Gran Canaria 2024

  THE EXTINCT (we hoped!) VOLCANO OF CALDERA BANDAMA, PLUS A VISIT TO THE NATURAL BLOWHOLES OF EL BUFADERO. This volcano and viewpoint overlooks the big city of Las Palmas.  It's considered the most recent eruption on the island. Here's what Wikipedia says about it; The  Bandama Natural Monument  is part of the Tafira Protected Landscape on the island of  Gran Canaria  in the  Canary Islands ,  Spain . It is considered a point of geological interest, because of the Caldera de Bandama. This volcanic crater, which is geologically a  maar  rather than a  caldera , [1]  reaches  569 m (1,867 ft)  above sea level at the highest point on its rim, Pico de Bandama, and is about  1,000 m (3,300 ft)  wide and  200 m (700 ft)  deep. The crater was developed during the last heavy eruptions 2000 years ago. It is recorded as the most recent volcanic activity on Gran C...

  PART THREE - EXPLORING THE INTERIOR. To go to this island (and many others) and just lie on a beach is a travesty! The interior is so starkly beautiful and has so much history, you really MUST go and explore. The roads are in pretty good condition, but being old roads, they are quite winding. I imagine they could be a little intimidating to some people, but me? I LOVE driving them! There are many examples of cave house on the island, some very basic, some look quite luxurious. One of the villages we passed through was Molino de Viento. Viento suggests windy, and there's the remains of a windmill here. I have read you can go in it, when it's open, but it was closed up when we were there. These coloured rocks were something  I remembered from our first visit to the island back in 2018. I really wanted to see them again, and here they were. Google says;  The spectacular jade green outcrops and ochre and reddish tones laid bare by erosion are the result of the explosive mee...

  PART TWO. Amadores has many places to eat but strangely, no bars! You can obviously go into any of the restaurants to just have a beer, but none of them play any music of any kind, so they feel a bit 'soulless'. If you want more life, you have to go to Puerto Rico, just around the headland. It's either a cheap taxi ride (€5-6) or a very pleasant walk along the traffic free promenade. This is looking up to our hotel, the Mirador Atlantico.  Apparently, they had had a rockfall last year above the Gloria Palace hotel, so they were netting the cliff face all the time we were there. You can see the crane boom reaching up to lift the men who were doing the work. As we set off, I think we surprised this bin :-) This specially built walk is a delight.  It only takes about 25 minutes to walk to Puerto Rico. The view from it is really good. In Puerto Rico, there are PLENTY of bars, and the restaurants are good too. Pina colada cocktails - nice start to the evening 🍸 We ran the g...