Barranco de Guayadeque

People still live in the rock here. In the hamlets of Cueva Bermeja and Montaña de las Tierras, houses, restaurants and even a hermitage are dug straight into the ravine wall, and a paved circular walk loops past cave homes with views down the dry riverbed.

The sides rise 300 to 400 m, roughly the height of the Eiffel Tower, and are pocked with older caves. The island's pre-Hispanic people lived, stored food and buried their dead in them; mummies were left in the hardest to reach, some with skulls wrapped in animal skins or woven reed. Much of what 19th-century grave robbers took ended up in the Museo Canario in Las Palmas, and the Guayadeque Museum (Museo de Guayadeque) at the mouth of the valley tells the story from the start.

Fig and almond trees grow on the old terraces, the remains of water mills sit along the stream, and the rocks belong to the Gran Canaria giant lizard (lagarto canarión), which reaches 80 cm.

• Mobile phones lose signal in the valley: sort out maps and plans before you drive in.
• The paths are exposed to the sun. Bring a hat, sunscreen and water; there are no public toilets or drinking fountains nearby.
• The walk through the cave village is paved, but some slopes are very steep.
• Tables at the cave restaurants can be hard to get, and at least one takes no bookings: you take a number on arrival and wait outside.

Almost everyone arrives by car, from Agüimes or Ingenio. The GC-103 leaves the GC-100 at Agüimes and follows the floor of the ravine, past the museum at the entrance, on through Cueva Bermeja 4 km further up, to its end at Montaña de las Tierras. From the towns the road drops narrow and twisting, with cars coming the other way. Restaurant customers park free by the cave restaurants, and there is free public parking further down the road.

Walking in is possible but long, around 10 km back out on the same road, so start early if you go on foot. The nearest bus stop, Tanausú, is about 1.1 km away in a straight line. Beyond Montaña de las Tierras a footpath climbs to the Los Marteles crater and meets the GC-130.

Best: early in the day, and in late winter, when the almond terraces are in blossom.

Avoid: walking the ravine in the heat of the middle of the day.

The paths are open to the sun, the best of the valley lies furthest in, and the way back out is as long as the way in.

The ravine is protected twice over: as an archaeological Site of Cultural Interest and as a Natural Monument. The burial caves in its walls are part of that heritage, and the protection was brought in to stop them being plundered — do not climb into them and take nothing away. Some of the caves along the road are still homes, so keep to the road and the paths and leave doorways and terraces alone. The endemic plants on the slopes are protected as well; leave them where they grow.