A hotel stopped in time

We keep the memories to not forget the past time lived, we fulfill them with values and feelings, and sometimes those memories inhabitat objects, places…

This is the story of a romance, a love which is still remaining in the spirit of Hotel Olympia. A hotel stopped in time, preserved with tons of love by its owner Victoria Land Morales.

Victoria lived in England but she spent the summer in Gran Canaria where her mother was from. Months of going to the beach, family and parties. In 1961 she asked for a song to a Dj and he stole her heart.

José Ramón de los Reyes Pérez Báez, was that DJ, he was a famous business man’s son and he decided to invest to transform a familiar property into a grand hotel and to take benefits from the Swedish tourism in the Canary Islands. Jose Ramón faced the business and he dedicated hours and hours to pay all their employees. Victoria and José Ramón were a happy marriage who created a family with two sons and enjoyed life.

One day they got an invitation to assist at an inauguration of a new hotel in Playa del Inglés and they decided to rent a room with a couple of friends. They left the 30th of April and during the journey José Ramón told Victoria he had to come back to their hotel to pay their employees, for him it was primordial to pay their salary right in time, but he would be right back in a few hours. While Victoria was putting on her makeup to go to the celebration, José Ramón went back to the city to do his job. When he returned to the hotel of Playa del Inglés, he met up with a friend who was going to the same place and he followed his car to the destination. Meanwhile, Victoria was ready for the evento and finally Juan Ramon’s friend came back to the hotel, but José Ramón didn’t. She asked his friend where he was and he responded he lost him in a curve on the highway. She expected the worst and she asked him to take her to the place where he disappeared. She found a car accident in a ravine of the old road and her love lost forever, she went crazy with pain…

From that moment, her father-in-law refused to let her work in the hotel and she had to come back to England to support her children and work hard to buy the property in 1981. Her father-in-law, devastated by economical issues, had to sell the hotel and they setted up a deal.

Visiting the Olympia is to breathe lovely memories, Victoria has an elegant appearance and she’s a fighting woman and she has a smile full of amiability and affection.

Few days ago her beloved dog Jaime went away, but they still have the last photo they took of him. “That’s why is always important to have memories when we love life”