The Employment Workshop for the Rehabilitation of the Natural Monument of Los Ajaches was launched on October 10 of last year. Since then, two groups of twelve students have been working to restore the trails in the area and to train as tourist guides and monitors.
The first of the groups is made up exclusively of women. "We have dared to do a job that only men used to do," explained Mercedes Rodríguez, one of the members of the workshop. "It has been hard work, but very beautiful, of which we can feel proud." Marking trails, whitewashing and restoring stone walls, signposting trails and locating information panels have been some of the activities that these women have carried out for seven months.
But in addition to the conditioning of the trails, the work of prepared guides is necessary to inform hikers and visitors. This is the objective of the second group, which, in addition to studying theoretical content on geography, history, local flora and fauna, Protected Natural Spaces, languages or computer science, has carried out field work to learn about the toponymy of the area and the rural and traditional culture.
At the end of this workshop, within five months, the Natural Monument of Los Ajaches can be visited through ten routes that are correctly signposted. These trails will connect some of the towns and points of greatest interest, such as Playa Quemada, the Barranco del Higueral, Papagayo, Pico de Naos or Femés, which allow for a route of great cultural and geomorphological interest. The routes have a variable length and travel time, so they are divided into different levels of difficulty.
Visit of the director of the Canarian Employment Service
This Thursday, the director of the Employment Service of the Government of the Canary Islands, Soledad Monzón, visited this Workshop for the second time. Monzón has pointed out the importance of this initiative, not only for the environmental recovery of the area, but also for the insertion of the participants into working life.