The Necropolis...

Sally, John and I made one final stop before heading to the house at the Necropolis de Maipes, a lava field from 3,000 years ago that the indigenous Guanches used to build burial mounds.

This model in the archaeological museum depicted the construction of the tombs, which once numbered around 700.

Another great trip with great friends came to an end. In a way, it was also the end of an era as David heads off to university next year. Here’s hoping we can still manage to pull off family vacations together for years to come!

Another Great Hike...

Success!

While they never did manage to find a path to the waterfall that we’d viewed all week from the house, they did successfully find a smaller waterfall.

Silly Ashlynn and Jimmy didn’t let the cold water scare them away.

Final Day of Hiking...

Veronica captured this beautiful rainbow over Agaete early in their hike.

They took a different path determined to finally make it to a waterfall.

Agaete Revisited...

We were fortunate on our final day that the owner allowed us to stay in the house until it was time to leave for our evening flight. Once again, we split up with Jimmy joining the kids. John drove us back to Agaete so we could walk along the waterfront.

Like Galdar, Agaete had natural swimming pools.

An Afternoon Hike...

That afternoon, Jimmy set off with the kids in search of the waterfall. Although I love hiking, he didn’t think I’d enjoy scrambling up the hills, so I set off with Sally and John instead to explore the areas above our house.

We also ventured down the dirt road past our house into the valley along the river.

We spotted the hikers among the trees on the other side of the water.

That evening the kids cooked dinner for us, which was a very nice treat.

A Morning in Galdar...

While Jimmy took the girls to the beach, I joined Sally’s family to visit the Cuevas Pintada (Painted Cave) Archaeological Museum in Galdar. This museum features the ruins of a village with circular stone houses and a cave with painted symbols near the roof that is thought to be an early calendar.

Afterwards, we drove to the beach. Rock walls create a natural swimming pool to protect swimmers from the rough waves.

The boys haven’t changed much since they were little -- they couldn’t resist building a dam along the waters edge. The beach was covered in these bright blue jellyfish.

While we had an easy time finding the beach, the same can’t be said for the return drive to the freeway. Somehow we got lost among the high walls of banana plantations. The navigation system instructed us to go down alleys so narrow that our car would never fit. We were just about to offer to pay a local  to lead us out of the maze when we happened upon the correct way.

Into the Hills...

The kids did manage to climb up into the hills, but turned out that the waterfall was much higher up than they’d expected.

Veronica carried along a tripod, so she could jump in a few photos as well.

This is the view of the back of our house from the road; we decided to take a risk with traffic on the shoulder-less road rather than climb down the rocks covered in cacti. Straight across from the house is the triangular hill that the kids climbed.

Happy Kids Go Exploring...

The kids had a great time on their hike.

It was very sweet that Andrew chose this shot as his cover photo on Facebook.

An Afternoon of Hiking...

The next morning, we visited the town of Galdar, which sits at the foot of a dormant volcano. After visiting the market and having a great three-course lunch (for just € 9 including a drink), we returned to the house to go hiking. The kids quickly headed off in the opposite direction in search of a way up to the waterfall. We had to climb over one rock wall interspersed with cacti to access the path that Jimmy found.

Running in the Dunes...

Ashlynn and Andrew eventually set for a run to the ocean. We got a bit nervous when the sun started to sink and we still couldn’t spot them. Luckily they were smart enough to follow their own footprints back until they could eventually spot the terrace in the distance.

Afterwards, we ate at a traditional Spanish restaurant, where Jimmy and I enjoyed some paella. What a fun day!

Playing on the Dunes...

I couldn’t take photos while on the dunes themselves because of all the blowing sand, but Jimmy managed to take these shots on the GoPro.

Maspaloma Dunes...

Around 5 p.m. we finally arrived at Maspalomas Dunes, which were very impressive.

Luckily Sally’s guidebook instructed us to access the dunes through the terrace of a hotel, where we easily found parking. David immediately set off for a long run, while the other kids were happy to roll down the dunes with Jimmy and John.

Another Photo Shoot...

Of course, Veronica couldn’t resist making use of this beautiful scenery to take more photos of Ashlynn.