Gran Canaria: mystical geography
Warning before starting this trip: even if you don't usually get dizzy, don't forget to have a box of Biodramina handy in the car. But let it be with caffeine because, I assure you, you will not want to fall asleep and miss the natural spectacle through the window.
In the unruly north of the west coast of Gran Canaria, where the cliffs are so high that they slip into the clouds, the rocks break off the mountains forming the perfect serrated tail of a gigantic sleeping dragon . Even the most incredulous eyes see it. On clear days, the road leading from Agaete to the village of St nicolas , with its 365 sinuous curves, is the perfect mythological viewpoint.
But if there is dense haze like today, it is best to soak in the natural pools from the town of Agaete and then go eat some delicious little sardines -Y some squid and some potatoes with mojo, since we are sitting – on the terraces facing the sea of the neighboring Puerto de las Nevis . In the waters of this bay where the ferries from the other islands dock, there was, until a few years ago, a basaltic monolith (similar to the rocks that we will see later) emerged from the sea. The ' finger of God' , they told him. But a wave returned him to the depths. Nature, when it gets stubborn, has no consideration even with its own creations.
Natural pools
Agaete sits at the end (or at the beginning, depending on how you look at it) of a coastal ravine that changes its name as it advances towards the interior of the island, giving fruit fields, vineyards and the only coffee crop in Europe . As a backdrop rises the imposing massif of Tamadaba and its pine forest, one of the very few original forests remaining on the island . Despite its steep slopes, its upper area is characterized by gentle hills and green plains where flocks of sheep graze. The towns coupled to the cracks in the rocks and the fields of work, which balance on the terraces, denote the effort and ingenuity of its inhabitants.
In the village of the stove , most of their just 20 inhabitants literally lives between two geological periods, with their white houses built between the plates of volcanic eruptions It's different. This is a unique place, for forget about the world and understand the true meaning of the word ‘a-isolation’, contemplating the sea from your cave in the mountains.
In winter, when the snow settles on the cliffs, the Tamadaba pine forest looks like the scene of a twilight western. Up here runs a network of trails that connect these coastal cliffs to the large sinking caldera in the center of the island. If you follow them you can even walk to the foot of the Roque Nublo , a balanced monolith that, together with its neighbor, the Roque Bentayga , is he indisputable symbol of this other face of Gran Canaria.
Pinar de Tamadaba, original forests of the island
From the outside, Gran Canaria feels overcrowded and touristy, and much less exotic than it actually is. But Agaete and its ravine are just the kind of place I was looking for, at the opposite end of the sunny beaches of the south that were so successful in the travel agencies of old Europe.
The trade winds from the north, by remaining trapped in the central peaks, are responsible for the fact that, while in Agaete there is no surplus of the 'rebequita' ' and in the Cross of Tejeda a scarf can come in handy, in the sands of Maspalomas people sunbathe without worries. Overshadowed by the brightness of the sun, the complexity of the landscapes and climates of this small great island that many insist on compare to a miniature continent . Almost half of Gran Canaria is protected by Unesco as a Biosphere Reserve.
Here where send the curves , in valleys that turn their backs on the asphalt, are found lush pastures through which herds still pass in transhumance, forests with species that do not exist in other parts of the world, geological shows that move us from Utah to Hawaii, colonial villas with churches that are believed to be cathedrals, perfect craters Y archeological sites in which more questions than answers are extracted and that feed historical puzzles that they have little to envy to those of Easter Island. And small towns, like those of the fertile plain of Saint Matthew , or like this one in Agaete, where life goes by slowly, at a Canarian rhythm, small paradises for those who do not want to waste time in a hurry.
Agaete and its natural pools
Interestingly, the first promoter of tourism in the interior of the island was a Basque: Mr. Miguel de Unamuno . In 1929, Primo de Rivera banished the wayward writer to the intellectual wilderness of Fuerteventura, considering him too inconvenient for the regime. During his stay on the island, Unamuno, apart from fashion nudism and discover the islanders how delicious barnacles are even if you don't believe it until then they were thrown –, He had time to go around the other islands, leaving us sharp descriptions and observations so ingenious that today they would become an immediate trending topic.
To follow in the footsteps of Unamuno in Gran Canaria, a route has been published that, in five days, covers the main places where the writer walked: from the coffee gatherings of Vegueta , the historic colonial neighborhood of Las Palmas, to the basilica of Telde , spiritual center of the archipelago, passing through the luxuriance of the forest of The lime trees of Moya and the mountains of Teror until reaching the Artenara viewpoint where the great caldera of the volcano is seen as "a petrified storm".
Teror main street
The rocks rise above the abysses hidden by the mist and they speak to us, although we do not know how to understand their language, about the powerful forces of nature that shaped them. The rocks and peaks of the high mountains of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, even those of La Gomera, often face each other alone above the cottony blanket of the sea of clouds. They form a new and trimmed archipelago of emerged islands worthy of a pirate map. It's hard to imagine so much fog.
The panoramic view is even more overwhelming if possible from the Parador de Cruz de Tejeda, especially since you can enjoy it from the privacy of your room's terrace or even from your own bed. up there, to 1,560 meters of altitude , where they converge old royal roads (today trekking trails) that cross the island, the rectangular structure of the Parador appears behind a forest looking straight at the rocks.
