In summer 2019 I travelled to Lanzarote, Spain for the duration of one week. Lanzarote is one of the eight Canary Islands. During my trip I made a bunch of different guided day trips. My first trip was the north tour. The first stop on that tour was a little village called Teguise which is located in the center of the island with a picturesque old town. After a short stop at the Museo de Aloe de Lanzarote (aloe vera museum) we headed further north to Jameos del Agua. It's a short channel like cave that was left behind after magma flew through it. Eventually the bottom of the cave was filled with water that rises and lowers with the tidal.
Many years later it was discovered by the Spanish artist, sculptor and architect César Manrique. With as few adaptions as needed he transformed the natural attraction into a very beautiful center of art. After exploring the whole cave with a lot of lovely details we continued to the next stop which was Mirador del Río - the northernmost point of Lanzarote. This lookout which also has a little café with panoramic windows was also designed by César Manrique and the help of another Spanish architect. Next and final stop for that day was the César Manrique House Museum located in the village of Haría. It used to be César Manrique’s private home, again designed in an astonishing way. As usual for most if not all structures he designed, he built around the preexisting landscape and damaged or altered as little as possible of what was already there. It also has underground caves, a lovingly pool and a lot of different cacti and other plants. In a couple of rooms, you can also find some of his paintings and sculptures.
On another day I also did the south tour which focused on the southern part of Lanzarote. After a short drive the tour started in the Timanfaya National Park. It's a very bleak but still stunning landscape with all kind of different colored rocks and sand. The earth below the tourist center at the park is still very hot which the park rangers impressively demonstrated. There were three posts, at the first one there's a small pit filled with pebbles, even though the pit isn't very deep the pebbles are noticeably hot. At the next post there's a pit which is deeper and thus hotter. To demonstrate it the park rangers, throw dried bushes down the hole. After only a short time they already light fire and start burning. At the third and last post they pour a cup of water inside a pipe-like hole. Due to the heat the water immediately vaporizes into steam and causes a steam spout. Afterwards we got into the bus again and made a round trip through the National Park which by the way is only open for buses. Eventually the trip continued to a place where you could ride a dromedary if you wanted. Once everyone was back in the bus, we drove on to the next stop which was a winery called Bodega La Geria where everyone was able to taste either a sweet or a dry white wine and of course also buy some bottles of wine. After that the trip continued to Los Hervideros a rough but beautifully shaped cliff in the southeast of Lanzarote. The last trip on this day took us to a hidden lagoon directly next to the sea with an extraordinary green color.
My third and last trip took me to Jardín de Cactus a beautifully assembled garden with hundreds of different species of cacti. I’ve spent quite a few hours at this place because there are just so many different cacti there and every time you walk through the same path again you discover a few new ones you haven’t seen before. I was also very surprised to find a lot of them blooming in all kinds of colors and shapes. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a blooming cacti before so that was a very special moment for me.
