This was the first day's walk of my week on Gran Canaria in February.On previous trips in 2011 and 2013 I stayed in Las Palmas for the whole week.While this gives good bus access to the north part of the island it's not so easy to get to the extensive network of paths south of the "cumbre" central mountain divide.So on this trip as well as staying in Las Palmas at the beginning and end of the trip I used the mountain village of San Bartolome as my base for the middle days to make best use of the 18 bus to access walks from Cruz Grande and Ayacata.
My afternoon flight from Manchester on the 9th meant a civilised departure time from home and an early evening arrival at Las Palmas. On previous trips I've stayed at the Faycan hotel/apartments near Playa las Canteras but this time I chose the Parque Hotel close to San Telmo Estacion de Guaguas from where the Global buses serve most parts of the island.
(click on any photo to view series in a larger format)
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| Parque San Telmo |
As I was planning to do some higher walks later in the week I decided to use today to explore the area between Teror and Arucas in the north.The walk took me through varied landscapes using local paths ,quiet roads and a stream bed ,via Pico Osoria then down into Barranco de Azuaje and back up to the village of Firgas.
(216 bus from Telmo to Teror (also 229s),then 218 Teror - Lanzarote bus up the hairpins to Mirador de Zamora).
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| The communal wash house (historic) |
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| Teror from Mir de Zamora |
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| Levada channel on Pico Osorio |
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View towards north coast
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On the path down into Bc de Azuaje ,looking into Bc de Guadalupe
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| Stream bed in the barranco |
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| old spa buildings |
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| View south from the path up to Firgas |
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| Firgas street art (from 2011 trip) |
On this and subsequent walks I noticed how the old PR CG long distance path signs have nearly all gone and are being replaced with local path marking.This means there are now lots more paths to follow than are generally shown in the guide books.Today's paths were nearly all newly marked by Firgas council. In 2011 there were no signs down into the Barranco de Azuaje and I'd made my way down from Firgas and back up to Moya on the west side with the help of a vague dotted line on what appeared to be an out of date map.Now all the various routes seem to be well marked.
Finding where the bus stops can sometimes be a challenge at the end of a walk.The place where I'd got off the bus at Firgas in 2011 is now a taxi rank shelter but after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I found the new bus station.I caught the hourly bus to Arucas and had a beer,coffee and a look round before catching one of the more frequent buses back to Las Palmas.
Arucas is definitely a place to visit if you're into sight seeing.
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| Arucas - small town with a large cathedral |
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