We took possession of our car: a huge Nissan SUV. While I keep requesting cars the size of a VW Golf, they keep insisting on providing bigger and bigger cars. I’m not sure if they think that, as North Americans, we expect these huge cars or if they want to have fun seeing us try and park these things in tiny spaces. Either way, it’s no favour.
We’re doing archaeological sites today. We’ve started our day with the 📍Cueva Pintada (painted caves). The paintings are impressive! They date back between 601 and 1257. With the original inhabitants extinct, carbon dating different organic remains of the site gives a wide date range of possible dates. Interpretation of the paint also varies as there are no record to guide us.
Next stop is a blink and you’ll miss it kinda stop. On a beautiful winding road along ravines we came accross the parking at the last possible second. It is easy to miss; it’s 8 cars long and on a lip on the cliff side of the road. 📍Cenobio de Valerón is reminiscent of Matera’s Sassi as they are grain stores built in the friable rock in a ravine. From what we could understand, grain theft wasn’t uncommon amongst the natives and keeping your grain secure by having it in locations that are hard to get to was a common strategy.
We kept the largest site for last. The 📍El Maipés necropolis is the second-largest necropolis of the Canaries. Covering more than one square kilometre with a varying count of tumuli (some say 600, other 700 and other say more). A tumuli is a hole with a body in it, covered with slabs and then a pile of rocks. In this case, it’s all black volcanic rocks. The smaller and more numerous date back to between the 8th and 10th centuries. With some more than 1,300 years old. The site itself has been well restored. While they are piles of black rock in a field of black rocks, the restoration makes them easy to distinguish. They used steel plates to make the path and placed signage that helped us get the context and understand what we were seeing. The desolate landscape with very little life (other than the numerous lizards) makes for a beautiful and fitting place for a necropolis.
That was supposed to be our last stop for the day. Knowing we’re planning to go the botanical gardens tomorrow, we opted to do the first of the two short hikes we had planned after the gardens. With the beautiful weather it’s hard to predict how long we’ll spend in a garden after all.
We stopped at the 📍Caldera de Bandama, a large volcanic caldera with steep walls and a winery at the bottom. The plan was to walk the rim but, after reapplying sunscreen, packing extra water and getting started we learned that part of the trail at least closes in less than an hour. With 4 kilometres to go and doubts we could run the distance fast enough, on rugged terrain no less, and make it back before closing, we had to satisfy ourselves with pictures. With the extra time we headed home to drown our sorrows before heading out for diner.