Gran Canaria Island. Days 12 to 15 of the trip

Morning of February 27. We got up around 8 and started packing. Packing is always hard. You have to gather all your things, make sure nothing is forgotten, haul everything into the car, and head toward a new place to stay. And leaving a place where you enjoyed living is always a bit sad. Anyway, we packed up. We almost forgot the flash drive with movies in the TV. Then I took the trash out twice. After that we loaded our things into the car. I contacted the manager and asked how we were supposed to check out. She said we had to drive the car out of the gated parking area first, and only then return to the apartment, leave the keys inside, and pull the door shut. That is exactly what I did while the car and Sveta were waiting outside the gate. As I was leaving, after shutting the door, I saw that our neighbor from Dubna had called me. Standing right there by the apartment, I used the router to call her over the internet through Telbo, an app I had inherited from my father. When I had gone through his phone, I found that app and discovered there were still 5 euros on the account, and they had to be spent before some deadline or they would expire.

We moved on. Before the ferry we had planned to cover half the island and visit some places we had not managed to see earlier. The first stop was a lighthouse. MapsMe insisted there was no road to it. By trial and error I figured out that the road did exist; MapsMe simply thought cars were not allowed there. I plotted a route to one point on that road and we drove there. In the end everything was fine - there was just a small bridge over a dried-up riverbed. Maybe at some other time it is dangerous, I do not know. The road, by the way, was winding, and in some sections two cars could barely pass each other. When we reached the lighthouse, there were already several cars and a motorcyclist there. This is what the lighthouse looked like:

And this was the view from it:

There was a ship visible there. I assumed it was an Armas ferry going from Lanzarote to Gran Canaria, since that route runs during the day, while the overnight sailing goes the other way. This is what the valley looked like from the parking lot near the lighthouse:

We kept going. Somewhere halfway we passed an oasis, but did not stop anywhere. I asked Sveta to take photos right from the car:

Our next stop was a beach that is supposed to be underwater half the time. When we were there it was fully exposed, and I never really understood whether it had actually been under water on the previous day. Where we are standing here is supposed to be covered by water at high tide:

And here is the view from above:

And this is what it is supposed to look like at high tide:

We walked around there for a while and then headed to another part of the same beach. But it took us a long time to get there because the road was blocked, so we had to drive many extra kilometers. There was nothing interesting on that section of the beach either, so we moved on. On the way, in the town where the ferry port was, we visited another beach. Also nothing special, so off to the ferry we went. And from there it was the usual routine. We arrived a bit early, sat and waited for boarding, drove onto the ferry, and I immediately used the internet onboard to book us an apartment for two nights in Agaete. As always, we then went to buy food on the ferry, and while we were eating, the apartment manager already texted me. She explained in detail how to get there. At first I thought we could figure it out on our own. Why send us photos with directions? But it turned out to be useful after all - it really was hard to understand where to go, and the narrow streets made GPS lie badly. As we approached the town, Sveta took a photo of the beautiful sky:

After we found the parking space where the car had to be left, the manager met us and led us to the apartment. To be honest, I did not like it that much because of the neighborhood and because it felt too isolated from the surrounding houses. Although that was also a plus in a way, because we had our own long corridor leading to the front door. The only problem was that it was paved with cobblestones, so rolling suitcases over it was inconvenient. There were only two apartments there. Nothing bad could really be said about them, but for the same money we had paid on Fuerteventura for a two-room apartment, here we got a one-room place combined with the kitchen:

Morning of February 28. The night was not great. In this new place, you could hear water running loudly somewhere, and the fridge kept kicking in. At 6:00 I got up with the alarm, and around 7:30 we left. First we drove to the opposite side of the island along the coastal highway. We stopped at some viewpoint from which there was a beautiful view over Las Palmas and a nearby crater:

The road there was rather sketchy. Good thing we met only one car the whole way. We barely managed to pass each other. The road was very narrow.

Next we headed to the coast. There were beautiful natural pools there. One of them had an interesting effect: when a wave rolled in, pressure forced a jet of water upward through a small hole. In the photo you can see it shooting up:

We walked farther along the promenade and found two more interesting coves:

Our next attraction was the dunes in the south of the island. I had been thinking that perhaps we had already seen enough dunes. What could be so special about more sand? But these dunes are absolutely worth visiting. They are straight out of the Sahara, although I have never been there. They were the best dunes of my life. Everything we had seen earlier had just been piles of sand by comparison. We could not park close to the dunes, so we drove around the nearby streets looking for a space. We found one, parked, and walked back about 400 meters. We passed through some large hotel, and then there they were:

There were too many people around there, so we decided to walk deeper into the sands where nobody would bother us. It was easy enough to find a dune with not a single person on it:

We took lots of photos there:

Sveta even jumped off them:

It was fun to walk along the edge of that dune. The sand there was extremely fine, and every step triggered a miniature avalanche sliding downward. We ran up and down the dunes several times.

