8 July 2017

Zzzzzzz...

Zzzzzz...! If you are getting bored with my posts from Lanzarote, please rest assured that we are only here for a week and now we are getting to the end of this holiday time. We will soon be home and normal blogging activity will be resumed shortly. Please bear with me.

In the mid eighteenth century, Lanzarote witnessed major volcanic activity to the south west of the island. New mountains sprang up and a vast gooey lava field edged its way into the sea. Millions of tons of volcanic ash were spewed out and the air was thick with steam and toxic clouds. Today that area of the island is now the Timanfaya National Park - its establishment partly inspired by Cesar Manrique.
You pay ten euros per person at the park entrance and then you drive up to the visitors' centre. There you transfer to a coach and the bus driver takes you along a twisting route that curls through the heart of a volcanic landscape that seems as if it was created just yesterday. The lava field in the valley is like a moonscape of black, jagged rocks and creamy lava flows with holes and crevices. Unfit for farming, plants have found it difficult to gain a foothold over the past two hundred and fifty years. The last significant eruption was in 1820. In geological terms this is but a moment in time.
It was as folk are wont to say - an awesome spectacle.

We drove on to Playa Blanca and saw the lighthouse at Punta Pechiguero. Playa Blanca is very different from when Coppa's Girl (blog visitor) used to stay there years ago. It has become a sprawl of holiday villas and apartments reaching down to the shoreline. They are all white and look the same - little boxes made of ticky tacky. But the sun shines down and that's the main thing that many western European holidaymakers want.
Onwards to the salt flats and to the rugged coast at Los Hervideros before arriving in the tiny seaside village of  El Golfo where we ate lunch. I asked for grilled sardines and they brought me a pile of them - maybe fifty of the little blighters. A dozen would have been plenty. The restaurant cat enjoyed four or five of them under our table. I couldn't manage more than twenty. Shirley is a rather fussy eater and wouldn't even try one of the little fishes which you eat whole - eyes, bones, everything. We also had a  mixed salad and Canary potatoes with mojo sauces. The bill was not humble.
At El Golfo we also visited Charco de Los Clicos - a spectacular green lake below volcanic cliffs, trapped by a vast bank of grey volcanic sand.

We only had our hire car for two days but it allowed us to achieve a much better notion of Lanzarote's constituent parts and the rugged sunlit beauty that  illuminated Cesar Manrique's dreams. There is more to this island that might at first be presumed.

16 comments:

  1. The picture with the salt heaps is my favourite of this lot - again, a very unusual combination of geometrical and natural shapes, lines, colours, textures.
    I did not know much about Lazarote except for that it is volcanic, so I found your posts very interesting.
    Off to Yorkshire tomorrow for the next 11 days!

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    1. I am glad that that picture connected with you. Have a lovely time in Yorkshire and a well-earned rest away from work with Betty (your mysterious sister).

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  2. I love volcanic scenery YP - it is so different to anything here.

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    1. Have you ever been to Iceland Pat? Not the supermarket but the country. Strangely the volcanic scenery of Lanzarote reminds me of Iceland.

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    2. We have a small colony of icelanders in my parish, they are kind of rough looking, fascinating and it takes time to know them. But it's worth while! I agree with Pat, the volcanic scenery is lovely!!

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  3. YP - your holiday (vacation) is always of interest to somebody. Even your remarks about Trump (the President of the USA) makes me smile. Maybe we should have the election again.

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    1. At the risk of igniting your wrath Terry, I certainly think we should have the Brexit referendum again. Next time round Remain would win with a landslide.

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    2. Definitely YP ! It would certainly give us a stronger pound !

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  4. You've not managed to bore me with a post yet in the years I've followed you so a week in Lanzarotte isn't going to change that. In fact I'm finding it quite fascinating as it's a place I'm unlikely ever to visit. As for the cost of sardines it's called the redistribution of wealth.

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    1. About the sardines, I guess you are right Graham though the sardines themselves probably wouldn't agree.

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  5. The green lake is fascinating and beautiful, surrounded by the grey. This is scenery one wouldn't find just anywhere. Thanks for sharing it here.

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    1. The grey is a vast bank of volcanic sand. Not on this picture but just to the right of it the sea was beating on the shoreline.

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  6. Volcanic scenery is forbidding and austere; the camels are wonderful.

    Alphie

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    1. I just had to pull up at the Homage to the Camels roundabout. Can you see that car to the bottom left?

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  7. You're right YP, Playa Blanca (sorry, I called it Puerto Blanco, after a place near here) has changed a great deal. The very last time we went they were laying the infrastructure for a very large development between the main town and the beautiful - and then unspoiled - nudist beaches of Papagayo. Those would, I suspect, be your ticky tacky houses.
    It's been good to revisit the island, and see it again in your photos. Thank you YP.

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  8. I loved those posts on Lanzarote and the pictures. I have never been there, I have so many places left to go that I will probably stay at home, hiding, because I couldn't make up my mind! How come you like this particular island? Did you accidently discover it? I like the story about that architect, people who really dare to live their dreams and create something that speaks of their hopes and visions. Thank you, YP, such a nice and cheap way to explore a country - through your eyes!!! And hip hurray that you did it once again with that lovely picture , such dim light and mystery about it!!

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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