Next to the hotel, the stalls of a permanent market offer the traditional almond shortbread, suspiros de Moya and jars of bienmesabe to hikers and Sunday people. If you don't stay here, you can always sit on the restaurant's terrace, delight yourself with a menu of Canarian flavors that doesn't lack a touch of creativity, or spend some time of well-being with views in its spa, in the small outdoor pool that stretches up to touch the trees.
Built in 1938 by Miguel Martin Fernandez de la Torre, According to the ideas of his brother Néstor, the hotel remained closed for 26 years before reopening, completely renovated, in 2009. It is a good example of the quality of the rural island hospitality.
Roque Nublo
A hospitality of family and democratic treatment that usually takes place in old manor houses , like the nine rooms of the Las Calas hotel , in Saint Matthew , and in farms converted to family tourism and therapeutic retreats, such as the Molino de Agua de Fataga hotel. Immersed in a banana plantation in the XV century , the Hacienda del Buen Suceso , the former residence of the Marquesses of Arucas , offers colonial splendor and papaya juices by the pool. In Agaete there is a modern four-star hotel, the black rock , with a spa with a water circuit where you can book an appointment after a day of walking through the pine forest.
The best thing, apart from the pleasure of having a wine in its viewpoint bar, is that it is two minutes, up the stairs, from the famous natural pools of the town. However, we prefer to stay in what they call the ' red house ', in the valley.
Finca Las Longgueras is a 1895 mansion , of evident British influence, in which everything remains almost the same as in the times in which the man lived, Don Agustín Manrique de Lara. "Look, the man is this boy dressed as a sailor," Elsa points out to me, the person in charge of dusting off the memory that the mansion treasures. “And here she is at her wedding, and here with her daughter María Luisa, the current owner, when she was little, right in this room.” They don't say it in their advertising but Elsa is the best cook in the Canary Islands . At the end of the corridor, in the bright glass reading room, the canvases of César Manrique and Pepe Damaso, son of Agaete, share a wall.
My room overlooks a stunning cactus garden. Some are as tall as giraffes, others have trunks that look like elephant legs. The farm still works the exploitation of its orange trees although, unfortunately, out of season, the breakfast juice is from Tetrabrik.
Farm Las Longueras
The Agaete Valley is the last place in Europe where coffee is grown . The one from these payments is soft, clear, with a fruity aroma and hardly needs sugar. Coffee entered the Canary Islands in the 18th century through the Botanical Garden of La Orotava, Tenerife, but found the perfect place to grow in this warm valley, at an altitude of 400m. “The more height, the more body” , Víctor Lugo explains to me as we tour his family estate, The Laja.
"Coffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world, but how many people do you know who have seen the plant in person?" Here, in the shade of mango trees, guava trees and grapevines, Víctor takes care of his coffee trees with the same affection with which he talks to me about the education of his little son, and he organizes “visits for the five senses” in which more than one has changed their consumption habits. “Sometimes I wake up at three in the morning and, if I can't sleep, I have a coffee to fall asleep”, he assures me, “what I don't add is sugar: it increases its toxins”. Apart from this coffee, which is marketed as a delicacy – “Almost 90% is sold directly here and in a couple of gourmet shops” –, the Lugo estate produces oranges, ten types of mangoes and an artisanal wine “thought to converse”, under the Bodega Los Berrezales label.
View from the rural hotel Las Longgueras
Of its vineyards, arranged in vine arbors, 25,000 bottles are extracted per year, mainly whites . Its semi-dry is considered the best in the archipelago. In La Laja everything is grown organically. They have never known how to do it any other way. "Canarian wine is special because of its volcanic terrain, because of the constant sun and because it has more than 20 varieties of strains," he explains to me while he pours me a glass of volcanic water to prepare the palate for the tasting. It springs from a mountain over 14 million years old . Tastes slightly of sulfur and gas, cave, hollow.
On the table, to accompany, there are local cheeses with orange blossom honey. The cheeses of Gran Canaria are hardly known on the Peninsula, but they receive the first prizes in the great international contests and the hipsters of the London's Borough Market and Oslo's Mathallen they take them off their hands.
Of all, the most special, both for the laboriousness and for the limited production, It is the Flor de Guía which is made in the municipalities of Guide, Gáldar and Moya . “Guía is the only denomination of origin for cheese on the island and there are only seven farmers left who produce it,” Tony Moreno emphasizes to me as we walk through the interior of the cheese house , born to defend and give visibility to the cheese of the area. "This year has been good," he tells me satisfied, "4,965 kilos of Guia flower cheese alone, compared to 653 last season."
The moment of preparing the rennet, for which the thistle flower is used, is quite a party: families gather to remove pistils from flowers and, as Tony tells us, lately the prayers that animated the slow process are starting to recover. “In the past, if the rennet took more than three hours, they had to cross all the sheep in the flock, one by one,” he tells me as he serves us a sample of various local cheeses. They are accompanied with potato bread (and anise seeds) and a splash of honey. My favorite is a cured cheese made from flor de Guide to Cortijo Pajaritos. It has been done by the hands of Enedina López, brand new winner of the silver medal at the World Cheese Competition in Birmingham. "And look, it was about to close."
* This article is published in the double issue of the Condé Nast Traveler magazine for November number 78. This issue is available in its digital version for iPad in the iTunes AppStore, and in the digital version for PC, Mac, Smartphone and iPad in the Zinio virtual kiosk (on Smartphone devices: Android, PC/Mac, Win8, WebOS, Rim, iPad) . Also, you can find us on Google Play Newsstand.
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Artisan production of Guia flower cheese at the Casa del Queso