The Look of Love: El Palacete Rodríguez Quegles

The 25th Canarian Jazz Festival came to an end on 24th July, stretching over more than 2 weeks, entertaining thousands throughout the archipelago, bringing jazz, in its widest sense, to the masses. 25 years! I vaguely remember its early humble beginnings and I couldn't believe that it's been around for two and a half decades already.

The Jazz Festival overlaps with the 20th edition of the month-long TEMUDAS, which again, brings various art forms onto the streets of Las Palmas. The TE stands for teatro (theatre), the MU for música (music) and the DAS for danza (dance). TEMUDAS can also be seen as a play on words; te mudas means you move, and the festival basically moves from street to street, square to square, over the Vegueta district.

It's heartening to see the growth of important cultural and sporting events in the Canaries over the years, attempting to show the world that this archipelago has more to offer than just "cheap" beach holidays. Its Music Festival is held every winter, the next edition being the 33rd. Yes, the 33rd!

The 16th Film Festival was held last March and the Opera Festival will be entering its 50th edition in 2017.

Then, on the sporting front, there's the Marathon, the Transgrancanaria ultra trail, the Iron Man, etc.

Anyway, the purpose of this post wasn't really to talk about these events but rather to share a few photos I took and to expose this gem, hidden behind Triana.

One of my favourite buildings in Las Palmas (and it's many other people's fave too) is El Palacete Rodríguez Quegles. A gorgeous building such as this has to have a gorgeous story to go with it, and this one certainly has.

There was this señor, affluent and influential, no doubt, named Juan Rodríguez Quegles. He fell in love with a lady, María Teresa González Díaz. So, his proposal to her was no beating about the bush: "If you marry me, I'll build you the most beautiful house on this island".

An offer she found difficult to refuse so she took him up on it. And he wasn't lying.

He contracted a prominent architect from Madrid, Mariano Belmás to fulfil his promise. Building work started in 1900. The story then becomes a bit hazy. It isn't clear how much work Belmás did but he didn't finish the work; it was Fernando Navarro y Navarro who did but exactly when the building was completed is unknown.

Through the years, however, love alone wasn't enough to maintain a building of this stature. The cost was too great and its inheritors couldn't keep it going. The Ayuntamiento of Las Palmas acquired it in 1972.

The Conservatorio Superior de Música used the building for about 16 years but eventually found that the premises were too big for the number of students they had.

Since then, several organizations have had the fortune to use El Palacete (Little Palace) and fairly recently, it received a facelift, and took on a fresh coat of paint. The original colour of the exterior walls is unknown although it had been green for many years. Now, it's blue, and against the blue skies of Las Palmas, I think it's perfect. The evergreen flame trees with its bright red flowers provide a graceful contrast.

The fruit of love

From 28th May to 24th July, the organization occupying this mansion had been Heineken, who called it The House, and they used it to hold various cultural activities where access to them was by invitation only.

Their penultimate event before their tenure expired was a short concert as part of the 25th Canarian Jazz Festival mentioned right at the beginning of this post. The performing band was Patax. Led by master percussionist Jorge Pérez, they play a blend of jazz fused with funk, Afrocuban, flamenco, folk and whatever else that takes their fancy. If you've never heard of them, I'd recommend that you looked them up.

I was thrilled when I managed to conjure up a couple of last-minute invites and dragged Matthew Hirtes, also known as Mr Gran Canaria Local, along with me. On the early evening of Friday 22nd July, a stripped-down quartet, comprising of Jorge Pérez, Alana Sinkëy, Carlos Sánchez and Daniel García, treated us to an "unplugged" version of Patax. A fuller band would appear later that night at Plaza Santa Ana.

Patax, unplugged

Once in a while, I come up with a photograph (of mine) that I really like. This doesn't happen often but when it does, I like to share it with the world. Of course, not everyone may agree with me. When I mentioned at the beginning that the purpose of this post was to share some photos, the following are what I was referring to. The gentle, demure, sultry Alana Sinkëy simply lit up my camera. Even though I had to crop a lot to get what I had in mind, I am chuffed to have had the opportunity to capture these few seconds of her:

Alana Sinkëy

I hope you like them as much as I do!

Credit:

Villegas, Vicente. "EL PALACETE RODRÍGUEZ QUEGLES." ULPGC, 2012. Web. 

Also thanks to Matthew Hirtes for his assistance in the research.

Guggenheim, a video slide show in HD

To watch on HD, click on wheel icon at the bottom right, select 1080p HD. Go into full screen mode by clicking on the rightmost icon at the bottom.

The End

This was my original plan.

I wanted to go all the way to San Andrés de Texeido. But, of course, it wasn't going to be. Still, after A Coruña, there was just about enough time to head somewhere else and so, I programmed in Playa de Santa Comba.

To tell you the truth, I was getting a wee bit nervous when I was sent turning left and right and heading further and further from civilisation, no signs, no nothing... and the roads were getting narrower and narrower...then, out of the blue, the sea loomed before us, turquoise and wild, the surroundings, practically deserted. Practically, but not quite. There were a couple of caravans, no-one in the sea (quite wisely), though there was a lone fisherman down by the rocks, and, in the distance, the solitary hermitage of Santa Comba, apparently currently almost inaccessible.

