Visit Cuatro Puertas: Discover Ancient Canary Culture

/ Canary Islands / By

Hello friends, and thank you for tuning in again. In our previous post we further explored Las Palmas, visited the colourful town centre of Teror with its famous Basilica, drove on to Villa del Agua and visited a hidden food storage of the Guanches, the native inhabitants of the Canaries. Today we will visit a second settlement of the Guanches, South of Las Palmas.

On our way to the archeological site of Cuatro Puertas we passed this odd looking statue on a small roundabout. It turns out to be a large-scale reproduction of the Idol of Tara.
This is the original figurine on display in El Museo Canario and about 27 cm tall. Currently interpreted as a female (??) figure. The exaggerated body features are symbols of fertility and abundance. Well.....we have seen "fertility figurines" elsewhere during our travels and if a woman is depicted, she has breasts!!
Cuatro Puertas is a settlement built in Montaña Bermeja and comprises living and storage areas, and spaces presumably devoted to cult.
Cueva de Cuatro Puertas is a large excavated cave, with a big artificial platform in front of it that, judging by the presence of certain holes, probably held posts to support a roof.
The granular and crumbly nature of the volcanic rock allowed the aboriginal canarians to dig out the caves with stone picks. Various interpretations as to the use or function of the cave have been put forward. That it was the royal residence of the Faycan of Telde, home to vestal virgins or priestesses, a cattle enclosure, a burial place, an astrological marker or a dwelling. In the 20th century it was occasionally lived in, used as an animal pen, as a storage shed and even as a film set.
Beautiful view to the North from the platform in front of the cave.
This circular shaped area which features a series of channels, holes and symbols excavated in the floor and walls, has traditionally been identified as an "Almogaren". These were areas or enclosures with bowl shaped hollows or channels dug into the ground where the Guanches poured milk or other liquids during ritual acts of worship.
View to the SE from the top of the hill.
Cueva de los Papeles.
The signage next to the cave explains the images are of pubic triangles, perhaps related to propitiatory rites. We don't buy why it are "pubic" triangles. If you don't know, don't say anything and leave it to the visitor.
The cactus on this hill is called Opuntia. Its fruit, known as tunas, or prickly pears, is not only edible, it is delicious.
Restaurant Embarcadero in the marina makes a desert with this fruit and Frits liked it so much that he ordered the dish twice.
The last sight of this settlement are a group of caves named "Los Pilares", the largest settlement on the hill. Liza in the pink circle between the cacti, descending to the caves.
Access to the different caves is via paths, steps and small tunnels carved into the rock. We can observe larder areas, silos, seating arrangements, side rooms and in some caves, bowl shaped hollows in the floor. These south facing caves were exposed to the sun but protected from inclement weather, which made them ideal living spaces. To further improve living conditions, walls and partitions made with sticks and skins or matting were added.
We drove back to the boat via Agüimes, another historical town but with many bronze statues in the town centre. The Church of San Sebastian piercing the sky-line.
A close up of the church, which was closed.
The bronze statues celebrate people who actually lived in the city, or are dedicated to peoples everyday life. The El Carnaval statue is a celebration of the carnival. Look closely; the female figure is actually a man, while the statue to the right is a woman dressed up as a man.
We wanted to visit the history museum to learn more about the aboriginal settlement that we just visited, but it was closed "due to holidays" (duhhh!). The building itself is already interesting. Agüimes was historically a seigneurial town, owned by the church. The building was used by church officials who oversaw and administered the area.

Our birthdays are only three days apart; 23 and 26 September and we usually celebrate on the 26th, Liza’s birthday. This time we opted for fine dining in a hotel in walking distance from the marina. Photos below are clickable.

Fine dining at Poemas, Hotel Catalina.
Fine dining at Poemas, Hotel Catalina.
Happy birthday to us.
Happy birthday to us.
Carefully slicing white truffle over the dish.
Carefully slicing white truffle over the dish.
Great food and excellent wine.
Great food and excellent wine.
Happy birthday my love.
Happy birthday my love.
Time flies when you have fun.
Time flies when you have fun.
Las Palmas is the point of departure for the annual ARC. The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) is an annual sailing event where hundreds of boats cross the Atlantic Ocean together. The marina was now quickly filling up with participants and we were obliged to leave since participants have priority. We went in front of the beach, an anchorage that is only open when the ARC is in the Canaries.
We enjoy watching the sailing lessons for the youth. Are there any future "yotties" between them?
A refreshing morning dip in the surprisingly clean water of the port.
In the meantime we keep on preparing our own boat and equipment for our crossing, like checking the lifejackets and the PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). Our PLB's have a build in AIS and EPIRB. If somebody were to fall overboard then the AIS will trigger an alarm on board and plot a mark of the location in the chart plotter. The alarm is connected to the boats audio system so it is LLOOUUUD. The EPIRB will automatically trigger an international rescue response. So MOB is well covered and we test it every year and before a major overnight passage.
Las Palmas is an important stop for cruise-ships and it is clearly high season now. If you look closely you will recognise three of those floating cities docked in the port.
Most of the outlets in the ports' mall only open when one or more cruise-ships are docked.
As much as possible the cruise-ships sail during the night, arrive before dawn, stay for one to three nights and leave in the evening, blasting their ships' horns.
Our Filipino friends bought a new house a bit to the West of Las Palmas and we were invited to the house blessing and house warming party, which we happily accepted. It is common practice in the Philippines that your house is being blessed by a priest who will sprinkle holy water and will say a prayer in every room.
Thank you Perez family for your hospitality, for the good times we spend together and for the help you extended when importing boat-spares into Las Palmas.
And then the time has come on Sunday Nov 10 for the ARC to leave Las Palmas at noon for the Caribbean, a journey of 2700 Nm.
On our chart plotter we can see the fleet departing. The boats represented by a green triangle are already more than a mile out. The red triangles are still "on collision course", i.e. still need to depart.

We would depart two weeks later to Cabo Verde, but that is for the next story.

Thank you for making it this far again. Feel free to share our stories with anybody you think might be interested. Love and regards, Liza and Frits.