After almost 600 kilometers on foot through the GR131 Canary Islands Long Distance Trail, the Contramapas project has concluded its 2025 edition on the morning of this Friday, Canary Islands Day, with its arrival at the Orchilla Lighthouse, in the herreño municipality of El Pinar.
The Contramapas team has walked two stages in El Hierro (Valverde- Ermita de Nuestra Señora de los Reyes and Ermita de Nuestra Señora de los Reyes-Faro de Orchilla)
thus completing 24 sections since leaving the island of La Graciosa on May 1, and has once again experienced moments of great emotion upon reaching the last beacon of the GR131, in a place as significant as the Orchilla Lighthouse, with the company of the Councilor for Social Welfare and Youth of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Marci Acuña.
La Graciosa, Lanzarote, Lobos, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and finally El Hierro has been the itinerary traveled through this trail
approved by the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sports and included in the European Network of Trails, and whose existence and knowledge by the local population is the
epicenter of this initiative promoted by the Atlas Association.
With community events, environmental talks and workshops on Canarian root music and dance in many of the stage endings, Contramapas has sought to spread the enormous possibilities of the GR131, “a resource of strategic value as a scenario for educational, cultural and social innovation projects”, in the words of Manuel Cabezudo, director of Contramapas, which this year has added the participation in different sections of minors at risk of exclusion and also migrant minors from Mali, Gambia and Senegal. For this reason, the motto of this 2025 has been ‘Contramapas, walking towards social inclusion’.
Cabezudo, who completes the second edition of Contramapas but has been walking the GR131 for more than a decade, assured upon his arrival at the tip of Orchilla that he has
“enjoyed the route as if it were the first time, eager to take out a third edition and for this project to have continuity over time and to be able to bring this experience closer to as many people as possible”.
“The Canary Islands have been talking to us”
“The Canary Islands, along these 600 kilometers that we have traveled from La Graciosa to the Orchilla Lighthouse, have been talking to us about their number of incredible natural spaces
but also of other realities such as its fragile, fragmented territory, which tells us that we have to continue defending our natural environment, our identity,
but in a context of cultural diversity. I think it also tells us that we must support young people, that these experiences are part of experiential learning in nature, that they reach the educational system, public education. And above all I think that the Canary Islands are also telling us to raise our voices for migrants and for their rights”, said the promoter of Contramapas.
Cabezudo stressed that since its first edition, in 2024, Contramapas ended in La Restinga with a tribute to migrants, victims and people who disappeared on the Canary Route. The intention to repeat the cultural event on the afternoon of this Friday was truncated by the painful tragedy that occurred with the fatal overturning of a cayuco in which seven people died, so instead a brief and heartfelt act will be carried out in which a minute of silence will be observed, with the presence of the
Councilor for Social Welfare of the Cabildo of El Hierro, Amado Carballo.
Manuel Cabezudo wanted to express “deep gratitude” to the Contramapas team (Elena Carbó, Aníbal Llarena, Hans Thomsen, Natalia Morales, Yaiza Cardona and Laura Purroy) for “their commitment, their talent and their humanity”, to the sponsors “for their support and for their trust”, as well as to the institutions and entities, in addition to individuals, “who have participated and helped throughout the GR131 Trail so that Contramapas has been able, once again, to become a reality”. Also to the media for the wide dissemination of the initiative before and during its development.
‘Contramapas has the support of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Equality, Youth, Children and Families of the Government of the Canary Islands, as well as the “la Caixa” Foundation. Sponsors such as the Cabildo de Lanzarote -in addition to the fact that the seven Cabildos participate in one way or another-, Casa África, Fred Olsen -which has covered the maritime crossings between islands-, Toyota Canarias, Runize, the Foresta Foundation and the Trans-Pyrenean Social Solidarity Association, a state reference in social inclusion projects in the natural environment, also make the project possible.
