The Canary Islands - Grand Canaria

We booked a personal tour for Grand Canaria with a focus on the inland mountains and away from the madding crowds. We were met by Ines and Juanjo who were a fun couple of which more in a moment. Our first stop was San Mateo with its picturesque square and church. The dead tree trunk in the foreground has been given a new life.

Inside the church was simple and neat with the exception of the roof which is a carpenter’s work of art.

The church overlooks the original main street with housing which (for the 17C) would have been very posh and in stark comparison to the other side of the church square.

Poor people could only afford dry stone walls. As time passed they would have been gradually able to access lime and slowly infill the stones to keep out the drafts. They were unlikely to be able to afford a completely lime (or later cement) rendered wall. Of course now the buildings are heritage listed and they are not allowed to render them in any case!

After some coffee in a noisy local establishment we continued to climb and towards the top had a stop with a commanding view. Most of the mountains are quite rugged. The island has coastal people and inland people with some of the latter eking out a living as farmers and rarely travelling to the coast. Some lived in caves and if you look closely towards the bottom of the main hill you can see a few of these.

The view attracts a few visitors and there were a few stalls with wonderful local produce. Most of the interior is too steep and dry for cows so the cheese is made predominantly from goat’s milk with some combined with sheep’s milk. It was hard to resist the tastings. Turning your back didn’t work!

The tastings did whet our appetite for lunch. We were taken to a pine forest where our guides put on some splendid local tapas like fare. (Not to mention Rjoca.)

After lunch our extrovert guides had us praying to the sun gods resulting in music emanating remotely from within the back pack. Lo and behold a bottle of locally produced dessert rum trying to get out….

The stop really produced a feeling of dejavu as it was so similar to camp sites in Canada. The smell of pine and birdsong added to very relaxed surroundings.

Suitably refreshed we continued ever upwards with our next stop the highest point on the island. In their younger days our guides used to host sky diving activities. Clearly some still have a yearning to fly.

The height here is some 2000 metres above sea level. Which is almost three times higher than Canberra. That said it pales into insignificance compared to Tenerife which can be seen in the background above the clouds. The high point there is some 4000 metres.

Looking West the land has given way to some development although the terrrain has ensured it is sparse. The visible point on the left of this shot is, at 1965 metres, the highest on the island. What was amazing were the number of cyclists who had made their way up. Comments like ‘you are never too old’ were not particularly convincing from my perspective….

And with that there was only one way to travel. On the way down we stopped at the Caldera de los Marteles. Interestingly, the bottom of this Caldera is fertile and a perfect grassland area. We were particularly lucky with our Spring timing as colourful blooms were everywhere.

Our route down included a long, narrow and largely one lane road. Fortunately stopping for a picture was not a problem as other traffic was almost non-existent. Here is a cave house. The sun shade over the entrance was a little extravagant…. 

And then the catholic church arrived. Initially in 1560 a small hermitage was built but over the years this was discarded and rebuilt to its current format. Although inaugurated in 1908 it was not completed until the 1940s! Certainly, somewhat of a ‘show off’ compared to the quality of house most lived in.

And with that we returned to QM2. A fantastic day which really opened our eyes to what the Canarie islands have to offer. The antics of our guides with a range of music, iPad shows in the car and their  third team member (the car plus a lot of imagination) really differentiated this tour from any other we have been on. A thoroughly enjoyable day.