Back in the saddle again...

...The saddle of the mountains, that is...

It turns out that the middle of this island, an island which has a diameter of around 50 ks (tiiiiiiny), is a beautiful oasis of peaceful rugged mountains and hiking trails! It is so refreshing to know that there is somewhere other than the crowded, ugly-building-crammed southern beaches to escape to.

Artenara

Brad and I set off on the local bus for the highest town on Gran Canaria, Artenara, which is 1270m above sea level. The bus ride was an adventure all on its own, much like our experiences in Bolivia, except this time with the luxury of asphalt roads and safety barriers!

View of the ocean from Artenara

We stayed in the most amazing Cave Hostel up in Artenara, which was literally situated IN the side of a hill, with hiking trails at its doorstep. The indigenous people of the island were said to live in caves in the area and there are old cave paintings scattered along the walking trails. Every morning when we woke up, we stepped out to the most amazing view of a huge volcanic canyon! Stunning, and slightly dangerous if you were to sleep walk. We were a hit at the hostel, people just don't expect people from Australia to be here. They always say that I look Nordic and Brad looks Spanish, so it is really fun to open with a hearty, "G'day mate, how ya goin?!"

El Warung Cave Hostel

View from the museum just near our cave hostel

The owner of the hostel was really helpful and is actually trying to organise a network of hostels throughout all of the Canary Islands to be connected by hiking trails. So eventually you will be able to hike through all of the islands, like a mini camino trail, Canarian style. When he heard that we were living here, he gave us his number and told us to call him if we need any help with anything. We have had so much of the same sort of kindness from the local people when they hear we are living here.

There are poppies everywhere along the trail!

We went for a few walks around the area, and in one day walked for 30 kms, including a lot of ups and downs into and out of the canyon. We walked a loop from Artenara, to Cruz de Tejeda, to Tejeda and then back to Artnenara (with about 10 kms of extra walking that was totally unnecessary because we were completely lost, but anywayyy). The whole time, we were gazing up at the HUGE monster that is Teide, the snow capped volcano that sits on Tenerife (a whole other island). It absolutely towers over everything, even though it is on another island... don't you worry, we have already set our sights on that one!

The Church at Tejeda

Teide Volcano in the distance

Tenerife's Teide 

I am currently one big ball of lactic acid and walking like an 80 year old woman, but it was totally worth it to be back out there in the fresh air. The good news is that we have barely even scratched the surface of the hiking trails out there and there are heaps of camping opportunities to turn these hikes into overnighters. We saw only a few other tourists hiking trails that we were walking on, and out there, there is absolutely no chance of accidentally stumbling across a naked 60 year old German guy like down south at the beach resorts. Well, never say never I suppose.

The Tejeda Valley

A fiesta in Cruz de Tejeda

Easter was a few weekends ago, and I headed out to the streets of Las Palmas to check out some of the traditional parades and processions. It was interesting and really nice to see the community come together, there were plenty of people around to watch. Especially interesting were the "Magna", whose costumes will look quite familiar to you I am sure. Conveniently, the processions ran just outside of my building - there is a beautiful old church in the plaza out the front. I thought I would include some of those photos for you to see how I spent my Easter, WITHOUT easter eggs. It can be done!

Magna

Catedral de Santa Ana, Vegueta