It's been 27 hours since we set sail from Cadiz and land is finally in sight. Lanzarote ahoy! Our pirate ship - well, it wasn't that bad after all - sits cheekily next to the ‘Mein Schiff 3’. And whoever gets on the boat last gets to go ashore first. So much for the logic, because we are in pole position right behind the van from Vaud. So the Swiss are well positioned in this ‘Arrival on Lanzarote’ race. The ramp is already down, but where is our dear friend from the mountains of western Switzerland? Embarrassing! The vehicles behind us are waiting impatiently with their engines running, but our young man is probably just looking for his car. Just a few minutes ago he was nervously asking us when we could finally get down to our vehicles and now this is happening. Experienced ferry drivers don't let things like this happen to them. As a precaution, they take a picture with their mobile phone during boarding to find the right ferry deck again or simply memorise it, damn!
Eventually, our compatriot also finds his vehicle and we finally roll onto our promising island. It's Sunday and New Year's Eve is just a few days away. Our supplies are full to the brim and so we don't need to worry about anything other than finding a nice place to spend the first night, where we might be able to stay until the New Year. We chose a spot next to a ruin with a view of the sea and a few larger villages around it, in the hope that we might be able to catch some fireworks on New Year's Eve. We like to look for places like this on the elevation profile map of our Locus Map. If Google Street View provides a picture to go with it, the preparation is almost perfect. However, Street View is often not available on such remote paths, so the surprise of what it looks like in reality is still very big.
FRAME snorts up the mountain on the outskirts of the island's capital, Arrecife. We are heading north. Our surroundings soon change from white-walled civilisation to wild stone landscape. Before we left home, quite a few of our friends asked us why we had chosen such a barren, lifeless volcanic island to spend the winter. The view we are presented with a few minutes after arrival is the answer: we drive past extinguished volcanoes, through a contrasting landscape of merging black lava fields and sand-coloured clay soils. The steep volcanic cones are scarred with imposing fracture edges and dotted with green-covered round indentations of the former secondary vents. Yes, there is a lot of rock, but barren looks different to us. At least at this time of year at the end of December, Mother Nature is omnipresent and something green is growing in every crevice, no matter how small as long as it is sheltered from the wind. The harmony of the earth colours and the softness of the hills is simply overwhelmingly beautiful. We are looking forward to spending the winter here and discovering Lanzarote in all its splendour.
The distances on this island are very manageable, so we leave the main road after just a quarter of an hour, drive round one last crater and let our gaze wander back to the sea towards Africa. The ruins in question are located just above Charco del Palo, a small tourist town on the eastern shore that we have yet to talk about. For now, we are thrilled by the small platform in front of us with a fantastic view almost as far as Africa. A beautiful sunrise is probably guaranteed here, so we accept a sunset that is about an hour early in the sheltering mountains behind us.
above/below: Not a bad place to spend the first night in Lanzarote
It is beautiful and quiet here next to the dilapidated walls of this former vineyard. It looks a bit like a lost place with graffiti, overgrowth and a few remnants that nobody would have wanted even after the worst looting. This ruin will certainly no longer attract too many curious visitors and will therefore not spoil our solitude, so we think. After two peaceful nights' sleep, finally without waves and the rattling of an air conditioner, the last day of the year dawns. In the meantime, we have made some preparations for how we want to discover Lanzarote. If you think it's difficult to travel around a supposedly small island in four days, try four months. It's just as tricky. Where do we start and why? In general, we want to spend the warmer days, which we hope will still come, by the sea and are therefore planning to spend the first few weeks, when the wind is not yet blowing as strongly as in spring, in the mountains. Whether north or south, west or east coast also depends a little on the wind directions. Yes, along with the volcanoes, the wind is a very powerful force on Lanzarote and even if we don't fear it too much, we don't want to get in its way unnecessarily. We believe that our wind resistance has already been put to the test in Northern Ireland. But who knows what else awaits us here on the edge of the Atlantic.
Apart from a daily tourist tour on dusty quad bikes, a few lost place visitors and the odd hiker, hardly anyone gets up here on our New Year's Eve platform. Eventually, however, a jeep stops that has driven through here before and seems to belong to the house about two hundred metres below us. Alejandro, a pleasantly bearded man in his forties, introduces himself as our only neighbour far and wide. He speaks to us in good English and spares us from having to pick our meagre Spanish out of the depths of our vocabulary. He believes that people with a vehicle like our FRAME have something to talk about and spontaneously invites us to his place to ring in New Year's Eve with his wife and friends. We are touched by his hospitality and naturally accept his invitation with thanks. The evening on his terrace with local wine and delicacies is the perfect end to a wonderful 2024. We learn a lot from Alejandro about the Lanzeroteños, or Conejeros (rabbits) as they are affectionately known. He enthusiastically tells us how he lives on this volcanic island today, but also how his ancestors made a living not so long ago. We learn about local agriculture, the water shortage, the flow of African immigrants and not forgetting César Manrique, a local artist, architect and jack-of-all-trades to whom the island owes so much. We say ‘Thank you Alejandro for this warm welcome to Lanzarote and interesting New Year's Eve, we'll keep in touch!’
