite things, photographing happy people. This post will mostly be photos, and I hope they can communicate some of the happiness I witnessed. And as usual, while I was editing the photos I was back on the streets of Las Palmas in the warm evening sun among lots of happy people enjoying themselves and the carnival.

This years carnival, which I’m sadly missing, is happening right now. It’s going on for a full month from the last week of January until 18th of February https://lpacarnaval.com/es/. The carnival of Las Palmas has been celebrated for almost five centuries, it’s one of the oldest carnivals in the world. The carnival was prohibited for 40 years during the Franco regime but was revived 1976 after Francos death.

I wish I was in Las Palmas this year too, so I could participate in the carnival, but these photos bring me back to last year. And, if you have the chance you should definitely visit the island!