Lanzarot - 2010/12

Lanzarote is one of the Canary Isles belonging to Spain and located 125km off the African Coast. The good weather all year round makes it a popular destination with an average temperature of over 20 degrees and lots of sun. The landscape is interesting and there are places where volcanic lava makes Lanzarote look like the moon surface.


Typical house in Lanzarote is small, painted white with green windows and doors.

A big fair is organised in Teguise every Sunday.


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We like Lanzarote very much, so it is no surprise that we keep returning there. This was our 8th stay on the island. The main reason is the big sport complex La Santa with its open air swimming pool, tennis courts and a great variety of exercise classes held on the lawn overlooking the ocean. The training and cycling facilities are great for Mike. I keep myself busy attending the classes. Therefore our sightseeing plan depended highly on the classes timetable, which 3 of us attended every day.

Xmas in the warm climate doesn’t have as much wow factor as in snowy Poland, but we made some effort to celebrate it.

thanks to team effort we managed to prepare 12 dishes

Xmas dinner "Costa Azul" with an impressive view onto the ocean

the beach near the restuarant

Everywhere on the island the imptact of Cesar Manrique's impact on the island can be observed. That architect tried to prove that people and nature can coexist together in harmony. Designed by Cesar Jameos del Aqua is very impressive. It is a restaurant and an amphitheatre situated in an old volcano tunnel with a small pond, which is the home for some blind crabs (their only known habitat except the ocean bottom which light doesn’t reach).

Omar Sharif's House is another example of Cesar Manrique's work. Omar fell in love with the house and purchased it during filming on the island. Unfortunately for him, he owned the house for only 1 day as he lost it playing bridge to an English property developer (btw, a European Bridge champion, but Omar didn’t know about it when placing the bet).

Mirador del Rio has a spectacular view of La Graciosa Island and was also designed by Cesar Manrique.

The Cacti Garden (Jardin de Cactus) had wide collection of cacti, from tiny ones to impressive gigiantic ones.






The Volcano National Park of Timanfaya is definitely the main attraction of Lanzarote. In 18th century its eruption lasted for 8 years, which resulted in the entire area being covered by lava. Until now the plants still hasn’t managed to root there. Today the lava is still flowing 1km under the surface and it is so hot that the dry grass sets on fire when thrown into a 2m hole and in places the sand on the surface is too hot to hold in the hand.

In the centre of the park there is a restaurant serving grilled dishes from a volcanic grill (food is grilled over a few-meter hole, no fire required). In the centre of the restaurant there is a fig tree. The legend says that a hermit used to live there with his camel. He dreamed of growing figs so he looked after the tree but it never blossomed because the soil was too warm.

barbecue

the park staff improvised geyser

the fig tree

Of course, we couldn’t leave the island without going on a camel ride.

Now it is high time to admit that when Mike was cycling around the island, Daniel and I went for a lazy option and did sightseeing in comfort of a rented car.

Mike cycling up another slope

our grey means of transport

Part of the exploration is always to become familiar with the local cousine. The speciality of the island are cannary soup (cheak peas), paella and pimiento don padron (roasted small peppers in sea salt).

mixed paella (yummy) especially in a restaurant with such a spectacular view (use your imagination - to our left:))

Papagaya is another place that the guidebook doesn't shortlist as a must. However, it offers a chance to enjoy a nice walk along the coastline.

It was impossible not to notice the toilet signs. They were so original that on the multiple occasions they made us laugh.

We had a great time and we wouldn’t have been upset if we had had to stay there for another couple of weeks, but unfortunately after 7 days it was time for us to return to the reality and work. Hopefully we will be able to visit Lanzarote again in the near future.