I suspect this desert did not appear there by accident. Most likely all that sand was blown over from the Sahara by countless episodes of calima. We reached the ocean, and it was lively there. Huge numbers of people were walking along the beach. Why? I do not know. Maybe they were just strolling. But I could not understand where so many people had come from. At one point a nudist walked right past us swinging his dignity around. Somewhere nearby a naked woman was lying on the sand, and close to the place where we had emerged from the dunes, a guy was sitting and meditating. He was dressed.

On the way back I noticed that small plant thorns sometimes lay hidden in the sand, so we walked back more carefully. I was wearing sandals, which was impossible there: every three minutes sand would pile up inside them and squeeze my feet. While crossing the dunes, I came across an aluminum bottle. I kicked it, and it instantly crumbled to dust. Apparently it had rusted away so completely that it was just waiting for me to touch it and break apart into atoms in the ancient sand.

We drove on. We decided to stop at one point Sveta had marked in some town with a nice view. We searched for free parking but found none, so we used a parking garage and hoped it would not cost much. We left the car there; judging by the posted rates, it seemed cheap enough. Then we walked to our viewpoint:

To get there we had to pass a whole string of restaurants where waiters kept trying to lure us in. Somewhere there I bought Sveta an ice cream, and we also watched people making a sugarcane drink right on the street. They had a machine that squeezed juice out of the cane. We did not buy any because it did not look very hygienic. After that we went back to the parking garage and paid only 1.6 euros in cash. Good way to get rid of coins too.

We kept going. Along the way there were a few miradors, which in Spanish basically means viewpoints:

After that we drove through some village Sveta had marked on the map, but to me there was not much to see there:

And now we were getting close to one of Gran Canaria's main attractions, Roque Bentayga. Before reaching it, while we were still somewhere nearby, we took a few photos. This one was taken from another viewpoint I somehow managed to hike up to. I had not expected the walk to be that long:

We reached the main spot itself, but it was already late, sunset was close, and we still had to drive home over mountain passes.

Sveta said she did not want to go, so I grabbed my things and set off alone. I got up there quickly; only two people were leaving as I arrived. It took me about 20 minutes to get there, take photos all around, enjoy the view, and run back to Sveta. She was already angry because I had disappeared without her for so long. I was gone for about an hour. As it turned out, she had not meant that she did not want to go at all - she wanted to go with me, just after resting first. Well, nothing to do about it. I drank some water, and we went up once again. At the same time I realized that if we hurried, we could catch the sunset there. And that is exactly what happened:

By the time we came back down, it was already twilight. Darkness was settling everywhere, and there was nobody there except us, even though, as I said, this is one of the main sights of Gran Canaria. Why? I do not know. Maybe by then everybody already knew about the coronavirus and there were fewer travelers on the islands. Or maybe many people had simply not arrived because of the recent calima. We stood there a little longer, looking at the stars and the crimson horizon. Then we got into the car and drove home. A three-hour descent was ahead of us. In the dark we wound our way down the serpentines and through small towns. In the end we took the wrong turn twice and lost a lot of time, yet we still needed to make it to a grocery store because we were running out of food and wanted to buy more supplies. The descent from the mountains took ages. I changed our target store three times because I kept realizing we would not make it to the one I had chosen before it closed. In the end, when we finally got down from the mountains, we found some huge hypermarket that was still open but would close in 15 minutes. We ran through it like crazy to buy everything we wanted.

We bought what we needed and drove home. There we even found a parking spot, though it was under a tree that was obviously going to dirty the car by the next morning.