As in previous years, we don't make it to the midnight fireworks. When travelling, we are used to going to bed with the birds and getting up with them. Even a New Year's Eve doesn't help us overcome our tiredness. The tasty local Volcano wine may have played its part, but we were already snoring shortly before midnight and deep into the New Year.
Above: The first rays of sunshine in 2025 promise a fantastic year
below: We pose with FRAME at the turn of the year and greet our loved ones in this way
After a more than pleasant turn of the year, we are now full of energy and a thirst for discovery to finally soak up this beautiful island. So today we walk down to the sea, from Charco del Palo to Los Cocoteros, as well as to the neighbouring salt evaporation ponds. We've heard it before, but we still can't believe it. Charco del Palo is a naturist village and there are actually people walking around like God made them. No, not just a few on the beach, EVERYONE and EVERYWHERE. The white meatballs stand out fantastically against the black lava rock, so that they literally shine from all the rocks. I feel sorry for the poor Africans who have been wearing the same tattered T-shirt and their father's worn sandals with great pride for years. They save themselves silly to finally be able to afford to flee to paradise. They are promised a highly developed civilisation, technological progress and prosperity in the European Union, so that the migrants risk their lives to take the rubber dinghy from Senegal to the highly praised land of the Canary Islands. And then, after days of bobbing in the waves of the Atlantic, when land is finally in sight and rescue is within reach, they see nothing but naked white people on black lava. Those who have survived to this point are probably threatened with death through frustration and disappointment, perhaps just having jumped from the frying pan into the fire after all. Fortunately, the first impression of Lanzarote is deceptive. Most of them arrive in El Hierro anyway, the nearest island from the south. Over forty thousand last year. That's far more than mainland Spain gets from Morocco. A real tragedy, but it doesn't stop the nudists here from indulging in their naturist culture.
above: We discover the coast around Charco del Palo (any white dots are just seagulls ;-)
After Los Cocoteros, we head straight to a Salina in search of Juan. He is supposed to be the top dog here and look after the traditional management all by himself. The salt pans shimmer in the afternoon sun, while a generator pumps the seawater into the square ponds with a lot of noise. ‘Hola, is anyone here?’ We seem to have woken Juan from his siesta, how stupid of us! But he will forgive us because we buy from him a kilo of freshly extracted untreated sea salt and thank him with our change.
Above: Short shopping & laundry detour to Puerto del Carmen/Puerto Calero region
below: Punta de la Pared with lava holes splashing at high tide. This is a delight for flora and fauna...
Also within walking distance of our ruins are the cactus gardens of Guatiza. Cacti can of course be seen from time to time on this very dry island. However, they only like to grow in the wild in places that are not too exposed to the everyday Atlantic wind. They can therefore be found in particular in the numerous side vents of the volcanoes or even the metre-high terraces on the crater rim. The cacti of Guatiza are built into a sunken area and offer the full spectrum of this desert plant. A small, disused windmill towers over the gardens, giving them an additional eye-catching feature. Like most tourist attractions on Lanzarote, they are well visited and it is a good idea to choose off-peak times to visit them. As a non-expert in this plant species, you get the feeling that all varieties must be represented here. An incredible abundance of small and large, shaggy and prickly but all thick-skinned specimens that you can imagine. If you like beautiful plants, a visit here is definitely worth your admission ticket.
above: Overview of the cactus gardens of Guatiza
below: Detailed view of some magnificent specimens. Even the chandelier in the café is prickly
A few kilometres further north, a few days later, we finally descend into the depths. We find ourselves in the middle of the cooled lava flow of Mount Corona, the dominant volcano in the northern part of the island. Just like the cactus gardens, the Cueva de los Verdes, a labyrinth of caves in a class of its own, was co-designed by none other than artist César Manrique. Lanzarote is home to a number of tourist attractions, striking buildings and even plenty of roundabouts designed, embellished or artistically decorated by the multi-talented artist. The Cueva de los Verdes gives us the opportunity to wander through the lava tunnels towards the sea like the lava did thousands of years ago. We enjoy an impressive cave world. The tour is guided and bilingual. If you are lucky, you will be part of a small group, but normally you will be joined by a maximum of 50 other tourists in the sometimes quite narrow lava tubes. In addition to the history of its formation, the tour, which lasts just under an hour, also offers a variety of magnificent stalagmites, an underground lake and even a concert hall, which is said to have absolutely fantastic acoustics thanks to the porous rock.
above: Cave entrance and exit
below: The fantastic world in the lava channel (a bit spiced up by César Manrique)
The temperatures are just around 20°C and the wind is usually only light. We think this is a good opportunity to get a taste of the Lanzarote mountains. Anyone who knows us is aware that we love good views and spectacular cliffs. Lanzarote is said to have a lot of them, so let's get there. We meet up again on the north-west side of the island on the Famara cliffs and its Surfers' Beaches.
Next blog: 5.4 Surfers' Beaches & Gliders' Cliffs
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