I’ve already spent a month in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in a co-living space. So I decided to return, spend time with other nomads, and focus on work.
Co-Living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
I flew from Porto to Gran Canaria Airport, then took a bus north. From there, it was just a short walk to the co-living I booked. It was an old local house with a nice garden. The co-living concept is that nomads rent multiple villas or larger apartments in the same area. The close proximity of accommodations in the same district lets people connect across locations, and they keep a WhatsApp community going to organise things. The first time I stayed, this was thriving. This time, only partially. In the first week, there was a barbecue at one of the villas, and many people came. It was nice to socialise and get to know the people.
In the old house I booked, only one of the 3 rooms was used by a German girl who stayed for several months. When I arrived, she had just left for a friend’s place for a week. So I had this big house for myself. Not really what I expected before I came here. The last time I stayed in a different building with more rooms, the community was amazing. We had a great group. We took on many trips and went out to eat. I guess it’s always about luck and perfect timing. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time in the city and stayed focused. They also offered a co-working space up the hill, which was very nice and modern. I went there very frequently. But also, there were no other nomads. Everything felt a bit dead in what used to be a great community. Also, the administrator didn’t put much effort into improving that with simple actions like organising some gatherings.
A week working from El Cabo in the West
After two weeks in the city, I had to move somewhere else for one week because my room was booked. So during my initial booking, I could shift things around and change places within their properties. My week away from the city was in the West, in a small but beautiful fishing village called El Cabo. There, they run a former hotel with around 30 rooms. It’s focused on company retreats, and they usually rent it out to groups. The week after me, a film crew moved in, but before that, there was space, so I could stay there. At first, I thought it would be a better community since they have 30 rooms in a single building, but it wasn’t. I was the only one. I was used to being alone and enjoyed the facility, which was very nice. Big kitchen, comfy couches and an amazing rooftop. Fun fact: the first night I moved in was Halloween. And I stayed in this 5-floor hotel completely alone. “The ghost and I”, I was joking.
I didn’t get what I signed up for (when it came to co-living), so I complained to the management. They totally understood, and the manager invited me for a rooftop snack and some socialising, since he was there preparing for the film crew. This changed everything. I met the manager in charge of co-working and operations and had some great talks.
I stayed 7 nights at the El Cabo location, where I took some walks. There’s a famous natural pool, a quite nice landscape and many hikes to do. I focused on a lot of work. The room facilities were great, with a proper desk, chair, and a curved external monitor. This improved my productivity a lot. Obviously, the Wifi was fast. I also kept up a regular workout routine on the rooftop, got up early, and usually did some writing there before the sun started to set. I got into my very introverted side and really enjoyed being by myself.
I got up early, did a productive work session on the rooftop, worked out, came back down to the kitchen in the basement to grab breakfast, then kept working either in the community space or my room. I worked through and left for a walk. Sometimes I returned not too late and had another work session on the rooftop for sunset, or I took a longer walk/excursion to the close-by town or a natural pool not too far. There are also some hikes, but they were too far for the time I had, so I didn’t do any.
Back in the city with a better community
The manager I met in El Cabo really cared and messaged me on WhatsApp a couple of times after we met. When I returned to the co-working space in the city, he took me to their office, where I had the usual small talk while working, and it felt great. I knew the owner from my first stay a couple of years back, and I met him again at the office. I also got to use external monitors, which was amazing.
After El Cabo, I moved back into the same room in Las Palmas. At the time, the German woman was still alone, but the following week things got busier and all the rooms were booked. This made the house also a bit more social. We met people from another villa and came over for a barbecue, a game evening, or dinner. Things changed, and the vibe I was searching for in the first 3 weeks finally arrived. It was only for my last 1.5 weeks, but better than nothing. I enjoyed my productive time anyway. I’m used to being alone most of the time.
Another housemate from Germany, who arrived later and had studied in the city before, took me for a nice coffee at the beach, and we went to dinner to meet other nomads or expats in the city. There I also met a Chinese girl who was into tennis and padel. So I joined her and met some friends for a padel session the other day. Overall, I was quite active. I went for walks around the city, went to places by bicycle or took longer walks to other parts of the city with my housemate. Also, the walk up the hill to the co-working space was an activity.
One evening, my housemate wanted to teach me a Spanish dish, which is quite easy to prepare since my cooking skills still aren’t very good, and when I cook, I make my beloved Spaghetti with ready-made sauce. We prepared “Huevos Rotos” together. It’s a dish made out of sliced and baked potatoes and bacon, with an egg on top. Very easy indeed and delicious. I’ll manage to do that by myself at some point. So I’m happy she showed me that.
One afternoon, I also spontaneously met a Dutch friend I knew from a co-living place in Taghazout, who was on vacation on the island with some friends. We met quickly in a cafe/bar next to the city’s surf beach, just a quick bike ride from my co-working space. I love meeting friends from all over the world in random places and getting updates on what they’re up to and what they experienced while we weren’t together. It shows how important it is to connect through social media and stay in touch by following each other’s stories. He was involved in my drone recovery rescue in Morocco, but sadly wasn’t successful. But the learning led to the final delivery back to me.
Time flies fast. That was already a full month on the island of Gran Canaria. My second so far. I took the ferry bus on a rainy Friday morning. I almost didn’t make it, since I have a talent for losing track of time and underestimating traffic and other circumstances. So I ended up renting a bike with all my luggage, and on top of everything, it started raining like crazy. I got wet, and my laptop fell off the bike once, but I made it. Then I had an hour-long bus ride to the port, where all the passengers switched to the ferry leaving for Tenerife.
