Travelog for: Knopf

We hiked and climbed up Roque Bentayga, the holy rock and the guanches. There's another sacrificial altar and some smaller caves. A bigger cave is supposedly still closed up by some rocks and there might be some interesting things in there because no graverobbers got to it so far. There's a Berber inscription on the other side of the rock that has only been discovered relatively recently and hasn't been deciphered, yet. Looks like there are still a lot of mysteries to be solved by ambitious archeologists here.

Our way back to the south led us through the Valley of Fataga, known for all the palm trees in the valley, even though they are hard to see in the picture that looks back through the valley. We stopped at a hotel there and had great almond ice-cream and cake with mint sauce before we drove down the valley leading directly back to Maspalomas. 

Cuatro Puertas is a site featuring caves made by the indigenous people. The main cave has 4 entrances, hence the name, and is about 17 x 7,5 m big. The flat area in front of the entrances has roughly the same wize and round indentations, possibly used for poles to hold a roof. The big cave is thought to have been the court of a king or priest. a bit above it on the top of the 300m high hill is another site of worship or sacrificial altar, called the Almogaren. You can see how tiny I am in comparison. From here you also have a good view of the coast, and nowadays of the airport.

On the south side of the hill there are more caves:
Cueva de los Papeles: with a door-like entry that has a rectangular extension and a sloping entrance that leads to a drainage system. Inside are more indentation for something and some hardly visible triangular markings.
The last is an entrance to more caves that lead into each other. We couldn't actually access them, but more clearly handmade entrances to caves can be seen on the steep south side of the hill. Some books suggest that is was kind of a convent for priestesses (maguadas).
Even outside the actual caves, there are what seem to be storage areas hewn into the rock (Or maybe they were caves to accomodate toyvoyagers, the size fits!), and what looks like fireplaces.

One cannot visit Gran Canaria and not walk through the dunes of maspalomas if one if able. It can be hard going, the sand can be hot, but sliding down the high dunes is a lot of fun, there's lots of strange vegetation, seeds with spikes that dig into skin or fur, fields of salty sand that give a good foot massage, big lizards, birds of prey, rushes higher than people, and areas with impassable brush.
(The pictures look different because many were made with a camera phone, sand isn't good for the big camera.)
We started out the at Riu Palace hotel and went south-west, our goal being the Faro de Maspalomas.

We took a long busride to Telde and looked around th etown and at all the people doing their Christmas shopping. There was a huge nativity scene set up in the city that also featured modern safari trucks and other scenes. It was fun to figure out all the details.

We arrived back at home an have lot's of Christmassy things still to do.

We went to Munich on a business trip and had very little time to see the city in daylight, but here are the impressions of the city center on our last day:
Karlsplatz, model of the city center, cathedral, new and old town hall, Viktualienmarkt, theater, hunting and fishing museum

I helped to pack lots of things that are much bigger than myself. I am tired and hoping for an uneventful trip tomorrow. Guess where we're going!

After a long journey we arrived in this bed&breakfast last night and were glad to get to take a (cold) shower. This morning we had a typical breakfast: gallo pinto, fried platanos, scrambled eggs, fruit and toast, not to forget the coffee! Speaking Spanish during breakfast went better than expexcted. Now we have to catch a bus to our first real destination.

We arrived in Monteverde in the early afternoon and took a walk along the main road (only a few mostly unpaved roadslead off of it) and into the town of Santa Elena. We had a look around the shops and backpacker hostels and all the activities that can be done here. I want to go zip-lining or repelling down waterfalls! The way back up the mountain had us a bit out of breath. I guess we are higher above teh sealevel than I am used to.

This is a view we had near our house. You can see down the mountain towards Puntarenas and You can see the Gulf of Nicoya and the Nicoya Peninsula behind it. The clouds look different every few minutes and sometimes one cannot see much at all.
Later we hiked on the public paths and along the road. I saw a bit of the Children's Eternal Rainforest (El Bosque Eterno de los Niños) and then went up into the direction of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.

Here's the view from close to our house over the Gulf of Nicoya again. It's amazing how different it can be and the clouds are always changing!

The Hummingbird Gallery is a nice art gallery and gift shop near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. There are a number of feeders with sugar water that attract the many different species of colibris that live here. One can see the different sizes and colors and hear bird experts exclaim over spotting a rare species.

Today we visited the Cloud Forest Reserve. The are multiple reserves in the clouf forest but apparently this is the one with the most wildlife. Read more here.
We did see many different plants and birds, some of them nesting in caves, and even saw the resplendent quetzal high up in the canopy, as well as a groupd of monkeys. Unfortunately I could not take photos of me with all those animals because they refused to pose for the camera. If you look very closely at the last picture, you can see the tail of a little green/brown snake vanishing over a log. The snake surprised us, crossing the trail while we were being quiete and taking pictures.