Can you imagine going on vacation to Las Palmas in the summer and finding skies like Glasgow or Hamburg? It's like November in Manchester, but in July and August. Tourists expect sunshine, but instead find overcast skies, rainless but without joy, like a mild, unseasonable winter. However, while Las Palmas is like Bremen, with cloudy skies and humidity, but without constant rain, southern Gran Canaria is a hotbed of sunshine and good cheer. Many Gran Canarians already know the story and book apartments and vacation homes months in advance. When tourists try to find an alternative once they arrive, they are forced to serve the sentence of vacationing under cloudy skies and unfriendly taxi drivers in low-cost Dacia vehicles.
Every summer, history repeats itself in Las Palmas. Tens of thousands of tourists, and quite a few residents, watch the days pass under a leaden, gray, and overcast sky. The breeze is cold. The humidity permeates. And what seemed like an escape to paradise begins to be tinged with something deeper than disappointment: sadness, irritability, even anxiety. The culprit, known to lifelong islanders, is the now-famous donkey belly. But its effect isn't just climatic. It's also biochemical. Only married people who don't aspire to higher doses of serotonin speak positively of the donkey belly. Marketing officials try to put an optimistic spin on tourism promotion agencies from their cell phones in Playa del Inglés, sunbathing.
The donkey's belly is a meteorological phenomenon caused by the trade winds, which accumulate clouds over the northern and northeastern slopes of the island, especially in summer. It's a "reverse summer": when the rest of the world is looking for shade, here we look for the sun. But it doesn't appear. The problem isn't just what you see—or don't see—in the sky, but what happens to the human body when direct sunlight is lacking.
“Serotonin depends in part on exposure to sunlight. If there's no sun for several days, the body reduces its production, and this directly impacts mood,” explains Beatriz Santana, a psychologist with a practice in Maspalomas. “Every year we encounter tourists who are confused, apathetic, and even show symptoms of mild depression.”
Serotonin, known as the "feel-good hormone," regulates fundamental aspects of mental balance: mood, sleep, appetite, and vital energy. Its natural production is inhibited in conditions of intense and persistent cloudiness, such as those experienced in the capital of Gran Canaria during July and August. For years, public institutions and tourism operators have promoted Las Palmas as a "city with a mild climate and year-round sunshine." But that promise crumbles with the arrival of the "panza de burro" (Donkey's Belly). Families who have booked vacations hoping for days of beach and sunshine are finding themselves facing an unannounced climate trap.
“We came to Las Palmas because of the photos we saw on an official website. Bright sunshine, happy people. But in three days we didn't see the sun for even an hour. My children were unbearable. I was exhausted. We ended up renting a car and heading south,” says Rosa, a tourist from Seville who traveled from Las Canteras to Playa del Inglés last summer in the middle of August. And the most serious aspect, according to experts, isn't just the deception or the logistical inconvenience, but the real impact on people's emotional health, especially families, the elderly, or those already going through complex emotional processes. This last-minute tourist transfer from the capital to the south—to areas like Meloneras, San Agustín, or Arguineguín—is not free. It generates a collapse in carrying capacity, strains services, and adds pressure on accommodations already operating at maximum capacity during the high season. All due to a predictable but largely undisclosed phenomenon.
“The most honest thing would be to tell the truth: Las Palmas isn't for the July sun. That's fine. It has other values. But if you insist on hiding your belly fat, what you're causing isn't just frustration: you're causing sadness,” Santana concludes. Meanwhile, in the south, tourists continue to receive gloomy moods and low serotonin levels. And while the weather helps lift spirits, it can't do everything. Institutional honesty and the responsible design of tourism campaigns are also important public health measures.
