La Aldea de San Nicolás

Parish of La Aldea de San Nicolás
	Church of the place
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Canary Islands
Province :	Las Palmas
Island:	Gran Canaria
Coordinates	27 ° 59 ′ N , 15 ° 47 ′ W Coordinates: 27 ° 59 ′ N , 15 ° 47 ′ W
Height :	33 msnm
Area :	123.58 km²
Residents :	7,504 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	60.72 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	E-35470
Municipality number ( INE ):	35020
administration
Mayor :	Tomás Pérez Jiménez ( PSOE ) (as of 09/2006)
Address of the municipal administration:	C / General Franco, 28 35470 - San Nicolás de Tolentino
Website :	www.laaldeadesannicolas.es
Location of the municipality

La Aldea de San Nicolás (until 2005 San Nicolás de Tolentino ) is located in the west of the Canary Island Gran Canaria . The community has 7504 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019).

The place is named after St. Named Nicholas of Tolentino .

economy

The tourism and the associated infrastructure are here not as pronounced as, for example, on the south coast. The community is more agricultural. The place lives mainly from its extensive tomato plantations. The plantations are supplied with water from numerous reservoirs in the mountains, which store water from rains in winter. In addition to tomatoes, there are all kinds of other agricultural products in San Nicolás. Potatoes, vegetables and all kinds of fruits are grown.

traffic

At La Aldea there is the last unrealized section of the expressway around the island. For a long time, both the northern town of Agaete and the southern towns of Mogán and Puerto de Mogán could only be reached via relatively small and narrow mountain passes.

After Mogán had a connection to the GC-1 motorway in 2013, the first new section of the GC-2 motorway near La Aldea was inaugurated at the beginning of April 2017, after several years of construction, which connects La Aldea with Agaete. It is a 7 km long section, which is characterized among other things by the longest tunnel on the island to date (3,162 meters). Just a few months after it was put into operation, the new section of the route led to a noticeable increase in tourism in the La Aldea region.

Residents

year	Residents	Population density
1991	7,751	-
1996	8,082	-
2001	7,668	61.8 inhabitants / km²
2002	8,063	-
2003	8,089	65.8 inhabitants / km²
2004	7,988	64.7 inhabitants / km²
2005	8,299	67.2 inhabitants / km

Attractions

Colored rock layers Los Azulejos , a few kilometers south towards Mogán, green color caused by sodium iron silicate. Here on the west coast there are relatively old rocks (approx. 14 million years old).
Cactus garden Cactualdea , one of the largest in Europe
Nature reserve Güi-Güi (also: Guguy; for: steep coast) with two beaches that were very well known during the hippie era (around 500 hippies lived here). Sand can only be seen there at low tide - and if there have been no storms in the previous months. Starting from Tasartico, the beaches can only be reached after a three-hour mountain hike and have no infrastructure whatsoever.

The descent to Playa de Guigui

Growing tomatoes

The use of greenhouses to grow tomatoes has the following advantages over open cultivation:

Prevention of soil erosion by wind and water
Improvement of the surface quality of the fruits (less wind ⇒ leaves do not rub against the fruits)
Reduction of storm damage
Insect pests are kept away

This is offset by the following disadvantages: