2017 Hike Gran Canaria El Rincon - Caldera de los Marteles - Tenteniguada 3rd April

We were late leaving the marina so we took a taxi to the Temo bus station and caught the 1010 hrs nr 303 bus to San Mateo where we hired a taxi to take us to the start of our hike in El Rincon (cost €14 ). Below is the taxi rank in S Mateo

 

The below Viewranger map shows our route in green

After leaving our taxi, the hike started with climbing these stone steps

 

 

Very soon we encountered our first of many beautiful Tajinastes on our route

 

 

 

The Gorse was also in bloom

 

More Tajinastes

 

 

 

 

The viewpoint overlooking the Caldera los Martelos

 

 

Tenteniguada coming into view

 

El Rincon . Our descent from here was long and steep - our sticks were invaluable to save our knees

 

Caught the 1700 hrs nr 13 bus from Tenteniguada to Telde then the 1750 hrs bus to Club Real Nautica in Las Palmas. All in all a super hike in perfect weather made even more special by the Tajinaste etc floral display

 

2017 25 March Club Maritiemo Varadero Tajinaste Hike

 

Our bus left the Club Maritimo Varadero, Las Palmas at 0830 hrs heading

for the mountains for the "Tajinaste" hike.

 

After a stopping in San Mateo for breakfast, we continued climbing in cloud to Pico de las Nieves, 

the start of our hike which, at over 1900 m altitude is close to the highest point on Gran Canaria.

 

There were two ancient ice pits en route

 

For most of the hike we were in the cloud, but, although it was cold and there were no views, the misty conditions added a special charm to our mainly downhill hike

 

 

 

Eventually, we left the misty pine forests and volcanic ash slopes behind and our path snaked through wonderful displays of Tajinastes with the cloud swirling around us

 

 

 
After 5 hours hiking during which we had climbed 300 meters and descended 1400 meters ( according to our very useful Viewranger app - see statistics below):-

 

We all met up in the El Puente restuarant in Tenteniguada.

 

 

The bus took us back to Las Palmas from here.

Thank you Pepe and Nestor for leading and organising a superb day in the hills.

 

2016,Hike Gran Canaria San Mateo to Tenteniguada

0715hrs Thursday 13 October 2016, left Las Palmas Marina with Christer, Pia, Ulf, Cynthia, Bitte and Per and walked to the San Telmo Bus station where we caught the 0800 hrs 303 bus to San Mateo, arriving there at around 0900 hrs. 

The centre of the red circle on the below map from the ViewRanger App is where the bus dropped us off. The red line with arrows is our planned route, and the black line with arrows is our track ( on the bus to this point!).

 

After coffee at the El Mercado restaurante

 

We started our uphill hike

 

The weather looked a bit ominous and we had a few spots of rain, but soon cleared up. amazingly the clouds stayed on the otherside ( to the West) of the spur we were climbing up.

 

Wonderful blue skies

 

The red circle is where we were when this photo was taken

 

Up, up, up!

 

Through the pine forest

 

A welcome break for lunch

 

The red circle marks our lunch spot

 

After lunch, the track joined joined this dirt road (white road on map) for a while, still climbing steeply

 

 

This is the highest point on the route (around 1420 m) which we reached just after 1200 hrs. If one looks closely at the tree one can see a sign board pointing to Rincon, our next destination. 

 

Some of us missed this sign and continued climbing up the "white" road till we were called back. 

 

Our correct route turns left here and started our long steep descent to El Rincon via a narrow track

 

On the way we passed the remains of an unfortunate goat - who presumeably had died caught in the thicket

 

 

 

Wonderful scenery

 

Our trail now went steeply down over a slippery bed of pine needles - hiking sticks invaluable to help keep one's balance

 

Looking down towards Tenteniguada

 

 

In spring, the Blue Tajinastes must give a beautiful floral display on this route - only the dried flower heads left now

 

Per & Bitte found a stunning spot for a rest

 

Pia thought it was a good place for some yoga

 

The maintainers of the hiking trails have provided a long rope handhold to help one down this particularly steep section which is covered with the treacherous pine needles

 

 

Difficult to avoid the nasty hairs from the prickly pears

 

 

Super views

 

Looking back up to the rock we stopped at on the way down

 

At 1440 hrs arrive at the bus stop in Tenteniguada and decide to take the 1600 hrs nr 13 bus to Telde instead of the 1504 hrs bus

 

This would give us time for a welcome beer and Tapas at the very friendly Las Canas Grill

 

The complete hike

 

The 1600 hrs nr 13 bus got us to the Telde bus station by 1643, just in time to catch the 1650 hrs  nr 80 express bus to Las Palmas, dropping some of us off at the Avinida de Juan XXIII bus stop close to the Marina.

Statistics:-

Distance walked 8.93 km in 5 hrs 39 mins

Height gain 761 m,  Height loss 796 m

Max altitude reached 1446 m

 

Another extremely enjoyable hike.