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Anne's Travel Journal

 

February 10, 1939 – Las Palmas, Canary Islands

 

We woke up in the harbor here at Las Palmas.  The harbor is formed by a huge pier of concrete over a mile long and wide enough for cars to pass easily, with a high wall on the sea side.  There are stalls all along, and there are infinite varieties of wares for sale in these stalls - from kimonos, carved ivory, embroideries and laces, to postcards and rubber balls.  It is really a conglomeration, but there is not anything very desirable.   I understand that at the back of the stalls are pipes which bring oil in and out to the ships from the oil base farther in the Port Town.  After breakfast we got in cars down on this pier, and drove thru the Port City to the City proper.  There are so few trees and no green grass or flowers as it is very dry here.  There is very little rain ever.  Many think that it is like the town of Algiers – just houses and streets, with no yards or gardens.  It didn’t seem as foreign as Madeira or as attractive.  One lady said they had so many dogs here, that the islands got their name from the word Canine – or Canary – I couldn’t vouch for this but she claimed she read it.  I thought it might be for the canaries which are the native birds here, but I guess she might be right and the birds were named for the islands.  We didn’t find the shops very interesting or unusual.  We took a long drive along the sea and then inland to a fertile green valley and mountain side district.  There were very lovely bananas in huge bunches on the trees growing up, instead of down as one would imagine, oranges, grapes and the same flowers and shrubs as California, but many more.  I saw a belladonna shrub with white lily like flowers like those we saw in Honolulu.  We went thru several clean looking towns– Telde and San Brigida.  Between these two towns, we went over some mountain roads where the breath-taking precipitous views almost gave us heart failure.  We had an old Packard which the driver got out to crank to start, but I must say he was a good driver and rather careful, though not too much so – however, we survived some way.  After stopping at the Hotel Metropole for a pick-me-up and lunch, which was very delicious, we set out with our trusty driver and our two lady fellow passengers, whom we didn’t care so much about, for the shopping district, a short look-see and then on to our good ship.  I forgot to mention the big theatre building we visited, and also a very lovely old Catholic Church or I should say Cathedral.   I took a picture of Paul in a sort of Municipal Square opposite the Church with the Cathedral as a background.  Hung across the front of the Cathedral was a large picture of Franco and the Spanish colors, orange and red.  It seems there was a small skirmish here and it was taken over by the Franco regime not so long ago, and now everything and everybody is strong for Franco.  The Pope passed away today and all the flags were at half-mast and many had bows of black crepe fastened on them.  We went thru a cigarette and cigar factory where machines -many operated by women- pressed, shredded and rolled the tobacco, and put it in the paper and cut it into cigarette lengths.  Then they were packed into small boxes of 20 each, so fast one could scarcely see the operation - and this was done by young women by hand.  We didn’t get any as the paper looked dark like Mexican cigarettes, and we didn’t seem to want them.  Not many ships make this port and this is the first visit here of the Conte Di Savoia.  They didn’t seem to play up to the tourists quite as much as Madeira where ships stop every day! But the little children would wave out-stretched palms and call “penny.”  This is a very healthful place, and the children seemed nice and clean and everyone smiled and seemed quite friendly.  I wouldn’t care to stay here any longer, but it has been interesting and now when I see a map of the world the Canary Islands won’t seem like little black dots anymore!

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Anne and Paul's second port of call was Las Palmas on Gran Canaria island, one of the Canary Islands.  The "lady" Anne mentions is correct in that the islands were likely named for the canines.  The Roman historian, Pliny the Elder, mentions “Canaria, so called from the multitude of dogs [canes] of great size.”  The Canary Islands' shield and crown on its crest is held up by two dogs:

 

 

 

 

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It is also true the canary bird gets its name from the islands.  The common canary (Serinus canaria) is native to the Canary Islands.  

 

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The Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago, located about 62 miles off the coast of Morocco.  Gran Canaria island contains one of the two capital cities of the Islands, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which is also the most populous city.  Gran Canaria's surface area is approximately 600 square miles.  Two mountains lie at the center of the island, Roque Nublo (5,948 feet) and Pico de las Nieves ("Peak of Snow") (6,394 feet).  These were the source of the mountain roads with the breath-taking precipitous views that almost gave Anne and Paul heart failure.  Can you imagine traveling up and down steep roads in a car that had to be started by vigorously turning a crank by hand?!  Unfortunately the Stillmans did not take a photo of that car.

 

Anne mentions the Franco poster and Spanish colors draped over the front of the cathedral.  The Civil War in Spain commenced on July 18, 1936 and was still being fought when Anne and Paul set out on their voyage.  In the spring of 1936, just prior to commencement of the Civil War, the Spanish government sent two prominent generals to remote army posts.  These generals were believed to be sympathetic to the conspirators plotting to overthrow the government. One of the two was General Francisco Franco, and he was posted to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.  Franco quickly seized control of the Canary Islands.  Early in the morning of July 18, before he secretly left the Islands to ultimately lead the uprising in Spain, Franco ordered the army of Gran Canaria, with the support of the Falangists (the Spanish Fascists), to besiege the buildings occupied by the legitimately-elected Island Republican government until it surrendered.  The Islands were still under military rule when the Stillmans' visited; however, the fighting on the mainland was never carried to the shores of the Islands and the only reminder of the bloody conflict being waged and its ties to the mounting tensions in Europe was the Franco display at the cathedral.

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Paul in front of the municipal square, with the cathedral draped with Franco's poster in the background:

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Here is a photo of Paul in front of the theatre building Anne mentions.  Note the  gentleman beside him apparently in some sort of uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Anne had her photo taken with a child and donkey she must have thought were quaint.  Perhaps this was in one of the towns she thought were so clean.  You can see a bit of the old Packard automobile on the right, and the gentleman on the left is probably their "trusty" driver.

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The next stop on the Stillmans' agenda was Gibraltar.  This was one of the highlights of the trip, especially for Paul, and he wrote a detailed article about it for his brother's newspaper.  Navigate to this piece by clicking on 4b in the dropdown menu, above.