Lanzarote continued...

gAfter Cesar Manrique's House, we drove further north to the Jameos Del Agua - Water Caves.

Another of Manrique's creation

Once again, jaw dropping beauty. A series of walkways that wind in and out, up and down, through lakes and pools, bars and coffee parlours set at each end and a museum at the top...

Little white crabs that feed off the microorganisms in the water. They dot the bottom of the lake like stars twinkling in the night.

The pool. The amazing pool.

We spent a good few hours here snapping photos until my camera's battery began beeping in protest.

1 km away from the Jameos was the Cueva de los Verdes; the Green Caves.

Not green at all, the caves were formed by the flow off lava during the eruptions and is part of the Jameos del Agua caves. At 1200 degrees heat, everything melted in its path and thus formed the holes that is today's tourist attraction. A few decades later, people of the island used its many nooks n crannies to hide themselves from pirate attacks. The word 'Green' - Verde is taken from a family that use to live their for many years.
In the middle of the cave is an auditorium, where they host orchestras. I know, cave and music... echoes... don't really fit right? But according to the guide, the caves have excellent acoustics and it adds a WOW factor instead of a normal auditorium.

Sigh. So luxurious.

We were then brought up a flight of stairs where a huge gaping hole in the ground met our view. A lady was given a rock to throw into the hole.

"Listen for the echo", says the guide.

And listen I did with bated breath.

Ploop. The rock made ripples as it fell into the hole that was actually a pool.

"HUUUUH."

Everyone drew in their breath in magnificent wonder and a cacophony of whispering started out as I stood in horror, absolutely dumb struck by the fact that I missed the blasted echo. I strained yet again in hope that there was still a slight trace of it and finally burst out, "What echo?"

The uncle in front of me turned around with a light in his eyes that can power the Petronas Twin Towers and proceeded to explain in Spanish. Which clearly did Not help my problem.

Totally damned that I actually missed the phenomenal event, I slid off to look for the other 2 girly girls while thoughts of when the echo was heard (was it just as she threw the stone? was it the stone whistling through the air before it hit the water? was it the ploop sound that echoed? My hearing has died on me meh??I need an ENT doctor!!) ran through my head. Spotting Victoria, I grabbed her by the arm and demanded the evidence of THE ECHO.

She too had a manic look as if having just saw someone rise from the dead and said:

"It is the hole! It isn't a hole! It's a POOL!"

???? "What about the echo? I didn't hear no echo!"

"No echo, it's the pool, it's an optical illusion! I thought the stone was going to fall down into the caves below! The echo was just an excuse! But the hole is a pool! The reflection of the ceiling is fantastic!"

Holy Molly.

=__=

I knew it was a pool the moment I ascended the stairs and set eyes on it. How can it be a hole? It's a darned pool! U can see the reflection of the sides! How can you all think it's a hole?? IT'S A POOL RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING SO IT DID NOT SURPRISE ME WHEN THE ROCK FELL INTO IT!

Waste my 8 euros.

I was then told by Su Ping that I had no imagination at all.

So, after the disastrous optical illusion echo thing that Did Not Work For Me Whatsoever, we continued our journey to the most northern tip of the island.

Mirador Del Rio.

Another of Manrique's.

From this point, one could see the Isla Graciosa, stretched out taut like a leopard's skin down below.
The wind was so strong it would have been perfect for parachuting.
Or maybe not. You'll be blown upwards into the exosphere.

We drove home as the sun was setting and a good thing too cause we met Leng Chai No. 2 at the reception, this time blonde and blue eyed. He gave us an absolutely smashing recommendation to eat at this Malaysian Kopi Shop look alike restaurant.

Restaurant El Fondeadero.

All it needs is the Coca-Cola/Sprite adverts on either end and it can so pass as a shop in SS2.

All tapas were 2 euros: -

Spanish omelette.

