Saturday, November 16, 2019

Back to Lanzarote

Our journey back to Lanzarote started with one hour delay and made me nervous that we might miss the plane. But luckily nothing else went wrong, we were at the airport on time and we landed in Lanzarote at late afternoon. We rented a car, then drove to marina. After unpacking, which didn't take long as we only had hand luggage, we drove to Playa Blanca and had some delicious tapas for dinner. 

Next day we still had the car, but it was already passed noon as we drove off. We drove to the North of the island and our first stop was near Salinas and Los Hervideros. Then we drove to Teguise and stop at Santa Barbara castle. There is a Museum of piracy there, but they were closing it in couple of minutes, so we didn't have to make a decision if we want to go in or not. So we just walked around a bit. Castle is not very big...
...but the views from it are pretty good - this is the view to the North.
Next we drove all the way to Mirador del Rio on the NE edge of the island. We were there several times already, but this time we even payed the entrance fee and went in. While the building is nice, it was designed by Cesar Manrique, there isn't much there other than coffee and souvenir shop and a couple of modern sculptures. And of course great view, but from the road couple of meters away you can get the same view without paying.
This is the strait between Lanzarote and Isla Graziosa...
...and this is Caleta del Sebo on Isla Graziosa and left below are small saline plants on Lanzarote.
On our way back we stopped in Haria in La Puerta Verde because I wanted to eat the wonderful gofio dessert again. Captain chose mango mouse with goat yoghurt and some flowers. I wanted to make some photos of it, but once they brought us our desserts we got big eyes and dug right in and didn't think of photographing until we ate it all. It was both really great, they obviously know how to cook and maybe we should have come here for complete dinner and not just desserts.

Next day we started early, we drove off before nine o'clock. We read that the best time to visit Timanfaya is before hordes of tourists and buses arrive in the middle of the day. There is an entrance fee, but you get a bus tour around volcanoes for that. All is well organised, and it has to be, since this is the number 1 attraction of the island and as such pretty crowded. We parked the car near the restaurant and got into one of the busses. The tour took little more than half an hour and it was breathtaking. Unfortunately all our photos were taken through the bus windows, so we were fighting with reflections, but I can totally understand why they don't want to let people out of the bus. You still get the feeling that you are right in the middle of it and you cannot get that by driving by car on any other road.












This is the restaurant, designed by Cesar Manrique as well.
My happy face after the tour says it all. Even with all the volcanos that we climbed and all the colourful  and oddly shaped rocks and lava that we've seen on our previous explorations, this tour topped it all.
One more photo from the parking lot.
Near the restaurant there were some demonstrations of how hot the ground still is - they put some dry branches into the hole in the ground and it started to burn...
... and pour some water into the tube in the ground and it became a geyser.
They also use the heath of the volcano in the restaurant to grill meat and potatoes.
We decided to try some chicken and it was good. It maybe wasn't the best chicken we ever had, but it was a great experience.
After lunch we drove back to the entrance and made some more nice photos.

And we were shocked to see how many cars were waiting to get in. We were soooo happy we were early enough to avoid the rush hour.
Our next stop was by the camels. Camels were working animals on Lanzarote for centuries, they were better adapted to dry land without pastures than cattle or horses. Nowadays there is less agriculture than before and most of the work is done by machines. So camels got a new job - they carry the tourists around Timanfaya. It is a small tour, nothing like a bus tour, more a camel riding experience than the volcano tour. We didn't want to ride camels, we just wanted to take a look and visit the small museum that is on the site.

It was a nice place to make a stop.

Next we drove to El Golfo for an ice cream and then along the NW coast towards marina - by on some pretty rocks...

...colourful hills...
...black beaches...
...and a lake.
On the black beach I collected some more olivine stones. They were just lying in the black sand, but on many other times I just picked them from parking lots. They are just small shards, not suitable for jewellery, but to me they are still precious. Mostly they are green, hence the name, but sometimes there are crystals of other colours hidden in the stones.

Last two days were pretty relaxed, we did some small things around the boat, washed some laundry and spent some time with friends. Who would have thought there would be three boats from Slovenija here at the same time. 

1 comment:

  1. Wow - Really spectacular color, form and magnificent light! Thanks for all the great photos so we could "come along for the ride."

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