During my visit to Canary Islands, I decided to spend a week in Lanzarote. I had a choice to go by air or by sea. There is a boat service 'Armas' that can be used to hop between island. I used it to go to another island, Gran Canarias, and also wanted to go by this boat to Lanzarote as well, but it takes more than five hours by sea and the timings were late at night, therefore I decided to go by air, Binter airways, and reached the place in 45 minutes.
85% of Lanzarote is a protected area, full of lava from volcanic eruptions with only a narrow tar road for traffic to move at a slow pace….it seemed like I was on an outer planet...
At some places, it was too scary with open craters and lava stone. I was tempted to pick up some rock from the path, hoping to hit a fortune, but nobody is allowed to pick up the stones :))
You can imagine the strong winds in these open spaces, it is impossible to stand straight without support, hair are mess, skirt is flying high up (ha! ha!) Lava sand slapping against your face while you look for a comfortable posture to be able to click a picture...oops!
Some of the craters of the volcano Montana de Fuego ("Mountain of Fire") are still active, and have temperatures as high as 400 degrees.
There are different shapes of hills and rocks, At one place I saw this rock that looked like a cloak.... I craned my neck to see if Virgin Mary was inside...
Even though it is so isolated, a nice smooth road is built for motorway which was quite narrow at some places but very safe.... When the driver took a steep turn, I was busy praying for my safety....
We passed through the tunnels, through narrow paths and through dangerous slopes but had an experienced driver who knew the road well enough to drive carefully...
In the place like this, what can one possibly grow? just algae? But farmers are intelligent and they have turned part of the island into green zone by using stones as barriers to control against the strong winds and have put soil in blocks....
Some part of the island had large salt pans using the sea water
A milk diary had their goats in their farm
We passed the village that has 1000 palms. Legend has it that for every male child born in the village, one palm tree was planted and for every female child born the village, two palm trees were planted ...
The part of the island that is developed for tourist is beautiful. Tourism is the main industry here and paths next to sea shore are converted into beautiful promenades where you often find musician performing for a fee. I often went down the path and sat down on the rocks to read a book
What is peculiar about Lanzarote is that the houses are just one level and are white in color with green windows. This combination of white and green is uniform throughout the island except in the main town which had multiple story government offices and banks and colorful buildings.
During the day one can spend the day at the beach but in the evening, it is a pleasant walk by the seashore, there are many restaurants along the promenade. I used to sit for hours sipping coffee in the cool sea breeze and do people watching.
The other islands are so close by that they are visible from the sea shore.
Fuerteventura is just 20 minutes boat ride from Lanzarote. There is Isla de Lobos on the other side of Fuerteventure.
From the north of the island, I could see another island called Graciosa. The island looked bare but there was a cluster of hotels closer to the beach
More details on points of visit in Lanzarote
Exploring Lanzarote part4: 'Jameos del Agua' Caves in Lanzarote
Exploring Lanzarote: part 3: 'EL Golfo' in Lanzarote
Exploring Lanzarote: part 2: 'The Mountain of Fire' In LanzaroteExploring Lanzarote: part 1: 'Camel Ride at Timanfaye National Park' in Lanzarote
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