Fried Morena (Moray Eel) - this was more expensive

Cold soup with vegetables and croutons which you put in yourself

Never ever forget dessert:

Flan (Creme caramel). Yes flan in Spanish means that.

Bienmesabe (Egg and coconut pudding)

After dinner, blonde hair blue eyed boy insisted that we go to Lagomar Bar, a neat little tucked away gem, built into a volcanic mountain side that is a museum by morning and bar by night. It was in Nazaret, a town about 10-15 mins drive from our hotel and since he was such a babe and so insistent, go we did.

Up a hill, into Lagomar, with one door open and one door closed (exact details from honey boy matched what we saw to the T) , down a tunnel of water with raised platforms, into a small bar with booming music where a pirate masquerading as a bartender filled half my glass with alcohol when I ordered a gin and tonic. (they don't use measures here I think)

UV lights are the main theme.

Just on a different note, we had Churros for breakfast the day before at a cafe randomly suggested by some guy on the street that we approached to ask directions from. He was so nice, he led us to the restaurant himself. And gave us his number to contact him should we require further assistance.
I know stuff like 'danger', 'rapist', 'robber' etc are probably running through your minds but we were on the main street the whole time and he pointed us to the restaurant from a distance.
And I think we are seasoned travellers enough to recognise danger when it comes.

So we entered and ordered the famous churros with hot chocolate.
It tasted like yau char kuey and made me think of having porridge with it instead. MmMmMmm..

* * *

The last and final day saw us going to Teguise for its famous Sunday Market. It was like Petaling Street, selling everything that is un-buyable, from cowboy cow hide stools to a full British Breakfast. Not that we needed either.

A folk performance in the middle of the Square.

We then stopped and lunched on Red Wine Rabbit and a pot of seafood:

Rabbit in Red Wine stew

before rushing off to our last stop - Puerto Del Carmen.
Playa Barilla in Puerto Del Carmen was meant to be the best spot for snorkelling and we did just that (with our goggles). Although the water was freezing cold (not as bad as Mykanos is Greece though) there were loads of fish (but I think Redang's fish selection and corals wins it hands down) and also lots of XY eye candy.

I even saw 2 divers at the bottom of the sea sporting Santa hats whom I waved to from the top. When they emerged from the water, they kindly obliged for a photo shoot:

Feliz Navidad meaning Merry Christmas

We then rushed back to the hotel for a shower before departing to the airport. A few minutes upon arrival into our room, we received a call from the reception saying that we were supposed to check out at 12pm and were therefore charged an extra 30 euros. To top it off, we had to leave the room in 5 minutes.

WTF

None of us thought of checking out. Nope, not one.

Seasoned travellers my ass.

I suppose travelling as a girly girl pack isn't the most ideal after all. Not very bright are we despite being medical students (who said medical students are supposed to be bright? We clearly aren't) and of course I felt down right silly and embarrassed by the whole event.

Still, like what I have said before, a problem is not a problem if it can be solved with money.
Although spent stupidly.

Feeling absolutely dejected, we made our way to the airport 10 euros poorer per person only to lose our way once again near Arrecife. Every time we enter this city, we get lost. 6 eyes (actually 10), 3 brains and a 4 previous encounters of the same problem made us NONE the wiser and yes, we got lost a total of 5 grand times(wasting 30 minutes each time) in and around the city centre, trying to either find our way out of the city, into the city or around it. Don't bother to ask why.

Girly girls sense of direction is close to non existence. No make that IS non existent.

Of course getting lost only fueled our sense of stupidity and then Su Ping and I decided to turn to the bottle.
After downing the remains of our bottle of wine, we felt much happier and the checking out nonsense became a thing of the past.

(Really alcoholic meh you think... we had half the bottle at dinner 2 nights before and since liquids are not allowed on board plus we could not bear to throw it away as it was lovely wine - we downed it all)

Arriving back to Edinburgh on Christmas Eve feeling satisfied with our short but luxurious trip made me crave for chinese food again. I went for a dim sum lunch that very day.