Where is this beautiful island located? Most of you may have heard
of the Canary
Islands, just off the coast of Morocco in Northern Africa. The seven
roses, as another
traveller called them. Lanzarote is the most easternly of those
7 islands.
One place on this site, I call Lanzarote a brown island. That
is the impression you
get in a normal year. But when rain has poured down, is it sometimes
does - but not too
often - the island turns green.
Most of the island is volcanic, and coagulated lava cover most
of the land.
Many places are also covered with volcanic 'lapilli',
or picon on Lanzarote.
This is small particles, only 3 to 8 mm lavapieces, and they are
so porous that
during the night they take up enough water to feed plants and flowers
the next day.
That is why the local people care for the picon. They don't
walk on it, as the
tourist do - they believe that since you see it all over the island,
it doesn't matter.
But it sure does. Without the picon, the island sure would have
been brown.
One of the most beautiful places on the island, is the district
of Haria, in the
northern part of the island. You will pass it on a round-trip, but
don't.
Take a break - have a meal in one of the picturesque restaurants
there,
and take time to look yourself around. Haria is called Valley of
the Thousand
Palms. I haven't counted them all, but I do believe it is not so
far from a
thousand anyway.
By the way, a roundtrip on the island is a very fine way to
be familiar with
the island. And there is a lot to see. Up north you have a beautiful
view from
Mirador del Rio to the beautiful island La Graciosa, just a few
hundred years
off the mainland. You can go there by ferry - but choose a day when
the
sea is rather calm. We didn't, and you bet the captain of that ferry
knew
what he did! Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to write this down.
I won't say more here - you go and look for yourself! But a visit
to that
beautiful, small island, you will never forget.
Talking about beauty, when we visited Mirador del Rio late January
2000, it had been rainy. And whole of the top was covered by the
most
colorful flowers you have ever seen - at least on Lanzarote...
Down southward and then west, you have the famous lagoon El
Golfo.
Here the water has turned green owing to the high content of xx??
This is where you can pick your own olivin right on the beach, and
if you take your
time, may be you can have your own necklace when you get back home.
A tour up on top of the hot volcano, in the Timanfaya
National Park is also a must.
You can read more about this in my volcano-section of this site.
And after having had your feet warmed up, it's time to go down
under, and to
visit the caves, made by lavastreams many years ago. More about
this later.
Or take a trip in the volcano-area on camels!
Meanwhile, a little about the Government and tourism. They love
it......
I won't discuss wether that is because they have to, or not - but
they
really do their best to make Lanzarote a beautiful and a friendly
island
to visit. As soon as you come out of the new modern terminal at
the
airport, you will understand what I mean. Both sides of the road
up
to the main highway is crowded with flowers and trees. And very
nicely
arranged. Also in Puerto del Carmen they have done their best.
Look at the picture below, which shows one of the many traffic circles
in this city. Nice - isn't it?