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Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

Cruz de Tejeda

Lessons in life at Cruz de Tejeda

Cruz de Tejeda, in Gran Canaria, is the geographical and historical centre, where the island’s inner voice is heard.

“You have to put a kind face to life”. Manuel Ortega was born in a family who used to farm the land and look after a small herd of sheep, some goats and one or two cows, while working at the water galleries in Gran Canaria’s high land. Maybe for this reason his conversation flows like a stream. “I enjoy talking to people” says Manuel while he strokes the back of his noble four-legged companion, Bartolo, an introvert and calm donkey whose job is to be ridden by anyone who wants to get to know Cruz de Tejeda’s surroundings, a crossroad and geographical, touristic, historical and even emotional epicentre of the island, located above one thousand five hundred metres of altitude, looming over an amazing volcanic basin.


Valleseco

Time stops at Valleseco

Valleseco, in the green heart of Gran Canaria, wraps the visitor in a blanket of nature, tradition and flavours.

Valleseco wakes up at dawn and goes to sleep at night to the lulling sound of water. The washing pools, the remains of old mills, galleries and canals make a mirror where the town looks at itself every morning, reflecting a wide natural range of infinite shades of green.


Risco Caído Interpretation Centre, Artenara

Gran Canaria opens a passageway to the past

The Interpretation Centre of Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape highlights the values of this World Heritage site.

There was a time when the aborigines of Gran Canaria were able to create a bond between Heaven and Earth. It happened on the island’s highlands. Those people created a unique world with their own hands, involving the starts in the process. The most spectacular example of this dialogue between humans, the Sun and the Moon, happened eight centuries ago, in a cavity located at 1200 m of altitude, excavated in volcanic rock. The sunlight and the silver halo of the full moon magically came through the rectangular skylight designed for the purpose, giving light, in turns, to each one of the figures engraved on the walls of Risco Caído cave number six. But there was nothing magical about it, only observation, technique and belief.


Faro de Arinaga

Faro de Arinaga: a Kingdom between the Land and the Sea

Faro de Arinaga (Arinaga Lighthouse), in Gran Canaria, crowns and watches over a coastal and inland space conforming a landscape of high natural value.

Getting to the foot of a lighthouse somehow feels like and adventure. This feeling is linked to the stories associated with these buildings, linked to the sea fare over the centuries, to captains and crews looking for the saving light in stormy nights, to lonely lighthouse keepers and beautiful, remote places. This halo, where imagination and reality become one, surrounds Arinaga lighthouse, in the coast of Agüimes, Gran Canaria, the lighthouse guiding these words today.


Faro de Maspalomas Summer Crafts Fair

Gran Canaria, an Ocean of Crafts

The Crafts Fairs held next to Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse) in Spring and Summer show the depth of the Island’s Traditions.

The waves, the breeze and the sea currents draw spirals and all kinds of whimsical meandering shapes next to the dike and breakwater at the foot of Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse). Gran Canaria’s Nature has been and still is a constant source of inspiration for the creation of beauty, like a guiding light. Like the Lighthouse has been doing for over a century. For this reason, and as naturally as the waves break on the shore, it is hard to imagine a most suitable space for two must-go dates for all looking for in-depth knowledge of the Island’s traditions. These dates are Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse) Summer Crafts Fair and Faro de Maspalomas (Maspalomas Lighthouse) Southern Spring Crafts Fair. In both cases, the Atlantic Ocean is the best background to the displayed crafts.