Moya: from the coast to the summit

North of Gran Canaria, located 24 kms (by road) from the capital and near the towns of Firgas, Valleseco, Gáldar, Arucas and Santa María de Guía.
Bus lines:
116: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria- Cabo Verde- Moya
117: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria- Los Dragos-Moya
123: Arucas-Moya
124: Gáldar-Moya
127: Moya-Fontanales

The town is located in the center of the well-known mountain of Dorama, with a rich natural heritage. On its floor is the natural space of Los Tilos, relict of the ancient forest of Doramas, which boasts the largest surface of laurisilva on the island of Gran Canaria. Moya is also the birthplace of the Canary modernist poet Tomás Morales whose home is now a museum.

Natural surroundings

Doramas Rural Park

Located to the north of Gran Canaria, the Doramas Rural Park (laurel forest to which the aboriginal leader Doramas gave his name), offers the visitor the chance to enjoy a unique landscape, the result of a long and harmonious coexistence of the human being with a rich and diverse natural environment. The dense network of its ravines, the numerous ridges, the scattered traditional farmhouses and especially, the ancestral systems of terraces carved on the slopes of its ravines, are some of the elements that give this landscape a true significance.

The limits of this space are constituted by:
– In its northern end two ramifications; the first one in the most Eastern end, begins from the superior edge of the cliff of El Pagador descending by the ravine of Azuaje to the mountain of Doramas. The second one located at the western end begins at the junction of the C-813 road, Morro de San Felipe, Cape Verde, descending in a straight line in the SSO direction, to the edge of the right side of Barranco de Moya. Both extensions are joined in the Lomo de Moya and the one of D. Julián, continuing in the descent we discover places of interest such as Los Tilos, San Fernando, etc.

– To the west, we find the Montaña del Cabezo, Huertas del Palmar, Osorio and Laguna (Valleseco).

Natural Reserve of the Azuaje Ravine

The Azuaje Hotel Spa tells the tradition that “a shepherd from the outskirts, got sick from the eyes and from the skin”, one day he wanted to bathe in those warm waters. Satisfied his desire, for several days and with such surprise was found clean and cured. At the rumor of this healing, other sick people from neighboring towns came and, far away, some found lost health and others a notable relief in their pains. Fame proclaimed these things and science took care of the mineral-medicinal waters of Azuaje. “That is why, in the year 1868, a specialist doctor, Dr. Cásares, was commissioned to analyze them, to know the properties of water.

The analysis read:

“The physiological action of the thermal waters of Azuaje, which due to its chemical composition participate in the ferruginous alkaline properties, is in general, sedative, tonic, diaphoretic, diuretic and expectant, stimulates the digestive organs, activates the circulation, acts as sedatives of the system nervous, promote perspiration, the secretion of urine, expectoration, and modification in a special way the various mucous secretions. “Therefore immersion baths were recommended for fifteen minutes in these waters. So many people came to this Holy Fountain that in 1868, a beautiful Hotel was built.

The criteria that underpin the protection of the Reserve are the following: it plays an important role in the maintenance of the essential ecological processes of the islands, such as the protection of the soil and the recharge of the aquifers.

In this Reserve of singular beauty it is possible to emphasize the following species of flora characteristic of the place:

– Rejalgadera: it is a species from which the endemic of Tenerife and Gran Canaria differ. It is a shrub that can reach a meter and a half tall, with stems petioles with numerous spines.
– Moya crest: it is a great Canary local endemic specimen that we can find in some relics of what one day were the laurel forests of Gran Canaria.

Caldera de los Pinos Look Out Point

The Moya ridge area is distinguished by its typically volcanic landscape that contrasts in form and color with its immediate surroundings. Two buildings are those that transformed the existing relief about 3,000 years ago, which boast the “record” of being one of the last volcanic eruptions on the island, one of them being the Caldera de los Pinos.

The Caldera de los Pinos is a volcanic building located 1,350 meters above sea level, formed by strombolian volcanic cone 150 meters high that houses the depression of the caldera of equal height and a diameter of 300 meters. They dominate the emitted materials of lapillis, slags and volcanic pumps with castings, for their eruptive origin of explosive character.

Cave of the Montañeta

In pre-Hispanic times, Moya was a space where the aborigines had a limited presence due to climatic conditions – low annual average temperature and high rainfall. The habitat nuclei were located on the coast, basically formed by natural and artificial caves. This space was also the place of transit for the cattle of all the northwest in his continuous trips between the summit and the coast in search of the pastures of season. As the most important archaeological evidence, we highlight La Montañeta.

