Adventure on Lanzarote, hiking

The Path of Grace

We say adventure to this path because when one knows the history of the path and tries to imagine what those years were like for the inhabitants of Lanzarote and La Graciosa, the path becomes an adventure, which you can easily join in and discover the island’s unusual places.

To get to the starting point of the Camino de las Gracioseras you have to go to Yé, coming from Haria and as soon as you pass the sign that indicates that we are already inside the village of Yé the road forks. On the road a sign indicates the Mirador del rio on the right, turn and after about 300 m you will find a car park. Leave your car in the car park. We recommend that you leave nothing of value in sight and bring enough water. You can’t get lost from here.

History of Lanzarote, El Camino de las Gracioseras

This road linked the inhabitants of La Graciosa with Lanzarote for many years. The impossible task of cultivating farm produce on this island led to the graciosa people having to come to Lanzarote in small boats to do business. The gracioseros would take their women to the beach under El Risco and the women would carry all the goods on their heads, climb up the road and go to the village of Haria. The aim of the visits to the town of Haria was to exchange the fish for products from the countryside that they could not grow due to the aridity of La Graciosa. When they finished, they loaded the exchanged goods back onto their heads and cleared the road. When the night caught up with them halfway through, they would light torches and thus warn their husbands that they could go and collect them on the same beach where they had left them. These torches were called “Las Tegalas”. As you can imagine, in those days the sea often did not accompany them and the small boats did not have an engine.

La aventura comienza

Once we leave the car in the car park and start going down the path, we start enjoying the views of the Chinijo Archipelago; La Graciosa, Montaña Clara, Alegranza and the rock of the west. The volcanoes that can be seen from the path are Montaña Amarilla, Montaña Mojon and the needles (from left to right). Las Agujas volcano covers the view of the fourth volcano that La Graciosa has; Montaña Bermeja.

From the beginning of the road we will also see Las Salinas del Rio, old salt mines of Lanzarote that were exploited until 1971/72. Lanzarote had 50 salt mines on the island but due to the fall in the price of salt all of them were closed except for the Janubio salt mine which can still be visited today.

The path has loose stones and can be a bit slippery so be careful where you put your feet. The views of the island of Lanzarote are also spectacular.

When we reach the end of the road we will find ourselves in the solitude of enjoying the Risco beach and the views of La Graciosa and Lanzarote. The beach with its fine sand and crystal clear waters is a very pleasant place to spend the day.