Stairway to heaven

Santa Comba beach

The cliffs, the waves, the hermitage...the isolation of this place, a place for one to sit and watch the wonders of nature at play, to hear the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks and nothing else, not even seagulls...

A fitting finale to this journey, from Bilbao to A Coruña, I'd say. Hope you've enjoyed travelling with me!

Best coffee in the north of Spain!

By the time I got back to Santiago, it was evening, or perhaps not. If it'd been evening I would probably not have wanted coffee, but I did...

Walked past a few and chose San Jacobus on Rúa do Preguntoiro. My instinct was good. I'd been terribly disappointed with all the coffee I'd had during the whole of this trip, but the one here was perfect! The right temperature, the perfect strength, the ideal (for me) balance of coffee and milk... Even the churros were good! The hot chocolate was very good, too. Thick but not so thick you'd need a spoon to drink it with.

If you're looking for a good cup of coffee, this is definitely the one I'll recommend!

In spite of it being about half past eight or so, there was still a fair amount of light and the sun wasn't setting yet. This was the only day that it hadn't rained since we arrived, so I decided to see what I can shoot around the streets of Santiago. I may just have to open the aperture all the way and/or crank up the ISO, I thought.

Just me, my camera and I...

Sans commentaire... Well, maybe just some captions. ;-)

An ice cream man without ice cream?

Well, well, well, the ice cream man has found himself an audience!

Purito, the people's champion

Continued from Romain Bardet, a future champion

Long after the race was over, I was still there, hanging around this bus...

Katusha Team bus

The reason was to try to catch he who is probably one of the most popular cyclists in Spain, he whose custom saddle bears the image of his nickname.

Little cigar

If you still haven't guessed, it's Joaquim "Purito" Rodríguez - "purito" means little cigar - the 35-year-old who seems to have always missed out on the big ones. He finished third in this race, but this wasn't very important for him, his main objective for the season being the Vuelta a España. I wonder how many people have noticed that his bike has "Joaquin" with an "n" instead of an "m" (Joaquim is more a Catalan/Portuguese name while Joaquin is more Spanish).

Another take of his amazing saddle

Purito's bike

When Purito appeared, we were probably somewhere else. When we rushed back, he'd already gone into the bus. He never came out and some of his entourage said he wouldn't. But, every time we chased another cyclist, he reappeared.

Purito looked frightened

Looking for help, then promptly disappeared back into the bus!

Look, over there! He's coming! Up there! They were referring to the winner, Alejandro Valverde. This "fan" acted as though he'd known him all his life! May probably be the case, too!

Fan with Alejandro Valverde, the eventual winner

Back there! Back there! Purito took the appearance of Valverde as an opportunity to reappear briefly to please the waiting fans, especially the younger ones, who had been hanging around patiently, convinced that he would show himself again and they were right! Although  an aide was saying, that's it, that's it, he's going to miss his flight!

Two happy fans! Purito looked less happy, though!

I also managed to shoot some photos of Bauke Mollema, the runner-up, but they were not up to scratch. This one of Tanel Kangert, who came in 16th, is a little better.

Tanel Kangert (16th) with this fan again!

That's it for an exciting day of pro cycling, lots of hanging around, lots of photos, some good, a lot of bad ones, hehe. Perhaps I'll get another camera in the future as I'm experiencing certain limitations with this one. Oh, to be in a situation where I can spend money on what I want!

Romain Bardet, a future champion

Continued from 34th Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian, the finish

You caught a glimpse of some after-the-finish shots and might have guessed that I hung around for a while after the end. Yes, quite a while, in fact. The reason for this will be apparent in a later post. This post is dedicated to, by all accounts, a future champion, Romain Bardet, who's barely 24 and had just started riding professionally in 2012. This young Frenchman is currently riding for Ag2r-La Mondiale. 

In the 34th La Clásica de San Sebastián, he finished 18th, 43 seconds behind the winner. A mere 10 days later, he was racing at the Tour de L'Ain, and if I'm not mistaken, he finished, coincidentally, in the same position!

Enjoy the pics!

Romain Bardet, a future champion

A happy Romain Bardet

Wellwishers

A fan seeking autograph

Supporters clamouring for attention

A crazy lady

Romain Bardet checking his stuff

Girlfriend or sister?

Nice hairdo ;)

Taming it...

A happy fan

Romain Bardet, showered and changed

A more relaxed Romain Bardet

“When you photograph people in colour, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!” 

― Ted Grant

I try, I try...

Free jazz at the Guggenheim

I hope you've enjoyed the slide show of Guggenheim as you've never seen before!

I might have not caught the sunset glowing on the Goog, but I did catch some cool cool jazz from a wonderful trio playing on the terrace just outside. I couldn't find out the name of the band, unfortunately. By the looks of it, I wasn't the only one enjoying their music. Apart from paying customers sipping their G&T or whatever, numerous others were seated or standing around, soaking in the free entertainment.

When they stopped playing, I made my way back along the river bank, heading southwards again. This was when I caught the fire fountain, the sound it made when the flames shot up startling those walking by. The night was getting darker and I was getting colder...