One of our favourite things do to in Scotland is to put together fantastic day trips. Anyone that has come to visit us has surely been through at least one, and you've seen the results of others in the blog. We try to find a few historical, cultural and natural wonders (hopefully a combination of all), plan a route that takes us past all of them and see what the day brings.
When we woke up to rain on Sunday morning, we were not surprised - morning rain is something we've seen a lot of. But our scan of the sky didn't show that hint of blue on the horizon like it normally does, so we thought it would be a perfect day to see if we could apply our Scottish day-tripping skills to Lanzarote. We went to the lobby of the hotel to see the car rental guy and quite quickly, and perhaps too easily, ended up with the keys to a beat-up Toyota Yaris which had clearly seen its share of unkind or uncaring owners. The lack of pressure with the car rental was refreshing. I just showed the guy my license, pointed at the car we wanted and pushed across 40 euros. No pressure sales on extra insurance or heavy handed lectures about returning it full of fuel. In fact, when he gave it to us he said - 'it's on a quarter tank right now, if you stop and put in 15 euros you should be good for the day'. No concern about bringing it back full, or checking for damage. Just bring it back and leave it at the hotel sometime before tomorrow morning.
Once we managed to get out of the parking lot (a touchy clutch made my first few attempts look quite bad) we got out onto the open highway. The roads in Lanzarote are generally good. In fact most of them looked brand new. I quickly settled into the groove and developed a good rapport with the little Yaris.
Our first stop was going to be Jameos del Agua, but we spotted a sign for the Cactus Garden and decided on a slight change of plan. We're very glad we did. Although it sprinkled a little bit as we toured the garden, it didn't take away from the magic of the place. The Cactus Garden, like almost every other Lanzarote attraction, was designed by Cesar Manrique, an influential artist. The garden was a perfect blend of architecture, flora and artistry. I would have loved it anyway, because I, for some unknown reason, am enthralled by cacti, but there is no way you could miss the magic. The volcanic rocks that they use to build everything provide an extra cool touch, as do the fields and fields of prickly pear cacti just outside the garden. Fiona did her best National Geographic photographer thing. I wish we had more room on the blog for pictures, but the hotel wifi is so slow that we've had to limit our selection. My advice - come see it for yourself.
Our next stop was indeed Jameos del Agua, another Manrique masterpiece. He's taken a section of cave from an old lava tube and transformed it into a peaceful oasis with multiple pools and greenery. You descend into the cave on a beautiful staircase and then see this perfectly still pool. The floor of the pool is covered by small, white crabs which are apparently only otherwise found at great depth on the ocean floor. Further down the cave, where it opens to the surface is the King's swimming pool. If I had royal prerogative I would have annexed for myself as well. It was absolutely gorgeous, with perhaps the most perfect palm tree in existence hanging over the pool.
The weather was starting to clear as we left Jameos del Agua, and we could see across the bay and up into the mountains. That made our next stop a little unfortunate - Las Cuevas de los Verdes. Caves for the non-Spanish speaking, although the rest of the title is a little misleading - there is nothing about them that is green, los Verdes is the name of the family that owns the land above the cave. We took a tour and it was quite impressive. We've been in caves before, but mostly in limestone caves, carved by water and with lots of stalactites and stalagmites (discuss amongst yourselves which are which). THis was completely different. A 7 kilometre long tube formed by flowing lava, which hardened at the surface but continued to flow inside, it was a little more sterile than we expected. The walls were interesting, though, almost like they were cake covered in peaks of frosting. The cave opens quite wide in places, wide enough in one place to house a small concert hall. They also have a great optical illusion, a picture of which we've posted. See if you can figure out what's going on. We can't say, since we were threatened with many years of bad luck if we revealed the answer.
We hopped back in the Yaris and started climbing into the mountains on the extreme northeast side of the island. We stopped at Mirador del Rio, another Manrique masterpiece. We actually saw the word mirador quite a lot on our travels, and based on the locations we saw it in, it must mean viewpoint or outlook. There's really not much to Mirador del Rio, other than the view. The house is quite cool, but not amazingly so. But the view! The house is perched on the edge of a sheer cliff, dropping hundreds of feet and is situated just across a small, ridiculously blue channel from a small island. Stunning. Absolutely stunning.
By this time our stomachs were growling. We turned into the first reasonable looking place we saw. And consistent with the rest of the day so far, it was a winner. A cosy stone dining room with towering ceilings and friendly staff was perfect place to unwind. Although the menu was translated in many languages, the food was definitely authentic. We started with the Canary Island specialty of wrinkly potatoes with two kinds of mojo. Very, very tasty. We spent most of the afternoon trying to decide what could possibly be in the two varieties of mojo - verde and rojo. After that Fiona had a perfectly cooked and seasoned roast chicken while I had a delicious goat stew, served in the dish it was cooked in. Although it's on the other side of the island from most of the resorts, if anyone asked us where to eat in Lanzarote, we would recommend 'El Cortijo de Haria'.
Since we had scored with several earlier Manrique works, we next headed straight for his large Monument to the Campesinos (Farmers). But our stomachs were too full to wander around the museum, so we took a quick snapshot of the monument itself and kept driving.
As we drove back towards the western part of the island, we drove through the wine-making region. It is quite cool to see. They dig these large pits down through the black volcanic ash, into the soil beneath, plant a vine in the middle and then build a small, semi-circular wall around the pit to keep the winds from filling it up. Acres and acres of these pits covered the landscape. Not wishing to disrespect the hard work put in by the winemakers, we decided to stop in for a tasting. We tried a reasonable red and very fruity white before hitting the jackpot with another white, which had already won several other awards, besides our praise. A bottle is currently chilling in our in-room fridge.
Once through the lava fields we made it to the western edge of the island and stopped at a town called El Golfo. We walked a little bit to come to a spectacular scene where a towering, but eroding, lava rock cliff came right up to a black sand beach. Another tongue of bright red rock jutted out into the small bay for added contrast. It was spellbinding. We took some photos and then made our way further out along the cliffside to sit and watch the surf pound away at the rocks, sending massive towers of spray high into the air. We must have watched for quite some time. This place really does make you re-think your old notions of rock as a very sturdy and permanent object. You have wonderful juxtapositions of new rock being created and then being immediately eroded by wind (creating these gorgeous striations) and the never-ending, pounding surf.
Our last stop was Playa Papagayo, and we're not really sure why. We had heard it was a nice beach, but I have a new guess that maybe it was the name. Go ahead and say it - papagayo. It just makes you feel happy. After a somewhat bumpy ride over the only dirt roads we encountered that day, we finally made it. Because it was getting late in the day, and the day wasn't actually beach weather to begin with, it was essentially deserted. It was only us and a few beached jellyfish, which we tried, unsuccessfully, to rescue. Had it been a nicer day, I could have spent most of it lounging on the beautiful sand.
But the Yaris had to be returned, so we drove on past the salt flats where the Canary Island folk have been running a salt making industry for centuries, and headed towards our temporary home at the Jameos Playa. We barely managed to keep our heads from falling into our plates at dinner - we were so tired. But it was a good tired. The kind of tired you only get from a highly successful day trip.
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