Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

The magic of the Gran Canaria Biosphere Reserve is swaddled in a murmur of nature and human heartbeats. On the one hand, the space shows the thousand faces of the Island’s landscape. The other faces of the land are far from metaphoric. They belong to the men and women who have proven their close links to the environment through traces of rural uses, such as the case of lime ovens, tar or fish ovens, charcoal bunkers and windmills. Life literally relied on nature, as shown in the use of pine needles to fill mattresses and plump up the place where livestock slumbered.

Gran Canaria is renewing the certificate that declares the Island’s Biosphere Reserve a Starlight Destination

Gran Canaria continues to gaze dreamily up at the skies, with a passion that expands throughout the universe. The Island has renewed the certificate declaring its Biosphere Reserve a Starlight Destination until 2025. This certification recognises its commitment to astrotourism and consequently to protecting its night skies, keeping that extraordinary window on the stars wide open, for people from all over the world to gaze out of every day.

Fifteen million years ago, the ocean used to spread its blue expanse right over the same place where the island of Gran Canaria stands today. Then, the island rose from the bottom of the sea as a result of the force of volcanic eruptions, as this archipelago was born from volcanoes. The subsequent building and erosional stages gave rise to an astonishing and complex geological environment which lies behind the rich landscapes and the environmental and ethnographic wealth that attract visitors from all over the world.

Christmas in Gran Canaria shines in its cultural, culinary and commercial offer, in addition to the island’s mild climate, nature and fusion of tradition and modernity.

I have lived on this peak for millions of years. I know because I have been keeping track of the suns and moons. I am the son of time and of an old volcano that is no longer here. The wind, the sun, the rain and the passing of the days have made me what I am: the prince and sentinel of a kingdom made of stone. But I am not alone. The pine woods and rocks that keep me company on these heights give shelter to beings that seem to be made of the same light that is now starting to draw its veil back. Hence, the lizards here are made of gold, emerald and sapphire.

The Mirador del Paso de Marinero viewpoint, also known as Mirador del Balcón, offers extraordinary views of the wildest areas of Gran Canaria and of the stars.

Silence reigns at these altitudes, broken only by the wind coming from the ocean and blowing up to the top of the cliff. No one wants to disrupt the dragon’s sleep, which has been dormant for millions of years. Indeed, when visitors arrive at the Mirador del Paso de Marinero (or Mirador del Balcón) viewpoint in La Aldea, on the west coast of Gran Canaria, they are often left speechless by the range of mountain peaks that plunge into the sea, and which certainly resemble the tail of a sleeping mythological titan.