In the vicinity of the head of the Barranco del Pagador at 433 m.m. the archaeological site of Montañeta is located, very close to the Villa de Moya. The access from the town center is quite simple, since there is a road that runs the GC-752 road that goes through Cape Verde, which takes us directly to the Trujillo neighborhood. Here we find the Aqueduct of Trujillo and then the crossing of El Palo, where we can take the deviation to the left entering an asphalt track, which after walking a few meters places us at the entrance of the site (it is an access between red pavers crossing the houses of the place).

The deposit of the Montañeta occupies fundamentally the south face of the mountain of the same name. It is a set of natural and artificial caves of different types and functionality (granaries, almogarén, houses, tagoror and funerary caves) that make up, without a doubt, the prehistoric settlement of greater importance in the municipality of Moya. It has been studied since the 40s, when D. Sebastián Jiménez Sánchez carried out archaeological interventions in the area, this same divided this archaeological complex into five groups.

La costa

El Charco de San Lorenzo

The coast of Moya, with an area of 4.22 km, has the beaches of La Caleta in El Altillo another natural pool.

The natural pools of Charco de San Lorenzo, with transparent waters. It is 75 meters long and an average width of 45 meters. The place supports a strong swell, but calm reigns inside.

You can access the area by bus, by car it is very comfortable because of its close and ample parking. It has a spa, showers, changing rooms, toilets and telephones. It also has a promenade, and there are restaurants in the vicinity, famous for their fish. Study to spend a pleasant time, quiet, with family, for children has a part in sand, another in stone that makes it very easy to bathe. This area in summer is usually full of visitors, either in their pools taking a bath, as in the small esplanade sunbathing. You also have the possibility to have a good lunch at the El Paso restaurant, or El Charco beach bar.

Surf

The coast of Moya, with an extension of 4.22 km, has the beaches of: La Caleta in El Altillo and the natural pools of transparent waters suitable for bath most of the year of the Charco de San Lorenzo.

In La Caleta Beach, used all year round by surfers from all over the island due to its excellent conditions, an International Longboard Festival is held every year, at the beginning of November, in which athletes of different nationalities meet.

Other areas to catch excellent waves for surf lovers are: El Bunker, El Picacho, Pico del Paso and Boquines.

The old town

Heredad de Aguas

It is located near the building of the Local Police and the sculpture dedicated to “La Moyera”, currently it is in disuse. It dates from the late nineteenth century, and beginning of the twentieth. This building represents the importance of water as a determining factor in the construction of Moya as a society. It is a two-story building with a symmetrical façade, with a central bell tower for the clock, in a neoclassical style. With respect to the construction material, the stonework predominates. On the façade, there are six neoclassical columns that support a lintelled cornice that serves as a coronation line. Above it is the central bell tower, decorated with neoclassical motifs and stonework arches, in whose center the clock is framed.

San Bartolomé Hermitage

It is one of the most significant buildings of Moya, and is located in the Pago de Fontanales, whose importance lies in its antiquity and the value of effort that represent its constitution: in the works of the hermitage collaborated the grandparents and great-grandparents of the people of Fontanales. The building is located in the Plaza de San Bartolomé, and was rebuilt and expanded four times.

Juan Mateo Trujillo, important owner of the area built the chapel dedicated to San BartoloméApóstol around 1635. The current building was completed in 1872 after several interventions and extensions. It consists of a central nave with a façade framed between two lateral pilasters and divided into two with a central, highlighting the cut of the gable with a belfry of three bodies on the building axis, the sides for bell towers and the central one for the clock.

see two hollows of arc of lateral half point. All the compositional elements are of stonework. To the south of the hermitage, is the square of San Bartolomé where the popular “Fiesta de losVecinos” has been celebrated since 1758, as a result of the promise made by the residents of the town when in that year they offered this celebration in exchange for the I will free you from a locust plague that devastated the crops of that time.

La Casa Museo Tomás Morales

The Tomás Morales House-Museum is a public entity under the auspices of the island’s Ministry of Culture and Historical Heritage. The museum is located in the birthplace and family home of the poet Tomás Morales in the Villa de Moya, Gran Canaria. The property was acquired by the Cabildo de Gran Canaria to the heirs of the poet in 1966 and inaugurated as a House-Museum in October 1976.

