Agaete, Gran Canaria
The town of Agaete is a centuries-old seafaring village and port on the northwest coast of Gran Canaria – an island that, along with its seven largest siblings, anchors the Canary Islands, the autonomous Spanish territory on a volcanic archipelago 100 kilometers west of Morocco.
For generations, Agaete's economy has been dominated by agriculture, commercial fishing, and its role as a port of trade. Through the diligence and vision of some outstanding people, it also has become a destination for remote workers and digital nomads eager to build community and connect with kindred spirits.
Though only 30 kilometers from the capital city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the bus ride out takes more than an hour, owing to the narrow, swaying roads and the fifty – FIFTY!! – stops it makes en route.
Agaete does not have a volume of tourism on par with Las Palmas or Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is an eighty-minute ferry ride to the northwest. Some residents speak assorted levels of English but many do not. Even if learning Spanish on the fly, it is manageable for curious students and those who make an effort. "Spanglish" can be effective, if only to convey that you don't know much of anything. Humans aren't that different, no matter where you are, and we find a way to communicate.
Intrepid cats roam the dockside promenade, unafraid of people, each other, or a three-story fall. They eat well and are known to the locals. One of these gatos, taking a golden-hour stroll along someone's roofline, paused to glare down at a car that had stopped mid-block – a violation of traffic rules and, evidently, the feline sense of order. After a brief standoff, the car disappeared around a corner, as did the cat behind a drying bedsheet. Order restored.
Houses and restaurants alike are carved into the mountains because you build where you are. One patio-style Mexican eatery sits on a hillside at modest elevation and has, by now, grown used to the coastal breeze that carries napkins, appetizers, and the meticulously arranged hairstyles of its patrons into the North Atlantic air.
The glory of its natural environment is Agaete's longest-serving partner. La cola de dragón, or "dragon's tail," is a coastal ridge to the southwest of town, and it is impossible to believe one could ever tire of its backdrop.
Natural pools along the shoreline attract those looking to cool off, show off, or take it all off. Packed and lively during the day, they are perhaps best enjoyed at dawn or dusk, when the sound of the ocean and the magnificence of the view comes into focus.
It takes fifteen minutes on foot to journey from the port to the village's central district, a compact, vertical arrangement of buildings of similar style which nevertheless stand out from one another.
Its inhabitants gather to eat, drink, and dance for any reason at all. Civic anniversaries. Historical commemorations. Tuesday afternoons. Not satisfied with its signature multi-day festival in August, the town stages a "pre-festival" a week earlier that could fool the unfamiliar into thinking it was the real thing. If 6,000 people live in Agaete, all but five or ten seemed to participate — and with mucha energía across the board.
Final thoughts: When we step out of the boundaries of what we know and opt for the unfamiliar road, we can see incredible things. Not because those things are unique on their own, though they may be, but because they're unique to us.
People, places, events, surroundings, and community are some of the variables that blend together into singular and unrepeatable experiences. Yet there's no limit to how many times you can do it, which is just fantastic.
Meeting new friends from unseen countries, maiming the integrity of a foreign language, or stumbling through darkness in a Spanish industrial field as Google Maps disintegrates before your eyes. Life is made of small moments like these. (Credit.)
Agaete has much to offer because it is willing to give what it has. And places like this – places that are worthy and welcoming and generous – are all around us, if we are open to finding them.
