Snowbirds in Europe 2018: Gáldar

We’ve discovered another attractive little Gran Canarian town, Gáldar. It’s in the northwest corner of the island, on the other side of Las Palmas from us. We could have driven across the island to it, probably a shorter route, but over mountains on switch-back roads. It would have taken much longer, and probably made Karen sick. As it was, we drove mostly on expressways and it took well under an hour.

The coast just north of Las Palmas is dramatic, with high cliffs. The highway runs right along the ocean for a while, with great sea vistas off to the right. If you look back, you can see the point at the north end of Las Palmas laid out below. There’s a cliff-top paved walking path beside the highway at one point. It looked attractive, except for being beside the highway, with quite a few walkers and runners on it.

As we came down from the heights after Las Palmas, we started to see terraced banana plantations. It’s a big crop in this part of the island. The local growers are in tough against competition from other banana growing countries, though. Some here have given up and switched to other crops, Karen was reading.

Gáldar lies just inland, built on the slopes of a hill. It looked pretty from the highway, with pastel-coloured buildings climbing the slope, caught in the afternoon sun. It has a long history, and pre-history. It was a seat of government for the pre-conquest Canarians, and the site of key meetings between Canarian aristocracy and Spanish troops at the time of the conquest (1480s).

Plaza de Santiago, Gáldar

We drove into the centre and lucked into a street parking spot quite close to Plaza de Santiago, the city’s main square. Everything worth seeing is within a few blocks of it. We headed first for the the town hall, an early 20th century building that incorporates a courtyard with an impressive 300-year-old dragon tree – it’s a little bigger than the dracinia we used to grow in the house – and a modernista municipal theatre. Also the TIC, where we picked up a map.

Municipal theatre, Gáldar

The theatre is beautifully preserved, with original seating and and an interesting spiral-design plaster ceiling. The dragon tree looks properly ancient, but venerable though it may be, idiots have carved their initials into its trunks. One idiot tourist while we were there had climbed up into the planter so he could have his picture taken mugging between the trunks. Feckin’ eejits, eh?

Town hall, Gáldar

The Plaza de Santiago is pretty, with a fountain in the middle. The church, Iglesia de Santiago, on the west side of the square, was begun in the 1770s but not completed until well into the 19th century. It was supposed to be open, but wasn’t. The square is planted with shade trees of a type we’ve seen before, with gnarly trunks of white-grey bark. I’m not sure what they are but I think they’re the same as or similar to some we saw in Santa Fe. Naturally, I had to photograph them.

Plaza de Santiago, Gáldar

Next stop, across the square and down a short block, was the Casa Museo de Antonio Padron, the home and studio of one of the island’s famous artist sons, Antonio Padron (1920-1968). It’s now a lovely little museum devoted mostly to his art, but with a room full of works by his contemporaries and friends, and a space for small changing exhibits of contemporary Canarian art. His studio is also preserved on the second floor, and there’s a pretty walled garden. Entry for pensionistas: €1 each.

Casa Museo de Antonio Padron

Padron was part of the indigenist movement in Canarian art. Its exponents immersed themselves in their local surroundings and drew inspiration from native topography, flora, fauna and culture. Padron was born on the island, trained on the mainland, then returned as a young man and found his mature style here: colourful expressionist paintings on Canarian themes. Karen and I liked them very much.

Casa Museo de Antonio Padron

After the museum, we had lunch at an outdoor cafe on one of the streets around the square. It was a very basic menu del dia: mixed salad, meat balls in sauce with french fries, bread, dessert of chocolate layer cake and a glass of wine – for €8! The menu board didn’t actually say the drink was included, so they may have just forgotten to charge us. Still, pretty good deal. And the wine likely wouldn’t have been more than €2 if we’d had to pay for it. Was it great food? Well, no, but it was reasonably tasty, filling and seemed fresh.

The last item on our Gáldar itinerary was the Cueva Pintada, a museum and archaeological site. The prime attraction is an artificial cave room with walls painted in colourful geometric patterns. It was built in the early middle ages by the Berber people from North Africa who populated the island before the Spanish conquest. They had a substantial settlement here.

Cueva Pintada, Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada

We had no idea what to expect from this museum. I feared shabbiness and lameness, but it turned out to be another gem. The painted cave was originally found in the 19th century, but not properly excavated until the early 1970s, when it was briefly opened to the public. They had to close it soon after because, in the absence of modern preservation technology, the pigments on the wall were fading at an alarming rate. It was reopened, with elaborate preservation measures in place, in the early aughts. They only open the cave for viewing at intervals through the day, and you can only enter with a guide.

We were unlucky enough to arrive on the heels of a large French group, which meant the tour would be in French. While they were watching an introductory movie that had already started in the theatre, we chatted with the young tour guide. She was smart and evidently fluently trilingual,. She also seemed to have a very confident grasp of the history. She showed us around the museum. It’s small with a relatively few exhibits but very well displayed: pottery found on the site, jewelry, the usual. Most interesting, were the marking stamps in geometric patterns that noble families used as hallmarks. I asked her at one point if there was any of the native gene pool left on the island. She said, yes, an estimated 30% mix, more prevalent among women.

Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada

The archaeological site, still under excavation, is brilliantly presented, with long cat walks and viewing platforms overlooking it. The Guanche town was built on a slope – much like the modern Spanish town. Many of the round houses, built into the sides of the hill with soft volcanic rock have been excavated, or at least their foundations have, and can be clearly seen, lit by spotlights. There are also areas where work is ongoing. There was nobody there this day, but equipment boxes and other paraphernalia lay about. They have also built reproductions of a few of the houses and furnished them as they believe they would have been pre-conquest.

Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada

The tour guide spoke French once the group came out and the tour of the site started. I could understand a little of it. There were also screens with multilingual explanatory videos dotted around the site. While the French were watching one of these, our guide took Karen and I and a couple of other English-speakers into the painted cave and explained it in English. They don’t know for sure what it was for, but the best guess is that rituals of some kind took place here. The geometric pattern may also have signified one of the noble families.

Karen and I watched the eight-minute introductory movie on our way out. This time, it was a Spanish group watching, but there were English subtitles. It appeared to be quite well done, except there was some kind of glitch that resulted in a dizzying double image. One thing notable about this video and the others we saw in the museum and the archaeological site is that they don’t pull punches about the cruelty and treachery of the conquerors. The Spanish basically killed and enslaved most of the natives, confiscated their land, planted different crops, built European towns and villages over the Guanche villages, etc. The same sad story of empire and conquest everywhere, including in our own country.

Street scene, Gáldar

After the museum, we meandered back to the car and drove home. We had had some thought of going for a beach walk on our way home, but it was now after five so we drove directly back. And counted it a good day.

Street scene, Gáldar

Yesterday, Wednesday, we had some sun in the middle of the day and ate our lunch on the terrace. In the afternoon, despite the clouds rolling in over Las Vegas, we went for a walk around the village and then down into the ravine again.

Barranco de San Miguel, wildflowers

This time we just walked along the path at the bottom as far as we could. It turns into a track for vehicles and passes one of the farm houses we had seen from the hillside when we were climbing up to Valsequillo last week, and then passes by farm yards. Up on the cliff in Valsequillo, we could see interesting dwellings built into the rock, some apparently built onto nature caves.

Barranco de San Miguel, Valsequillo houses on cliff

Barranco de San Miguel, Valsequillo

We may have been able to go further. The road wound around a bend, by some farm buildings and we couldn't see what became of it. We turned back there, after about 45 minutes of walking.