The volcanic landscape

Gran Canaria is a very interesting island. Hardly anyone speaks English and therefore it feels authentically Spanish, and it is one of the least touristy places we have ever visited. Of course many Brits visit the Canary Islands but we have not come across many at all during our visit so far. Today we had a long conversation with a man we met whilst out on our morning run, he talking only Spanish and us talking only English...but with hand gestures  and facial expressions we managed to make ourselves understood!

After breakfast we explored the old town Vegueta which is very charming with an enormous cathedral. We strolled along the main shopping street and found most things very inexpensive. 

After lunch we drove to the central part of the island, which is very mountainous. Our route took us along about 30km of very narrow, winding roads up the mountains, which was very steep and quite frightening at times. The views back on to the city of Las Palmas were spectacular. We wanted to see Roque Nublo, which is a symbol of Gran Canaria as it is an impressive monolith reaching up 80m above the surrounding volcanic landscape (see extra photo). The nearby town of Tejeda was very pretty with white washed houses and we had something cold to drink there as it was 37C and very hot (extra photo of me in Tejeda). It is a popular area for some serious mountain hiking but we were too hot to do any today. This is a view of the mountains, with the west coast of the island and sea lying on the horizon. We went on to visit Artenara, which is the highest village in Gran Canaria and unusually has troglodyte caves, some still inhabited by people today. It was very interesting to visit these areas and see the pine forests and mountain peaks, which are quite different from the beach city of Las Palmas.

We are very pleased to see how GB has done so well at the Olympics in the last few days - 21 medals and currently lying third in the medal table! That is an amazing result from the athletes.