Wednesday 2 March 2022 – As yesterday, our plan was to explore more of the northern end of the island, ticking off tourist boxes as we went. That Manrique had a hand in much of the content of the day. It’s a tribute to the man’s vision, influence and energy that this will be the third day of exploring his works across the island.
So, to start: Jameos del Agua. The word “jameo” is of ancient island origin and refers to a hole that is produced as a result of the collapse of the roof of a volcanic tube. Jameos del Agua was the first Art, Culture and Tourism Center created by César Manrique, and it is the reflection of one of his creative pillars: the harmony between nature and artistic creation. The space includes a restaurant/nightclub, an underground lake, an auditorium and a pool; it’s quite a place, and a deservedly popular tourist attraction. We thought it would be best to start the day here before it got too overwhelmed by bloody tourists.
Apart from the fact that it’s signposted from all over the island, the entrance is relatively easy to find.
After buying tickets, you go down stairs into the restaurant/nightclub part.
You can, if you wish, pause to stare down into the depths of one of the caves to some subterranean water.
There is a subterranean salt lake,
which is quite zen to stare at for a bit, accompanied by birdsong
provided by chaps like this.
In the water there is a unique and endemic species of squat lobster, Munidopsis polymorpha, which is blind and albino.
The water is beautifully clear
and you can walk alongside it and look back along the tunnel from the other end.
After this zen experience, you emerge blinking to what looks like a swimming pool. Well, it is a swimming pool, but, allegedly, only the King of Spain is allowed to swim in it.
The setting features a lone canary palm tree stretching over the water and several species of cactus (I won’t bore you with pictures – there are plenty of cacti shown later in this post). At the far end is the entrance to the auditorium which is another zen sort of setting
which features several touches typical of Manrique, such as lobster door handles
and a remarkable light fitting (seen here reflected in the mirror which forms the back wall of the auditorium).
The auditorium section concluded our visit to this remarkable place. Having been inspired about the aloe plant by our visit to Yaiza’s Aloe Museum, we thought it might then be interesting to visit an aloe plantation. The company Lanzaloe has a showcase park near Orzola, at the northern tip of the island, where you can walk around and learn about the growing of the Aloe plant. Quite large areas are given over to the plants. We’re not quite sure if they flower constantly, or if we were just luckily visiting in the right season, but the yellow flower spikes made quite a sight!
That the plants flourish in such numbers is due to a process labelled “fertigation”, which Lanzaloe are quick to explain is a natural and sustainable way of using composted aloe and goat manure, and vermiculture, to create an organic liquid that promotes growth.
The site also features some cute cacti
as well as some olive and argan trees.
After this visit, we decided that it would be a good idea to go for some lunch, erring slightly on the early side in the hope of avoiding full restaurants. We drove into Orzola and, mirabile dictu, found what looked like it might very well be a parking spot. It was surrounded by blue lines, and we weren’t at first sure what this meant; but we found a sign which explained it all.
I find the self-reporting aspect of the parking rules to be rather amusing, and, indeed, somewhat charming. Fortunately, Jane had pen and paper and so we were able to leave a note of our parking time on the dashboard and we set off into Orzola. We didn’t get more than a few yards when we stumbled across La Nasa Restaurante El Norte, which looked to have tables available, so we went in and were very cheerfully and briskly served a decent fish lunch. It was a nice lunch, but not a Nice Lunch, if you see what I mean – we were out in about an hour, but had dined quite well; Jane even had a parrot fish. It repeated a bit on her later, but that’s another story.
Where we had parked was near the Orzola rocks, so we went for a wander among them to settle the lunch a bit.
Among all the lumpy bits of volcano which form the rocks is some actual sand-coloured sand, which is something I didn’t expect – I tend to expect black sand in such assertively volcanic places. The ocean splashed pleasingly against the rocks, as you can see in the photo above.
Our next item, again inspired by the Yaiza Museum, was cochineal; slightly to the south is an area around the town of Mala which grows large amounts of prickly pears in order to harvest the cochineal beetles that infest them in order to create cochineal dye. We’d read about the Cochineal Museum in Mala, so thought we’d visit. Reader, we found the museum. It was closed. It’s all a bit bizarre – there’s a building with “Museo de Cochinilla” in large friendly letters on the outside, but its doors are locked and there’s no reference to it on Google Maps. If Google Maps says it doesn’t exist then it doesn’t exist – but there it was. A Schrödinger situation if ever there was one.
It’s clear that the area is still one where prickly pears are grown in profusion
and the beetle infestation is clear to see.
Not all plantations are so well-organised, though.
Mala is also home to another of Lanzarote’s famed tourist attractions, and another Manrique creation – the Cactus Garden. Again, the entrance is difficult to miss
and, once inside, you realise that it does exactly what it says on the tin.
For those interested in cacti, there is an extraordinary variety in different shapes and sizes.
(I have several dozen other cactus photos, but I won’t bore you with them.) The garden features several typical Manrique touches, such as cactus-shaped door handles
and some attractive features among the cacti.
There’s a coffee bar with a decent view over the garden, which also features a very Manrique staircase down towards the exit.
Our visit to the cactus garden over, we had just one more thing to see – the salt flats at Los Cocoteros, just along the road a bit. As well as the salt production facility, the village has a “Piscina Natural”, a seawater swimming pool. I took a video pan across it – it’s a bit noisy and shaky because of the wind, but I hope it gives some idea of the facility, which is filled with sea water coming in through a couple of large tubes at one end, and has a beach at the other.
The salt flats here are nowhere near as extensive as the Salinas de Janubio that we saw a few days ago, but there’s still lot of area given over to salt production.
These are new salt flats – there’s also an area which was once given over to salt production but that seems to be disused now.
This left just one final box to tick, and it’s not really a tourist tick box, just something we passed on many occasions, including our original drive to the hotel from the airport, and wanted to take a photo of. Doing this involved exiting the motorway and parking on the slip road with hazard lights flashing whilst I dashed across the road. But that sounds more perilous than it actually was. Anyway, here’s the photo.
For me, these buildings have overtones of Binibeca Vell, the artificial fishing village-cum-resort on Menorca. Whatever, they’re very appealing buildings and it occurred to me that one reason they’re attractive is that they’re different from the norm in Lazarote, which is angular and blocky, like below.
We have no idea what those buildings are, but their difference from the norm is striking. I think that’s why Teguise has such a different feel, too – the buildings have curves and angles that are not 90° and so feel refreshingly different.
That concluded our day; for once we had formed a plan and largely stuck to it, although the existence or not of the cochineal museum was a small diversion.
Accordingly, we have Done Lanzarote (Timanfaya bus ride excepted), which leaves us with a day to laze about, check in for our Friday flights and find a final Nice Lunch somewhere. It’s been a full-on six days of relentless tourism and gale force winds and it’ll be nice to take it easy before we travel on to Gran Canaria. Lanzarote has been a revelation and we’ve had a great time exploring it. As I say, the adventure continues on Friday as we go to Gran Canaria, and I hope you want to check back in later to see what we make of the place.