Tag Archives: Landscapes

Gran Canaria day 2 – Blown to buggery everywhere

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Saturday March 5 2022 – Jane had, in her usual organised fashion, sorted out an approximate plan for the day, which involved gradually working clockwise round the island.  Our hotel is at about 2 o’clock, just where the hour hand ends, and the plan was to visit places at about 3 o’clock and every half hour thereafter until 6 o’clock. This was an ambitious plan. Very ambitious, as it turned out. Actually, like many of our Lanzarote plans, unachievable. But we had fun trying.

First port of call, then was El Bufadero, a blow hole on the east coast at La Garita. The sea comes in hard there and the blow hole is a rock formation which fills and empties with sea water as the waves pound it. When we got there, we realised that we wouldn’t safely be able to see the blow hole close to because the wind was so strong and gusty (later checking in with the local weather map, it transpired that gusts were up to 80 km/hour). So we stood well back and I tried for some video, which you can see below.  I used a stabilising gimbal, but the wind was so strong that it played havoc with it.  One thing that engaged our interest was what looked like little puffs of steam coming up from a particular hole in the rocks – looking like a mini geysir.  Anyway, the footage is not brilliant, but you can view it here if you like.

Moving a little towards the centre of the clock face took us to the outskirts of Telde, where there is a handsome basilica, the Basílica de San Juan Bautista.  En route, we noticed that there is a distinct tendency to have fun with the roundabouts.

The basilica is quite handsome, if a little sombre in appearance.

and it’s beside a square where parents were bringing small children and clearly Something Was Going To Happen.

We never found out what was going to happen, sadly. The basilica is quite ornate inside, as is  typical of Catholic churches.

Jane found on Wikipedia the nugget that the statue of Christ on the main altar, made from corn dough by the Purépecha Mexican Indians, was brought here before 1550. So, erm, there.

The square (and the town generally, actually) has some nice buildings, many of them featuring elaborate balconies.

We had a coffee in a mad cafe (whose main and flourishing business seemed to be selling a variety of spanish hams, either as sandwiches or simply as ham by weight) nearby and decided we needed to get on, so headed back to the car via the cemetery (we’re odd that way)

a park laid out in tribute to a local man by his artist wife;

and other remarkable statuary.

We found a lot of artwork just generally lying around in our travels today – see later.

Inching round the clock face towards about half past three (via another roundabout, this one a mobile driven by the wind)

took us to Cuatro Puertas, a neolithic site, which put us in mind of the necropolis at Cala Morell on Menorca, although having none of the grandeur of that remarkable site. Cuatro Puertas means four doors, and this comes from the second thing you see as you stumble up the hillside in the howling bloody gale that was still lashing us every time we got out of the car.  The first thing is actually a house, which is magnificently isolated

but still has its own letter box (a hundred metres or so down the track at the point it stopped being surfaced).

There doesn’t appear to be anyone living there at the moment, and I suspect it takes a particular kind of individual to want to live in such isolation.

Anyway, trying not to be blown off our feet by the wind, we made our way to the first of the site’s sights.

As it says on the tin, four doors. Although the rest of the site is not large, it took us a while to explore it.  It was quite impressive (I have lots of photos but will try not to bore you with too many of them); and the wind was a real factor, because the site is basically at the top of a cliff and it felt at times as if there was a real danger of being blown over it. Stumbling up and down uneven rocky surfaces was bad enough – add 50mph gusts and at times it was quite terrifying.

There are some more caves along a path

and the arch on the left hand side would have been the perfect frame for a brilliant photo had there not been a bunch of people having a picnic in THE MIDDLE OF MY SHOT! However, they had every right to be there (I type that with gritted fingers) and we actually found some other great excavated spaces and some markings on one of the walls

which we’re defiantly taking to be neolithic painting rather than modern graffiti.

The site gives some great views over the local countryside, too.

and a local inhabitant was trying to tell us something

but we don’t understand pigeon Spanish, so we ignored him.

Around about 4 o’clock on the clock face of today’s expedition, you’ll find a ravine (barranco in the local tongue) called Guayadeque, which has, at various points along it, restaurants, some of which are actually built into the stone of the ravine.  So it seemed a good idea to aim for lunch in one of these, our favourite prospect being Restaurante Vega at the top of the ravine.  So we started off, and paused en route to take a couple of photos.

But as we got towards the top, it gradually became clear that every other bugger on the island had exactly the same idea, only about an hour earlier than us.  The road around each of the  restaurants was crowded, there was nowhere to park and it would seem that all the places were full.  So, reluctantly, we decided to turn back (actually, that bit was forced upon us by the dead end at the head of the ravine) and find lunch elsewhere.

Elsewhere turned out to be Agüimes, which is around about half past four on the clock face. Because every other bugger was up the bloody ravine, there was actually a parking space available in the town, and so we headed down towards its centre and treated ourselves to a lunch of local grilled black pig, which was actually pretty good.  The restaurant was just by the parish church of San Sebastian.  For a parish church, it’s quite substantial

and quite impressive inside.

Its square features statuary at each corner

and the town wouldn’t be complete without a statue of the eponymous San Sebastian, complete with his arrows.

I also took this photo of a building in the town, which I find satisfying for no real reason.

The day was getting on by this stage, so we thought we’d better cut out a couple of intermediate items on the plan and head straight for 6 o’clock on our clock face – the dunes of Maspalomas.

These are, erm, sand dunes at a place called, erm, Maspalomas.  The south of the island is a hotspot for the beach-loving kind of tourist; generally the weather in the south of the island seems to be better than in the north, probably because the prevailing wind is from the north and expends much of its venom on the northern half, with the central mountain taking the sting out of it for the southern half. (A similar pattern exists on La Palma, another of the Canary Islands, which has a central mountainous spine – the leeward side of the spine generally has much gentler weather.)

