Gran Canaria in peace
It is so quiet that the shot startles me. The velvet mountain walls give it back and forth and back and forth. Then a mutt barks to the left in the valley and answers himself from the right. No human far and wide. The Cumbre, Gran Canaria's mountainous core, lies in eternal beauty before us. We have addresses of fincas, haciendas and hotels, a car and a map. This is enough to roam the island with its 54 kilometers in diameter.
We find solitary ravines that cut deep into the summit landscape until they hit the bottom of the beaches. We go over abandoned Caminos reales, so-called royal routes, created by shepherds thousands of years ago. They cover the island like a net, reach every nook, overcome every height. We meet stone giants in fairy tale forests and clear pine groves.
We climb behind the sinking evening sun. Breathe in the scent of holy herb and thyme, sage and rosemary. This Gran Canaria does not need a beach, knows no hotel boxes.
Trend: Hostels far from the sea
The Hacienda de Buen Suceso is located northwest of the capital Las Palmas at Arucas. The two-storey mansion in bright terracotta is surrounded by tall banana trees. Courtyards paved around the pool, balconies, roof terraces, secluded corners with secluded loungers and far away a sea glitter. The hacienda was opened just over a year ago. Hostels far from the sea, a new island trend. Gran Canaria's second pioneering time. In Tejeda, in the center of the Cumbre, guests live in the middle of the village. Pedro Cruz Cabrera's agency rents bungalows in Playa del Inglés. But three years ago, he expanded his old house in Tejeda, a legacy of his grandfather. Pedro was the first to rent out to strangers and showed the village how Turismo rural works. Now he offers 19 ramshackled houses.
Pedro knows what guests like: old furniture, old walls, modern comfort. Our house has hillside location. From the stone-tiled corridor is a small bathroom and a bedroom with high wooden beds, down the stairs leads to the living room with beautiful old shutters and terrace. We look at the swimming pool, whose water is used in the cold season for pouring the potato fields. Cold is over the top. The Passat is always refreshing the island, but it rarely gets colder than 20 degrees during the day. Sunday morning, and the fridge is empty. So we are looking for breakfast on the village street. But it's only shortly after eight. The windows of a restaurant are open, Latino rhythms come out, and we ask the cleaning lady for a glass of tea. In five minutes, she says, wiping the terrazzo floor. We turn a round.
The sun has already half captured the valley and lets the carefully whitewashed houses shine. Citrus trees and palms, wine and agaves flatter the simple architecture. Those who once moved away, left home and farm to make money, bring it back now and cultivate the idyll.
Artenara: living caves of rock
Tejeda is between 400 and 1950 meters above sea level. When the vegetables are ripe, the tomatoes are still green at the top.
When we are back from the tour, our hostess puts the scrubber in the corner, squeezes out oranges, brings tea and cheese boccadillos. Five men cross the parking lot at the foot of Bentaygas, with little rabbits hanging from their belts. Your Sunday roast. In Artenara, the cave village in Tejeda's neighborhood, it smells of grilled food at lunchtime.
The living caves collide like terraced houses. The entrances are rebuilt like verandas, mostly the bathroom is housed here, but the cuevas, the living rooms, are scratched out of porous rock. When the sun is shining 2900 hours a year outside, coolness is a luxury. In the evening in Tejeda: excerpt of the gladiators. Mopeds and heavy machinery, jeeps and pick-ups are taking off, honking and waving and hooting. Families and teenagers say goodbye, they have found peace in the mountains at the weekend. Now they are moving back to the coast, where they have their wages and bread. We stay back with the brave hare hunters who wear bold hats and mustaches.
A pastor as a tourist guide
Our next appointment is with the German island pastor Steffen Metzger. He comes up to the mountains with three dozen people in two buses from Playa del Inglés, which he calls 'madness in concrete'. Hiking with beach tourists to Risco Blanco, a beautiful white rock, is as sacred to him as his sermons - and travelers have said that they were their finest holiday experience. The pastor spreads basic knowledge: The island is about 14 million years old, we stand here at San Bartolomé de Tirajana at the bottom of a volcanic crater with a diameter of 20 kilometers.
We sit with a cup of tea on the terrace of the Hotel 'Las Tirajanas' in San Bartolomé. A wall of smoke is racing toward us like a threatening creature. She wraps us in wet cold. So we make our way to the sun. Below, at the tourist resorts of Playa del Inglés, Pepe Caballero lives. He has equipped the brand new mountain hotel with ceramics. Pepe leads us to his farm, in front of a barrack a pile of clay, a self-made kiln. Inside, semi-darkness, rows of pitchers and bowls, large bulbous shapes, smooth as porcelain, but with a patina of salt and sea.
A wine jug comes packed in my bag, and then quickly back to the mountains. There is now a luxury finca with Italian chef and pool in the sea of flowers and tomorrow a sports hotel, lonely in Barranco Los Palmitos, where the plop of tennis balls the shriek of parrots answers. Each location with its own peaks and valleys, never more than 25 kilometers as the crow flies from the coast. But we never miss the beach.
travel service
Book: The big organizers have more and more fincas and country hotels on Gran Canaria in the program. Small providers: e.g. Pedro Cruz Cabrera, Homberg Rural, Avenida de Madrid, 22, 35100 Playa del Ingles, Tel. 0034/928762367, Fax 928766772. Villa del Monte: In the 100-year old hacienda in colonial style awaits the guest a mix of bed and breakfast, 5 -Star hostel and finca hotel with six rooms. Address: Castano Bajo no 9, 35300 St. Brigida, Gran Canaria; Tel .: 0034/928 644389; Fax: 0034/928 641588; , Gran Canaria Rural Agency, Las Canteras 7, Las Palmas, Tel. 0034/928462547, Fax 928460889. Cottages are also provided via the Internet. Hikes: with the German island pastor every Tuesday from eight o'clock from the church in Playa del Inglés. Book tips: The guide 'Gran Canaria' shows beautiful sandy beaches and secluded villages, tells of the almond blossom and Canarian wrestling (DuMont). An ideal companion for hikers is 'Gran Canaria' with tours to palm oases, through canyons and pine forests (Rother-Verlag). Info: Spanish Tourist Office, Myliusstraße 14, 60323 Frankfurt, Tel. 069/725033 or 38, Fax 725313. Tips on the Internet at www.gran-canaria-info.com
