Gran Canaria - Central Highlands
15/11/07 20:14 Filed in: Gran Canaria | Canaries
Puerto Rico is a densely populated tourist resort with some hotels and apartments built into almost vertical cliffs. It is tourism on an epic scale and in no way prepared us for what we found inland.
We drove along the coast road to Arguineguin before taking a minor road north through El Sao and Soria. The road was well surfaced but very narrow in places once past Soria and with increasingly spectacular scenery. Steep mountains rose either side of the valley with trees including Canary pines and Eucalypts and shrubs. That said, the terrain was still pretty barren.
North of Soria
Fires had passed through last year. Note new growth at the top of this tree.
We turned onto a slightly wider road at Ayacata and began to climb higher. Terraced agriculture was scattered on some hillsides.
We stopped a very pretty little town called Tejera. Here the hillside was scattered with green patches of agriculture, water tanks and white houses.
The church in Tejera.
A steep residential street in Tejera.
Tomas admiring an old sewing machine set into a wall in Tejera. Public art?
A lovely little hotel nestling quietly in amongst the houses in Tejera. Looking for an out of the way place for that special break?
A view from Tejera looking down a valley towards the sea.
Continuing down along the mountain road we made our way to a small village called Las Lagunetas. Then we turned onto a minor road leading back up and over the mountain via Cuevas Grande to complete a circle in Ayacata. At the highest point on this road we passed through a dense pine forest.
At Ayacata we took the C811 main road to San Bartolome before turning south towards Fataga and Maspalomas.
This was another spectacular mountain road with glorious scienic panoramas too big to catch with my little camera. I managed to get a few micro panoramas.
Our road disappearing around a huge mesa.
A minor road on the other side of the valley.
Our road south winding along a mountainside.
A wonderful day and when we got back to Puerto Rico we finished with a walk round the harbour and drinks with our hosts.
We drove along the coast road to Arguineguin before taking a minor road north through El Sao and Soria. The road was well surfaced but very narrow in places once past Soria and with increasingly spectacular scenery. Steep mountains rose either side of the valley with trees including Canary pines and Eucalypts and shrubs. That said, the terrain was still pretty barren.
North of Soria
Fires had passed through last year. Note new growth at the top of this tree.
We turned onto a slightly wider road at Ayacata and began to climb higher. Terraced agriculture was scattered on some hillsides.
We stopped a very pretty little town called Tejera. Here the hillside was scattered with green patches of agriculture, water tanks and white houses.
The church in Tejera.
A steep residential street in Tejera.
Tomas admiring an old sewing machine set into a wall in Tejera. Public art?
A lovely little hotel nestling quietly in amongst the houses in Tejera. Looking for an out of the way place for that special break?
A view from Tejera looking down a valley towards the sea.
Continuing down along the mountain road we made our way to a small village called Las Lagunetas. Then we turned onto a minor road leading back up and over the mountain via Cuevas Grande to complete a circle in Ayacata. At the highest point on this road we passed through a dense pine forest.
At Ayacata we took the C811 main road to San Bartolome before turning south towards Fataga and Maspalomas.
This was another spectacular mountain road with glorious scienic panoramas too big to catch with my little camera. I managed to get a few micro panoramas.
Our road disappearing around a huge mesa.
A minor road on the other side of the valley.
Our road south winding along a mountainside.
A wonderful day and when we got back to Puerto Rico we finished with a walk round the harbour and drinks with our hosts.