Experiences in Gran Canaria

The south — Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés, Puerto Rico, Mogán — is where the accommodation is, and where almost every excursion picks up. The interior is another world: ravines lived in since before the conquest, cave houses still in use, and a summit that wakes up icy in winter.

The island reads as three strips, and each one is a different plan

• ·The south coast. Dunes, beach and the calmest water on the island. This is where the boat trips, the diving and almost everything on the water happen.
• ·The ravines. Guayadeque, Agaete, Fataga. This is where the real walking is, and the cave houses: some still lived in, others restaurants cut into the rock.
• ·The summit. Roque Nublo, Pico de las Nieves, the pine forest. At 1,900 metres, with pines and with ice in January. It is hard to believe it is the same island as the dunes.

The good part is that all three fit into one day, because you can cross the island in a little over an hour. The bad part is that most people do not know it and stay inside their strip.

Why astro tourism works here

The summit sits at 1,500 metres and above, far from the lights of the south and with the temperature inversion below it: the sea of clouds stays at mid altitude and the sky above stays clean. On a good night you see the Milky Way with the naked eye.

It depends on two things nobody controls: the moon and the calima. A full moon washes out almost all deep sky, so departures are scheduled around the new moon — which is why there are fewer dates than you would expect.

The dunes are not just another beach

Maspalomas is a special nature reserve. You can walk the marked paths and not off them, and that is not a decorative rule: the dune moves with the wind, and footprints off the line speed up its degradation. The lagoon and the palm grove are bird habitat and fenced off.

When to come, and one practical difference from Tenerife

Here the resort areas sit closer together and the bus finishes its round faster, so the pickup time is closer to the departure time. Check it anyway: there is a good half hour of road between Puerto de Mogán and Playa del Inglés, and not every excursion picks up at both.

Winter is high season, as everywhere in the Canaries, and what fills first are the night trips to the summit — because they depend on the moon — and the small boats.