The Maspalomas dunes area is very popular.  Again, by another miracle, we were able to park and we made our way down towards the sandy bit, past lots of beach-holiday-type apartment buildings. The initial sight of the dunes is quite impressive

and it’s a pleasant walk to the mirador which is the centre of the attraction.  There, one finds lots of people behaving like tourists

and it’s quite popular for people to walk among the dunes.

It was much less windy here, but there was clearly enough wind to shape the sand into characteristic ripples

and I can imagine it might be possible to have quite a zen moment out there.

But you won’t catch me doing it, that’s for sure.

Anyway, we were at 6 o’clock on the clock face and the real time was also 6pm, so it was time to wind our way back (see what I did there?) to the hotel for a Nice Cup Of Tea.

So, we hit quite a few of our planned targets today, but there are still some places to visit in the south and so we’ll focus our energies there tomorrow. Apart from anything else, the weather in the south of the island is forecast to be much nicer than in the north, so we’ll hope for sun later when we go anticlockwise on our visits.  So, check in again tomorrow and see how we got on round the island’s clock face.

Lanzarote Day 7/8 – Bin to Lanzarote; Binter Gran Canaria

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Friday 4 March 2022 – Changeover day!

Yesterday was spent doing Not A Lot; five days of relentless tourism and 500 km of purposeful driving around Lanzarote, we decided, Was Enough, and so we contented ourselves with simply driving over to El Golfo in Il Fiat Hybrid and had a nice – and very substantial – lunch in a restaurant called El Pescador.

I made the mistake of starting with a tuna stir fry which turned out to be an entire meal even though it was in the starters section of the menu; so when the huge lump of grilled Fish Of The Day turned up for main course I could only finish half of it. It was all good food though. The only other thing we did there – apart from discover that the restaurant which had been recommended to us was closed on Thursdays – was to revisit the green lake to see if it had increased in verdancy since our previous visit almost a week earlier. It hadn’t really, but it was nice to see it again.

Near our car in the car park was one that was decked out rather fetchingly in a design by That Manrique – further evidence of his lingering influence over the islands.

The rest of the day was spent in mundane activities – checking in to our Gran Canaria flights, catching up with the news and other bits of the papers and saying farewell to the lovely Dominica in the hotel restaurant.

Today was mainly spent getting from Lanzarote to Gran Canaria. We left the Casona de Yaiza at about 0930, got to the airport, dropped off the hire car, had coffee and got on a flight with the idiosyncratically-named Binter Airlines which took just 45 minutes to get us there. Once there we were greeted by not one but two Castaways reps, which was fine, because one of them could speak no more English than I can Spanish, i.e. almost none. The other, however, did a fine job of making sure we had a map of Gran Canaria and some suggestions as to places to visit whilst here. More importantly, the pair of them navigated us through a huge underground car park to the Cicar rental office where it eventually became apparent that they hadn’t quite got a car ready for us. It was thus great having locals to argue our cause and after a short wait we ended up with a Peugeot which we think is probably a 308; whatever, it’s a lot bigger than the Opel Corsa to which we were entitled, and it seems like quite a posh car.

From the airport to our home for the week – the Hotel Rural el Mondalón. This looks like it’s going to be a nice place to stay; it’s a working farm as well as a hotel and it’s quite swish.

We have a ritzy room above a lovely little courtyard

with a small balcony that has a view over part of the farm.

We arrived at 2pm, and its restaurant was still open for lunch, and we were told by the excellent Augustin at reception that it had just reopened, so we counted ourselves lucky on our timing.

Once we got to the restaurant, it was indeed reasonably clear that they had indeed just reopened, as it looked like they were sorting through minor teething troubles on an ongoing basis. Also, it’s a meat-focussed menu, and we ordered the fish, which arrived looking splendid on the outside but undercooked (well, raw, actually) on the inside. They bunged it in the microwave for a short blast and it returned rather better cooked. It was actually a good fish but one of the accompaniments – a fried plantain – was unrewarding to eat. But it was overall OK, even if it looks unlikely that we’ll rush back for lunch every day.

Whilst the Casona de Yaiza in Lanzarote was quirky in appearance and very comfortable, it had a couple of things that I missed: a lounge where one could just sit and order a drink whilst, e.g. writing the day’s blog; and facilities for making a Nice Cup Of Tea – the only mugs of tea we got were at breakfast. And, look, I know that’s pathetic, but when you get to our age this sort of thing begins to matter. So we were delighted to find that our room in Gran Canaria (named “Albillo” – a type of grape; every room was named after a grape variety) featured not only a kettle but also a fridge! This meant that a trip to the nearest supermarket was high priority so that we could procure a selection of life’s essentials – gin, tonic and milk. The nearest place was nearly a mile away and down a busy road with no pavement, so we drove there, bought the goods and hightailed it back to the hotel for a delicious cup of tea. Or three.

I took the chance to wash out a few smalls and hung them out to dry on the rack on our balcony put there specifically for that purpose. That is why it then started raining. Quite heavily, actually.

And that’s about it for the day, actually. We seem to have fallen into a pattern of having a big lunch and no evening meal, so the rest of the day has been given over to relaxing and, on Jane’s part, thinking about expeditions we can make on the morrow et seq. Not a lot to report in this posting, but hopefully lots to come over the next week, so do check back in and find out what we get up to.

Lanzarote Day 6 – The Third Man(rique)

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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.