Riding out Covid on Gran Canaria Island I learned there is a Camino de Santiago here. How could I not walk it. And some of the most beautiful terrain of any Camino.
In the 16th century some Galician sailors, in thanks for being saved from a great storm after their prayers to Santiago, Built a shrine here and there is now a Church of Santiago in Galdar, the end of this Way.
A Papal Bull of John XXIII in 1965 granted the same privileges to the churches of Santiago de Gáldar and Tunte (San Bartolomé de Tirajana) as to that of Santiago de Compostela in the celebration of the Jacobean Holy Year. In 1992 John Paul II granted it in perpetuity, being able to celebrate and win the Jubilee in the Holy Years where pilgrims receive the same plenary indulgences as those who make pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostelano.
This Camino starts in Maspolomas on the the southern shore of Gran Canaria Island. I stayed at a simple hostel with a private bedroom.
The Camino de Gran Canaria even has Credentials:
The first day was a beautiful walk once getting out of Maspolomas up into the mountains over a pass and then down into the village of Ayaguares.
There are no accommodations that I could find in Ayagaures so I hitched back to Maspolomas.
