The north of the island can be subdivided into two different routes, the first a tour of inland towns and villages and the second following the coastline. In both cases, as a starting point we can use the Autovía Marítima at the Alcaravaneras Beach section where the Julio Luengo tunnels link up with the Autovía del Norte (the main road for the north of the island).

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Church of San Juan Bautista

Arucas is the main town of the north of Gran Canaria.The town possesses its own quarries which produce stone of a bluish hue and the finest example of the traditional craft of carving this stone can be seen in the paris church of San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist), whose building was initiated in 1909. The church was designed in Catalonian neo-Gothic style and features spires of thirty metres in height with delicately carved turrets. In many ways it sums up the hard-working andreligious nature of the Arucas people who reflected in this work the prosperity enjoyed by the town from the late nineteenth century to the golden age of bananacultivation, which still plays an importan part in the local economy.

City of Firgas

Known mostly for its famous mineral waters and medicinal table. Whose source is located in the Barranco del precipice of mothers

City of Moya Firgas found near the city of Moya, at the top of deep precipices. A Moya is the forest (of Tigli), small forest plant laurel "laurel"which at the time of the Conquest covered the wide valley that separates from Firgas Moya and reach the common Valleseco and Teror.Opposite the church, where you can contemplate the impressive cliffwith steep slopes and walls, is the museum dedicated to Tomás Morales

VallesecoA short distance inland from is Valleseco, which means literlly "Dry Valley“. The irony of the name is that this part of the island actually receives the most rainfall per year. In this township we can find the Laguna de Valleseco (Valleseco Lagoon) which fills with fresh water during the winter months and which has recently been the object of important environmental restoration programs. In the winter months it plays host to several breeds of migratory birds including the common egret. Nearby there is a chestnut tree wood and a recreation area

City of Teror A drive from the Pinos de Gáldar to Teror completes our tour. Teror

is home to the Virgen del Pino, the island´s patron saint. The Basilica was built in the seventeenth century although it also features a

tower, whose plan is octagonal, from the era following the Conquest, which was constructed in the Gothic style of the late fifteenth

century. The Basilica was built to venerate a fifteenth century carved image of the Virgin sculpted in the style of the Sevillian School.

Nuestra Señora del Pino The fiesta day of the island´s patron saint, Nuestra Señora del Pino is held onthe 8th September, and is a day on which thousands of pilgrims from both this and other islands congregate in Teror to offer their finest agricultural produce to the Virgin. Every different type of traditional regional dress con be seen in Teror on this day.

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The town of Santa María de GuíaAfter the Puente (Bridge) de Silva, the road runs on towards the town of Santa María de Guía, at a distance of some 37 kilometres from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. One of the outstanding features of the town is its parish church which possesses several works of the Guía-born artist Luján Pérez, a figure sculptor,

whose work, dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is to be found all over the Canary Islands. Some examples of his work can be also admired

in the Catedral de Canarias (Canary Island Cathedral) of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

GaldarA couple of kilometres further on we come to Gáldar,home to the guanartemes or original island rulers andrich in archaeological sites demonstrating how densely

populated the area was in pre-Hispanic times.

Playa del Agujero and AgaeteNear the Playa del Agujero are the remains of another pre-Hispanic settlement – one of the largest concentrations of houses and burial mounds in this part of the island. The remains of irrigation ditches confirm that this pre-Hispanic civilisation was agricultural. The settlement also features a necropolis where some of Gran

Canaria´s most important burial mounds have been preserved intact. From Gáldar, the road runs on to Agaete, where the visitor can observe the Pinar (pine forest) of

Tamadaba, perched at the top of the majestic cliffs which surround the town´s fishing port of Puerto de Las Nieves. These cliffs fall steeply into the sea which is guarded by a distinctive needle of rock, known as Dedo de Dios ( The Finger of

God), which just out from it. In the post Las Nieves was one of the few points along this rugged coastline which gave access to the island´s interior.