Morning of February 29. I woke up. Since my phone was lying far away, I started guessing what time it was. I saw a bit of light shining through the bathroom and thought dawn must be starting and the alarm would ring soon. I walked over to it, and yes - it was due to ring in 5 minutes. It was 7:25. We packed up fairly quickly. I went to carry our things to the car. As expected, it was filthy from whatever the tree had dropped on it. We shut the doors of our place, I texted the manager that we were leaving, and we drove off. The plan was to visit the places we had once again failed to reach the day before. But since we were passing by a place we had already visited and knew to be beautiful, we decided to stop there again. Last time a man there had treated us to cake on skewers when we arrived. This time he was sitting in his car talking on the phone. We took several photos. The sunlight was different from the last time because now it was morning:

Then we drove along the same road we had taken on February 17. I had somehow forgotten how difficult it was. Endless sharp bends, no chance to speed up much, because if another car appears you will have trouble passing. We reached the dam we had driven past last time but skipped as a stop. Its scale is clearly visible here:

It took us a long time to get there, but eventually we reached the point we wanted. We could not park where we had intended, so we went looking for another spot and ended up parking somewhere that perhaps we were not supposed to. We ate ham with tea and set off on foot. The walk was 2 km long. It took a while, and all around us was burnt forest. The previous autumn there had been news about major forest fires on Gran Canaria, and maybe this was one of the places affected. As we walked, we could see that the area was genuinely fire-prone, because the ground was covered with dry pine needles. One spark and that would be enough. Eventually we reached the place. There was nobody there, and I do not even know whether anyone else knows that this is exactly where you need to walk:

The place was beautiful. Standing there, it was hard to understand how we could be standing that high up without falling. The slope we had climbed seemed steeper than 60 degrees. From there we noticed some kind of hut and, thinking there might be something interesting there too, scrambled over the rocks toward it. But when we reached it, we saw a lock on the door. We had to descend from the hut along an unprepared path. And while I was going down, I noticed something that may have caused the fire back then: a used angle-grinder disc lying on the ground. It was scorched by fire, so perhaps workers using that disc had accidentally ignited the pine needles with a stray spark. That is only my guess.

On the way back we noticed some interesting things. New branches with needles were growing out of the burned pines, and their color was unusual, bright green. Perhaps the fire had changed the tree's internal structure and triggered different growth mechanisms. In any case, that one place alone had been worth the long drive. Now we had to get back to the coast in time for our pre-booked ferry to Tenerife. As always, the descent took a long time, and as always Sveta started feeling sick from the road. We stopped several times, but we did not have time to linger. We still planned to visit a cave and maybe swim at the beach near the pier.

And then we were down by the coast. It was hard to believe the highway was so close. We headed for the caves. We arrived, paid the entrance fee, and immediately saw a tiny cave. In fact, it looked more like a hollow carved out for one or two people. And in that same second I thought: "Did we really pay 6 euros for this?"

But I could see that the staircase continued farther. We followed it, and suddenly an actually stunning scene opened up before us: lots of small caves carved out by prehistoric humans:

There were signs there explaining how the caves had formed and when, but we did not read much. We just looked around and imagined how cave people had lived there. It was also strange that these caves were fairly far from the ocean, and even reaching them from the road was not exactly easy. We had a purpose-built staircase, but those people had neither the staircase nor the road. And yet they somehow lived there, found food, and slept there.

We got back into the car and drove to Puerto de las Nieves, near which we had spent the previous two nights. On February 17 we had spotted a good place for swimming there, but now, when we arrived, it was clear that swimming was out of the question because of the strong wind and the cool weather. So we gave up on that idea. We just stood on the shore and watched five windsurfers racing around. They would go far out and then come back again and again, all thanks to the wind. Then we headed to the port. We arrived far too early, so we had to wait in the car. While waiting, we started noticing strange-looking people: transvestites, people in makeup, people in costumes. I googled it and found out that it was the final day of the annual carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Once we had driven onto the ferry and gone up to the passenger deck, 90% of the people there were painted or dressed up.

The ship was rocking hard on the waves, but we still went and bought sweets as usual, and Sveta somehow managed not to spill her coffee while carrying it back to our seats.

When we drove off the ferry and crawled through the city traffic, there were crowds of dressed-up people everywhere. We decided not to stop and went straight to Ruslan's place. By then it had grown dark. Since it was a high-speed road with a 120 km/h limit and no lighting, driving there was not exactly easy. Somehow we made it to the guesthouse. We started carrying our things inside. At one point, while we were talking to Ruslan, another guest came out. I greeted him in English, and he immediately replied in Russian. He was a guy from Voronezh. He and his wife had flown to Tenerife for a week of vacation, and it turned out they were on that Moscow flight that got hit by the calima a week earlier. I had followed that flight back then. It had been diverted to Malaga before reaching the islands, and at the time I had wondered what happened to the passengers. This guy told us the whole story. They were taken from Malaga to Tenerife the next day and spent the night in a hotel, and the whole detour did not go smoothly. While boarding in Malaga, the crew realized several passengers were missing, and in the end everyone had to get off the plane. It turned out that some passengers had simply flown back to Moscow from Malaga because they were scared of the calima or the coronavirus. Or maybe they had just changed their minds.