Born with a biographical-historical vocation with the aim of safeguarding the memory and ensuring the projection of the work of the modernist poet, a production that went beyond the island’s borders and penetrated the Hispanic modernist culture. The work of the House-Museum Tomas Morales, its management, consists primarily in the following: Save the word and memory of the poet and other similar or complementary legacies, study them, disseminate them and transmit them to society. Rebuild the intimacy of the author so that the visitor can evoke what he has lived there, as a way of approaching the author through his family space. Evidence these interior and exterior spaces of the author for the understanding of his work. Due to its specific character as a writer’s house-museum, its singularity lies in the author’s intimacy, even over the funds it houses. The theme of the museum is extended to the literary historical context in which it developed or managed part of its literary production. In a tour of its rooms the visitor delves into the knowledge of the human and literary figure of the poet Tomás Morales, through the documentary, museographic and testimonial heritage that is exhibited and preserved in this institution and that includes the group that make up its objects personal, furniture and pieces of art, in addition to everything related to life, work of the poet of the sea and the influence that his native environment had on both.

Moya town flea market

Moya’s outdoor marketattracts numerous artisans where visitors can buy exquisite, handmade products. Its address is C / Pico Lomito, town of Moya, located above the bus station. Open on Sundays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

The product stands include: fruits and vegetables, floristry, bakery, bread and cheeses. It has a total area of 268 m2. It has easy parking, public transport nearby, cash machines.

Made in Moya

Sponge cakes (Bizcochos)
The pastry shop in Moya carries on a time-honored tradition associated with this beautiful town. Sweets confectionery dates back several generations, its recipes and production has been handed down from mothers to daughters, so that the local companies possess a family atmosphere. Women of these families, who initially played the role of bakers, began the preparation of several pastry products in order to earn pin money. As their fame spread throughout the town, typically sold in celebrations, weddings and other festivities. The sponge cakes’humble beginnings are anecdotal because, although they were made on demand, the locals had to go house-to-houses collecting eggs, flour, lemons and sugar for the eventual preparation. The neighbors provided the products and charged for making them.

It is said that the first producers were Cha Manuela and Cha Jacinta. According to oral tradition, at that time, the only bakery that existed in these areas was that of Señora Antonia. It was there that Cha Manuela went looking for a space in the wood-burning oven, fed with teak and eucalyptus wood, to cook her biscuits. Later Jac Jacinta would do the same, working according to the orders of the neighbors. It seems that the origin of the luster of the biscuits was motivated because Seña Jacinta was given an order and the biscuits were burned and so as not to throw them away, as a solution, he came up with the idea of using the snowy whites, typical of sighs, and apply them to the burned part of the sponge cake (polish).

He solved his problem and from that moment the tradition of polishing the biscuits continues. Formerly the container of biscuits was made of metal, which is why even today, when the people of the place are going to buy them, they ask for cans or half cans of these, although they are currently sold in cardboard boxes and in different formats. Cha Jacinta taught everything about the biscuits to Candelarita la del Pan, approaching the middle of the 20th century. She and another woman named Goyita, a woman from the Hormiguero de Guía who sold shoes through the houses, we owe the recipes that went to the current factories, in addition to the recipes of the lemon and anise donuts. Currently we find two factories of biscuits in Moya, one in the neighborhood of Lance and one in the Frontón, making them the latter since 1961 thanks to the recipe that Goyita passed them. We can find two other factories in the neighborhood of Carretería, one that has specialized in aniseed buns and another in sweet pasties known as truchas. As we see, the tradition is maintained, although that does not affect the development of new products.

Molino de Gofio (The Gofio Mill)

Pedro Rodriguez tells how, just after finishing his military service, he bought the mill some 50 years ago for 215,000 pesetas from a man named Miguel Navarro Guerra. Before this mill was powered by water and also had a motor, when it broke it put a new Ruston brand, although it was removed and today it works with electricity for 10 – 15 years. Before being owned by Miguel Navarro Guerra, the mill was owned by the Hernández Suárez, who were heirs of the Moya estate. Before when it was water, the mill worked with a single stone, although the owner says that since he bought it, it has operated with two stones.
The mill is located on the ground floor of a two-story building that also functions as a dwelling, the upper floor of the mill is the warehouse, where the toasting oven is located, from here the milled toasted grain is spread on the grinding floor through the hopper and reaches the stone that is protected by a circular wooden structure. There is also a display cupboard and packaging machine.

Festivities

The town of Moya has a very attractive festive calendar.
FEBRUARY: feast of the Virgen de la Candelaria, patron saint of the municipality
JUNE: Pilgrimage in honor of San Antonio, celebrated every year on the Saturday closest to June 13. In addition to the festivities in honor of San Judas Tadeo patron of the village that are celebrated on October 28.
AUGUST: A little more than 10 kilometers from the center of Moya is Fontanales, where the Festivities are celebrated annually in Honor of Saint Bartholomew Apostle, saint who is invoked for the protection of the fields.the