Roque Bentayga

Looks like a troll with his tongue stuck out, no?

Roque Bentayga is my favourite piece of rock on the island.

What follows is a description of a very short walk, or rather a visit, to the uppermost reasonably accessible bit of it. There is a little platform up to which you can come by a path. After that the formation becomes really vertical and you can’t possibly scale it without climbing equipment, and I believe you are not supposed to. I think there is about thirty meters from the platform to the very top.

The surroundings of the Roque offer beautiful views around Caldera de Tejeda. As I said, the walk could be extremely short, if you simply drive up to the car park, but doesn’t need to be, if you feel energetic. It can be done as a side branch of one of many possible circular routes that start and end in Tejeda.

For example, this circular route — https://es.wikiloc.com/rutas-senderismo/circular-tejeda-por-timagada-y-las-moradas-191897592 — is just over 8 km. The visit to Roque Bentayga will add another 6 kilometers to it. And if you don’t feel as energetic as those resulting 14 kilometers you can do what I did — take a bus to shave off some of the distance, visit Bentayga and return to Tejeda walking. The number of routes criss-crossing the center of the island is such that it permits endless permutations. 

Chimirique — Around Roque Nublo — Tejeda

From the foot of Roque Nublo towards Altavista

This time round, I and a few other people were let down by the local public transport system. Normally, it is reasonably reliable. Buses are occasionally late, of course, but so far I don’t remember the delays forcing me to change my plans. Well, there is always a first.

This time, the very infrequent bus number 18 which links Tejeda with Maspalomas was almost one hour late, so I had to change the plan. The route I did links Chimirique, a steep rock formation close to Juncal de Tejeda, to Roque Nublo, then going down to Tejeda. It is a classic ascent to Nublo, and forms a part of many possible routes around the centre of the island. 

Sardina del Norte — Puerto de Las Nieves

Cave house at the end of the promenade, Sardina del Norte

I did this easy hike several times already, sometimes alone, sometimes in a small group. It is not very long, less than 11 kilometres, and doesn’t have that much ascent and descent, below 500 metres of both. Both villages are reasonably well connected by public transport, so you can do the hike in either direction. Just keep in mind that Sardina has a nice sandy beach, but fewer places to eat versus the pebble beach, rocky natural pools and disproportionate number of restaurants per square head of population of Puerto de Las Nieves. 

The Guardian of Bentayga, The Dog of Bentayga, etc.

Here is is. Who’s a good boy? Sit! Good boy!

Last year, when we were on our way back, and rather steeply up, from Cuevas Del Rey, a young couple graciously gave us a little lift, thus saving a bit of walking up on a wide zigzag. They themselves were looking for a rather curious rock formation, which they called El Guardián del Bentayga, The Guardian of Bentayga. Roque Bentayga is a prominent volcanic formation in the middle the Caldera de Tejeda, and the dog-shaped rock in the photo was looking at it, with Tejeda village in the background. 

La Palma, Volcano Route, Ruta de Los Volcanes

Absolutely spectacular and very, very black ashes on Cráter del Duraznero, formed in 1949

The Volcano Route, Ruta de los Volcanes, on beautiful La Palma, is one of the most famous hiking routes of the Canary Islands, the other equally famous one being the ascent of Teide. The latter can be done in various ways (1, 2) though, whereas the Volcano Route is singular, running along the crest of the island north to south. The path forks a little sometimes, but the signs always and unambiguously point to the main path.

I was planning to do it for a while, and decided to go now-now, while the weather is not too hot. Let it be said right away that it is very beautiful, very worth going, but needs reasonable physical form and some preparation.

Spectacular Caldera de Taburiente, the morning clouds are still floating inside

South of Gran Canaria, Andén del Zurrado in Barranco de Arguineguin ravine, circular route

If this pic gives you vertigo, don’t go

Well, I would like to start by expanding on the caption above. The main point of this hike, at least for me, was to see and walk a spectacular “Andén del Zurrado”, andén* being a pass or a path in a precipitous place, in this case with a strong emphasis on precipitous. There is no real danger, of which later, but if you have a fear of heights, it can get really tricky for you.

OK, warning done, back to the walk. A pic of Andén del Zurrado came up in Facebook and we started planning the walk immediately. The main problem of this walk is logistics, not the difficulty, once you are sure that everybody in your group can handle heights.

So, first problem, the transport. There is no public transport that come close to the start of the walk, at least I can’t find any. The nearest stop of Global is about 7 km out, so not a viable option.

Altavista, or Azaenegue

View west from the viewpoint, La Aldea de San Nicolás to the left

A walk along the crest of Altavista, or Azaenegue in aboriginal language, towards a viewpoint on the end closer to La Aldea is one of the easy and beautiful linear walks in the vicinity of Artenara village, on the edge of Tamadaba nature park. It does have some ascents, with the corresponding descents, but they are as light as they go on the island. There is no getting lost either. The only problem here is the transport to the start of the walk, the same as in nearly all of the walks to the west of Artenara. Once again, driving, or being driven, is the most realistic option for a one-day trip. But, unlike Faneque, you can do it if you stay in Artenara village; you can even do the longer version of the walk starting in Artenara and using the public transport, but you will have yourself a very tiresome day.

Faneque behind the solitary pine. The pine was burnt partially in the Valleseco wildfire in 2019