After everyone had chatted for a while, I remembered that tomorrow was Sunday and buying anything would be difficult, while we were almost out of food. By the way, this was our last night at Ruslan's place in the Canaries. We had seen all the islands and were not planning to come back. The funny thing was that this time we slept in the only cheap room of his that we had never stayed in before. There were three such rooms, and this was the last one left for us to try.

Morning of March 1. We woke up around 7:30, and problems began immediately. There was no electricity in the kitchen. I messaged Ruslan on WhatsApp, and in the meantime we started dealing with packing. I hate doing that. Usually you have to move a lot of things around to fit them neatly into the suitcases. You also have to pack in a way that still leaves space, because we would not be able to spend the rest of the day walking around in warm clothes. Our neighbors had already gone somewhere early in the morning, apparently for a swim. By the way, I forgot to mention that they were actually flying with us to Moscow that day and then onward to Voronezh.

After a while Ruslan sorted out the electricity, but by then we had decided to skip porridge, so I just boiled some water for the road and that was it. I carried the suitcases out, talked with Ruslan once more about his move to Canada, and then we got into the car and drove to a few more places. First we went to a restaurant we had visited several times on our first trip there, though somehow had not managed to revisit on the second one. We had parking trouble there. The parking lot was closed and there were no spaces nearby, so we had to drive down and park lower, then climb back up on foot. Inside the restaurant we got good seats overlooking the cliff. We ordered food. We were hungry and had to wait a long time for it to be prepared.

After eating, Sveta cheered up and was even willing to make a run to Teide, which I had asked her about earlier. But by then I had already decided we were not going there, because in reality there was very little time left. We chose instead to head somewhere near the airport. We wanted to find a beach and walk along the water one last time. We reached one beach but found no parking. We drove to another, and there we found spaces. It turned out that this beach was near the camping site where we had rented a cabin on our first night of our very first trip to the Canaries. It was even possible that the cabin was visible from there. Sveta did not believe we had stayed there. In any case, we walked along the beach. Here it is:

And this is what was behind us. The airport was right there, and I was trying to catch the exact moment of a plane taking off:

We stood there for a while and then drove to our usual pre-flight spot where we prepare for the trip back to Moscow. If you look toward the airport, there is a road along its eastern side, and next to it there is a church down in a ravine. We already knew there was a restroom there, and that the parking lot was convenient for rearranging luggage. So that is what we did, and then we drove to the airport to return our dirty car. Here it is:

At the airport we paid to have our suitcases wrapped. We decided that from now on we would always do that on the flight back so we would not have to bother. Saving money on the outbound flight by wrapping them ourselves at home was enough.

Then came a long wait in the check-in line. Two girls ahead of us had overweight luggage, which caused a delay. I still do not understand why they could not just pay the excess-baggage fee on the spot, but because of them the whole line was held up for a long time. While we were waiting, we saw our neighbors from the guesthouse. Eventually we got through everything, and when we reached the gate there was another huge boarding line. We had to stand there for a long time too. Passport control was there as well.

We boarded the plane, and a few dozen minutes later our guesthouse neighbors joined us. It turned out they were seated in the same row.

Here we are taking off. View of Teide:

And here is the sunset:

On our previous trip to the Canary Islands we had not managed to see the sunset, because we were badly delayed by a passenger who had fallen ill onboard.

The flight itself was fine as usual. We arrived quickly, but during landing they announced that our arrival terminal had changed. It was supposed to be Terminal E, but we were sent to C. I opened Yandex Navigator to see what terminal that even was. I had never heard of it. It turned out to be next to Terminal B, which is on the other side of Sheremetyevo Airport. Fine. Shuttles to our parking lot supposedly also ran from B. We walked over to Terminal B, but then had to wait 25 minutes for the shuttle because the previous one had just left. We waited, got to the parking lot, walked to the car, I started it and let it warm up, then went to pay for parking. After that we drove home. As always, after two weeks of driving a light-steering automatic car, it felt strange to return to my own manual car, but I got used to it quickly. I did not feel sleepy on the drive back, even though I still had to work later that day. Once we got home, we quickly dealt with a few things and went to sleep. I slept until 11 and then got up and went to work.