Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Lanzarote - part 4

One of the prettiest plants must have been this gorgeous one from Madagascar.
We discovered some funny art in the toilets - this was the whole wall mural sign for ladies...
...and this for gents.
More blooming cacti in gorgeous colours.
Captain wanted to be photographed next to these big "seats".
And again one with polka dots.
On the East edge of the garden there is a wind mill. Of course we had to climb up there.
This is the view from the wind mill to the East. There are fields of cacti everywhere. It is not aloe vera, so I'm not sure what it's used for.
The wind mill was in perfect condition...
...even inside all the mechanisms were still in working order. Captain of course had to check. Regardless of his enthusiasm of the cacti I think that for him this was a true highlight.
We got a bit tired and hungry and sat down in the restaurant there. They had some interesting tapas and prices were not very high. My fish with Canary potatoes and mojo was delicious, Captain's Cactus burger was also good, but looked better than it tasted.
While we were eating, a little bird stopped by, probably to see if there would be some left overs.
It wasn't very shy, and nor was this lizard with turquoise pattern on it's side.
After the lunch we strolled around the garden some more...



I could easily spend more time there or go back any day. It was fantastic, very well worth the entrance fee.

After the cactus garden we were so full of images and forms and colours, we decided we'll leave the Timanfaya visit for some other day. You can't pack too much stuff into one day. So we decided to just drive around for a while. We drove further North and came to the white beaches. They are very popular and the contrast of white sand and black rocks really looks nice.
Our next stop was town of Orzola. We came just in time to see ferry from Isla Graziosa pull into the port.
To the North of town there are high cliffs...
...and the surfing beach which we needed to check out. There weren't many surfers in the water, but people were swimming, or at least tried to get into the water in big surf.
From Orzola we again took the back roads to Haria. We didn't stop there, but drove South up the hill on a scenic road - parts are dug into the lava (this is Haria looking back from top of the hill)...
... and we found the place where the trees are growing! This might be the only place where they don't need to water them. I'm guessing that we also saw the reason - there were misty clouds rising from the North along the cliffs and they probably bring just enough moisture for the trees to survive.
On the top of the hill we took the dirt road and were trying to find a picnic area. In all that clouds we missed the crossing and ended at the edge of the Femara cliffs.
Down there is Caleta de Femara where we ate the day before and the sandy beach with surfers.
Some people were climbing down this part and into the overhangs below. We didn't even want to get very close to the edge, it all looked very crumbly and unstable.
Or as Captain said - there's 30km to the place down there by car - or one wrong step.
It was a great place with incredible views, and best part was we just found it and didn't even plan on going there.

After all this we slowly drove towards marina, stopped in couple of shops and managed to get home again in the dark. We were again pretty tired, but the day was almost even better than the previous one. And we still have so much more to discover in Lanzarote.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Lanzarote - part 3

Warning! Lots of cactus photos!

After the hike we drove to Cactus garden. Right at the entrance is this big cactus, that's made of metal.
And inside it's cactus paradise. The garden is set inside of the caldera of volcano and whoever created it was a genius. They used the slopes for terraces with smaller cacti, and in the middle there are the big ones. The colours of plants are perfectly contrasted by black sand and some red rocks.
There are also couple of pools there...
...with water lilies and fish and the fresh water attracts lots of birds so the air is full of chirping.
The climate here obviously suits the cacti perfectly as many of them were blooming.

There were all the different shapes there - twisted...
...round...
...long...

...small and almost fluffy with pretty miniature blossoms.
Some were red-ish..
...many white...
...and there were some very ordinary looking ones with unbelievably beautiful blossoms. Didn't even know cactus can bloom like this.
There are almost 500 plants there...
...of more than 100 different varieties from all over the world.



I've never seen anything like this..
..or this.



And the ones that look similar..
...are still different.
The red really stood out from the black sand.
This one that looks like a piped ornament on a cake had a small brother with polka dots.
The best thing was as I saw how much Captain enjoyed the visit. He is usually not into plants and I'm visiting botanical garden alone most of the times.


More to follow...