Charco Azul, an oasis close to El Risco from Agaete

If you feel like making a nice walk to discover the Charco Azul, continue reading. The Charco Azul is located at one of the ravines which are close to El Risco. This is at the municipality of Agaete, in northwest Gran Canaria

It is one of the few parts of the island with flowing water the whole year. In addition to this, when it has rained a lot, there is a waterfall which goes directly to the Charco Azul. This makes that the water runs along the ravine.

How to get to get to Charco Azul

1. If you are at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the best option is that you drive direction Agaete. Once you have passed it, you should continue west direction until you reach a village and ravine called El Risco. You should park there. In total there is a 55 minutes drive from the city.
2. If you are staying around Maspalomas, you should drive approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes. In the same way, you should take direction Agaete, but El Risco is about 14 kilometers before. You will see a brown sign where it is said “barranco El Risco”. Once you see it, you should look for the parking area shown below.

Both ways are gorgeous, though there are some parts of the road with a lot of curves. Be calm. In case that you are planing to get here on Sunday or any bank holiday, you could have problems to park because it is an excursion which the local people usually do. So that, try to be there soon because you could easily park and enjoy the Charco Azul peacefully.

Walk to Charco Azul

You should know that the only way to get to Charco Azul is on foot. Therefore, once you have parked, you should go direction the bars which are at the curve. There you can ask the local people or simply follow the marks and signs which you will find to reach the way. The path is quite flat and there are almost 4 kilometers per way. This makes around 45 minutes per way. It will all depends how fit you are or if you are going with kids or elder people.

In general, the trail does not have much difficulty, much less if you are used to hiking and sports. However, as it is not an approved footpath, you should know that if it is has recently rained, the way could be complicated. We could recommend it for children since it is not a long way to walk and you can even make some stops to rest. However, you should know that there are some parts where you will have to walk carefully, but it is not all the time.

As you may deduce from the previous picture, the creek runs the water along the ravine. Depending on how much it has rained, you will see more or less water. But it always has. The way is quite width and there is any marked footpath. Try to look where there are more footprints so you do not have to make big jumps or turn back.

There are some local people who jumps into the water of Charco Azul, but we always recommend you the salty water. Once you come pack form the hiking you can visit El Risco beach.

El Risco beach

It is a virgin beach with some stones and black sand. El Risco beach is located a few meters where you have parked to visit Charco Azul. However, we recommend you to take the car again and park close to the sea where there is another parking area, since there is no trail through the ravine.

All of this area is inside the Tamadaba Natural Park and the Biosphere Reserve from Gran Canaria.

As you can see below, the beach is very quiet and there are usually no people. We went even with our dogs as we did to the Charco Azul hike. Please be informed that there isn’t any life guard. So please do not swim very far from the shore, it could be dangerous because of the marine current. In the same way, there are no services around, so take everything you need to spend the time there and enjoy!

That’s all folks! If you are organizing your visit to Gran Canaria, leave everything, we have already done it for you. You have at your disposal a guide of restaurants by type of cuisine and area of the island, as well as guides per day. Do not miss it!