Gran Canaria Adventure - Day 4

Mogan

This morning at breakfast I remembered about the fried eggs and fried bread I'd missed out on yesterday. The eggs were acceptable and the fried bread pretty good, once again the tortilla was the star of the show though. After sneakily making up some rolls for later we gathered our things for a day trip to Mogan. Luckily there were regular buses from the stop outside the hotel which would take us there direct. Along the way we passed the resorts we'd been trying to avoid, Maspalomas, Puerto Rico etc. Clearly popular resorts but the mass of hotels that stretched far back into the hills looked like my idea of hell.

Thankfully the picturesque port of Mogan was beautiful! We approached an information desk hoping to get a local map. It turned out the info desk was for timeshare properties further along the coast though. We endured the sales talk for just a few minutes before making our excuses and making a hasty exit. The lack of local map wasn't really necessary though as Mogan is quite small.

Something that caught my eye in Mogan was the red and white fish tiles.

There are also lots of cats to be found here relaxing in the sun.

The town located beside the marina is really beautiful and the main reason people visit Mogan. A wonderful place to stroll and admire the gardens that adorn the walls of the houses.

Walking around these streets was even better with a mint choc chip ice cream in my hand!

There's also a beautiful golden beach here and beside the beach there are no end of restaurants. We hadn't come prepared for the beach though so instead we wandered around to the port area.

We found a bar at the end of the port with great views across Mogan. Over a beer we took in the view and formulated a plan for the rest of the day.

I was very tempted to go on the yellow submarine but my wife didn't fancy it. In the end I decided to give it a miss but in hindsight I wish I had gone on it. It's a 40 minute trip which takes you 20 metres deep, the cost if I remember correctly was around €30. 

We stopped briefly on a bench to eat our soggy rolls we'd made back at the hotel and went to explore Canada de Los Gatos. It cost just €4 to visit this Archaeological area which provides an insight into the lifestyle of the Ancient Canarians. The site itself was quite interesting with remains of an old settlement to explore. On the way in we'd seen a sign warning of cats inside, we didn't see any though which was slightly disappointing.

To be honest I found the views across Mogan to be the highlight of the site. There was a pathway high up on the hills that took you to an exit much further back.

When we came out of the exit we seemed to be inside a large hotel complex. We struggled to find a way out but being lost inside here was actually pretty good. The gardens here were beautiful so we explored them for quite sometime.

Eventually we came across a chapel with a pathway that led us to a gate allowing us to get back outside again. 

Back at beach area we stopped for a cocktail. This strawberry daiquiri was incredible and the super long straw meant I could sit back and sip away without having to pick it up off the table.

We ordered some Canarian potatoes to share and I'm so glad we did. This local dish is potatoes boiled in salt water and served with a chilli pepper garlic sauce, delicious! After eating this we caught the bus back to our hotel and relaxed for a while before heading out to dinner.

The nearby plaza had been a lovely place to dine last night so we returned once again this evening. We started with some Sangria and decided to choose a selection of things from the menu to share.

These deep fried green peppers were really bitter!

The tomato salad was great though, so much flavour in all the tomatoes we'd eaten on the island.

The pizza here was excellent, we shared a vegatable pizza which was huge. After this we returned back to the hotel and my mind was fixed on getting to Fataga in the morning. It was a small village set back in the mountains in the municipality of San Bartolome de Tirajana. 

I'm just going to end again on something that highlights just how quickly everything in life can change. Back home on the BBC news (5th Feb) I was hearing about the first few cases of people tested positive for Coronavirus in the UK. There was also increasing concern over Storm Ciara where severe weather warnings had been issued. As I'm writing this on 7th April 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to intensive care at St Thomas' Hospital with Coronavirus. There are now around 1.3 million confirmed cases of Coronavirus in 184 countries and more than 70.000 have died.


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Day 4 - Fataga