A day in the North of Gran Canaria

Written by Juana Delia Sosa

         Would you like to spend a day in the best places in Gran Canaria? Come to the North of Gran Canaria and enjoy visiting wonderful places, eating traditional products or taking a bath in its natural pools and beaches.

    The northen route leads us from Arucas to reach Agaete, driving across Santa María de Guía and Gáldar.

     The first stop in the journey is Arucas. The old city , full of history,  where we’d walk through  the streets of stones surrounded by colorful houses with attractive balconies until arriving at the gothic church which gives the city a magnificent image.

     In the itinerary from Arucas to Guía we’ll stop in a small cove called ‘ El Puertillo’. There we’ll take the first bath or simply we’ll have a ‘tapa’ while we relish) the breathtaking views from the sea.

     Just 10 minutes from El Puertillo  we’ll arrive at Santa María de Guía.  Every Sunday the city sets a traditional market where the visitor or tourist can buy and taste the local products like the cheese called ‘ queso de flor’.   

     Once we leave Santa María de Guía , we’ll visit Gáldar where the first compulsory place  is the Painted Cave. Inside the archeological museum, we’ll go back to the prehispanic period and will know how the native population lived.

      At the end of the journey we find Agaete. There we’ll go across the village to visit the Valley of Agaete. In the Valley, we’ll be able to contemplate the beauty of its rural landscape and will taste Agaete coffee.

Leaving the Valley back, we’ll go back to the village center to enter in the ‘ Huerto de las Flores’. This particulary garden with a lot of varieties of exotic plants was the meeting point of canarian poets like Tomás Morales and Alonso Quesada.

   Finally to finish the journey we’ll go to ‘ Las Nieves’ port where we’ll taste the fresh fish and will take a bath with the breathtaking views of the cliff of Tamadaba.   

Tags:  Gran Canaria, Arucas, church of Arucas, el puertillo de Arucas, Santa María de Guía, Galdar, La Cueva Pintada, Agaete, El Valle de Agaete, Agaete coffee, Huertos de las Flores, Tomás Morales, Alonso Quesada, Puerto de las Nieves, Tamadaba

I fell in love with a village

Written by Laura Dámaso

Have you ever fallen in love with a village? I did.

Seven years ago my partner and me arrived in Agaete. We liked its beaches and the beautiful views to Tamadaba but, especially, the posibility to have a house as big as to contain all our books, canvases and paintings.

As in any love story, at first everything was perfect, but  the wind came and we began to distrust our decision.The wind in Agaete can be terrible. It blows  pots and roofs. I believe the wind is the reason why half of the people in Agaete are, how can I say it?, a little bit crazy. The rest, the people that come from another city or  another country… they were crazy before coming.

Sebastian is a perfect example. He was an old swedish man that used to waste his time in the library. The fisrt time I went there I saw Sandra, the nicest librarian I have ever known, trying to convince a stray dog to go out while Sebastian was talking loudly on his mobile phone almost shouting. Although he was a retired businessman he used to dress like a hippie.

Cecile  is a  peculiar woman.  She is a yoga teacher http://www.yogaymas.com/ She came in an old van from Holland with Lex http://www.gran-canaria-info.com/ and their son, Ilja, and they decided that Agaete was going to become their homeland.

My neighbour, Rastatún, is only a pawn, but he devised the most important festival in northern Gran Canaria, Bioagaete, http://www.bioagaeteculturalsolidario.org/  to raise funds for charitable causes. Obviously the real reason I am in love with Agaete is its passionate, creative and crazy people.