Finca La Laja reflects the generous and diverse landscape of Agaete Valley, in Gran Canaria.

High up, in Tamadaba Crag, the pine forest juts out, and the water oozing from the Stone shines like a mirror or a silver sheet under the sun. About one thousand metres below, at the foot of the ridge, in Finca La Laja, deep in the heart of Agaete Valley (Gran Canaria), Víctor Lugo Jorge, fifth generation of a family whose history intertwines with the roots of centenary trees, offers in his hands the fruits just harvested from the coffee plants that grow under the shade of orange trees and vines, escorted by a tropical garden of mangoes, avocados and guayabos.

Artenara, located at Gran Canaria’s summit, keeps alive a unique tradition linked to the heart of the volcanic rock, of a purity hard to find in today’s day and age.

The artist Miró Mainou used to search the light looking for the truth. Maybe for this reason he settled in Artenara for over a decade, a village where life draws every day on a canvas of light and calm, the customary stage of a village nestled on the border of a colossal volcanic basin and the doors to Heaven. Here, Mainou’s brushes found the light, and here he won the Canary Islands Fine Arts Award, when he portrayed in lights and shadows the essence of the landscape, in paintings such as ‘Cumbre’ (‘Summit’). Nowadays, the mural painted by the students of Gran Canaria’s School of Art & Design recreates the piece on the façade of the house where the artist lived between 1977 and 1989.

Cruz de Tejeda, in Gran Canaria, is the geographical and historical centre, where the island’s inner voice is heard.

“You have to put a kind face to life”. Manuel Ortega was born in a family who used to farm the land and look after a small herd of sheep, some goats and one or two cows, while working at the water galleries in Gran Canaria’s high land. Maybe for this reason his conversation flows like a stream. “I enjoy talking to people” says Manuel while he strokes the back of his noble four-legged companion, Bartolo, an introvert and calm donkey whose job is to be ridden by anyone who wants to get to know Cruz de Tejeda’s surroundings, a crossroad and geographical, touristic, historical and even emotional epicentre of the island, located above one thousand five hundred metres of altitude, looming over an amazing volcanic basin.