Travelog for: Knopf

There are some busses for public transportation and of course some organized sight-seeing tours, but to really see the island and go to interesting places, one need to have a car. So we rented one and drove to the north. The roadsigns aren't always logical, e.g. the main road out of the rotary might not have any directional sign at all or there are signs to show the way to a sight coming from the north, but not from the south or signs to a museum that lead you through a pedestrian zone. So we took some unplanned detours and one of them led us to this place where we got a great view or waves hitting the beach and also of some surfers further east and west.
Behind me you can see part of one of the biggest highway bridges in Spain. It's built around the hillsides.

After driving up a curving ad nearly deserted road, we found Cenobio de Valeron. These caves were supposedly a granary for the Guanches, also containing dried fruit and possibly also used for some ceremonies. The caves were closed with stones and possibly sealed with seals pressed into clay, maybe to signify the owners of the stored grain, but it might also have been communal. It seems to me that the historians don't really know all that much about the Guanches and their culture.
We did have a nice view down towards Las Palmas and could see big lizards living undisturbed on the slope.
We went on to Gáldar to see the Cueva Pintada museum. Unfortunately photos weren't allowed at all in the whole museum. The cave itself could only be visited in groups and light was only turned on for 4 min per group to protect the mural. The really interesting thing I learnt, apart from some facts about the social structure of the Guanches, is that the cave was painted in the middle ages, not anywhere near the stone age I imagined.

Today we went to the Pico de Bandama. It's the highest point around the crater of the Bandama volcano. From there I could look over the northern and eastern coast of the island: see ing the capital Las Palmas, the coastline, the vineyards we drove though to get here to the north-west and the oldest golf club of Spain (founded by the British in the 19th century) to the south-west.  (views are: north/east/south-east/north-west/south-west)
On the way back down from the top I took a peek into the crater. It's about 1000m wide and 200m deep. If you look closely you can see a farmhouse at the bottom. Warm air is rising along the sides. It feels somewhat dangerous.

We continued on unto the parking lot of the golf course. This is the view into the crater from the south. The island is very green this year, apparently there was a lot of rain this autumn, even though we saw some signs of the forest fires that raged here last summer. Look how pretty and colorful it is here even though December also means winter here.
I looked back at the Pico de Bandama. The road to the top leads around it in circles.

Next, Emil and I wanted to visit a pottery center where the traditional production of ceramics is shown, but it was closed with no information about when it would be open. So we just took a look around the town.

On our way towards Santa Lucía via Fataga, we found this goat farm near a view point.

The Fortaleza de Ansite consists of several rock formations with multiple caves rising out of the valley near Santa Lucía de Tirajana.The are counted as a fortress because they were (and are) hard to access. Supposedly it was the last stonghold of the prehispanic people in Gran Canaria and was conquered by General Pedro de Vera in 1483 after a 5-year-long siege, during which many Guanches surrendered themselves. According to the story we heard, Bentejuí, one of the leaders of the Guanches and several of his followers in the end preferred to jump off the cliffs to surrendering to the Spanish. The Fiesta de Ansite commemorates this event each April 29th.
(The first 2 pictures are from a view point, the next from the biggest fortaleza incl. some caves.)

We are on the road again toward the center of the island. Here'S a look back towards the valley of Fataga.

From the road above Tejeda I had another good view over Roque Bentayga and could see the top of the Teide of Tenerife rise above the clouds.

Artenara ist a town in the highest montainrange of Gran Canaria. We could see Roque Nublo (left) and Roque Bentayga (center) and the over Caldera de Tejeda. We could see where the Cuevas del rey are, but they cannot be visited because the are in danger of caving in.

We walked around the town and up to a view point. Many houses seem to be built in front of older living caves, and combine the living space. We didn't find the cave with the altar for the Virgen de la Cuevita, though and neither did other tourists we met on the way. It was warm in the sun but cold in the clouds and they were moving in, so decided to get back to the coast.

It's nearly time to go back to Germany. We said good-bye to the sun, the palm trees, the poinsettias that can get very big here, our Christmastree and the pool and packed our bags to wait for pick-up.

I am excited to have a plane ticket in my hands once more. Our first flight will lead us to Riga.

Our plane had to wait for something to be fixed and then we flew longer htan expected and now we have to rush through the airport in order to get though passport control and to our gate that is boarding already.

After an uncomfortable night flight and 2 hours spent at customs we finally get out of the airport and are greeted by the green city of Tashkent.