Lanzarote

The Christmas holidays were approaching and here I was, sad and lonely, stuck in Edinburgh with no holiday plans in the horizon to cheer me up.

Deciding that I am way too young to waste a good 2 weeks of holidays, I picked up the phone and dialed 2 numbers - placing a call to two friends, one who lived in a flat below me, and one above - to ask if they wanted to go on holiday.

Apparently, I am not the only sad and lonely soul and soon enough, we 3 girls got ourselves booked onto a flight to Lanzarote.

Wait.

Lanzarote WHERE?

Yes, Lanzarote is part of the Canary Islands, situated south of Spain and next to Morocco.
Maybe Tenerife will sound more familiar, but hey, we went to Lanzarote alright.

So, 3 girly girls set off.

4 hours later the 3 girly girls touched down in Arrecife International Airport, roaring to go, anticipating our arrival at our 4 star hotel called 'Sands Beach Resort'.

Before I start accounting on our amazing fantabulous trip, I have to say that LonelyPlanet for once had let me down. Considerably. Everything the writer wrote about the place was unenthusiastic, and hardly any good tips nor history was given about this island. You are much better off with Globetrotter and Rough Guide.

So back to the airport, we hunted about for the bus that will bring us to Costa Teguise(our 4 star hotel is there) which is about 12 km away. Much to our chagrin, no one really knows about the service and suggested we took a taxi. Late and tired, we joined the 100 mile long Q that formed at the taxi stand and finally reached our hotel about 2 hours later.

3 cheers to Liwan in London who told me about this hotel.

It was beautiful.
And only for 10 euros or so per night, with a proper kitchen and utensils -That's freaking cheap!!

Dawn came soon enough and at the reception, we were served by this incredibly cute guy with an American accent. Yes, Spanish guys are hot. Phew. *fans myself*

Rent a car was the advice because apparently the public transport is rubbish and can not get you to any place at all. Apprehensive about driving in a foreign country not to mention it being a left hand drive, we rented the only auto car available from the car rental company(lucky got ok, if not we all can just take the next flight home - the public transport is THAT bad) and took off with a lousy road map at hand onto our girly girl road trip.

I drove the first day but ended up puncturing the tyre.
Lucky got a nice guy help us to change it

We made our way to the first tourist attraction: Timanfaya National Park.
Greenery, shrubs, climbing plants, the sweet scent of flowers, the sun filtering through the canopy of leaves, a waterfall at the end of it all, a river meandering down the plains with its tinkling sound...

Not.

We arrived to the site of Armageddon.

Not the movie. As in literally.

Lanzarote being in the volcanic belt, had some pretty nasty eruptions in the last century or so, leaving the landscape barren and filled with craters. Of course, the site is a hell of an interesting spot for geologists and rock/stone hippies.
Medical students obviously were not so turned on by the sight of rocks and dust though I've gotta say, I was pretty impressed with the hardened lava that looked like it froze (they call it 'petrified' lava) just as it was flowing down destroying everything in its path.

When we alighted from the tour bus that brought us on a tour of the site (with an audio guide in English and Spanish), we were shown the power of the volcano and its fearsome nature.

A dried bush is placed into a hole in the ground...

And it lights up immediately.

You fall in and become roast chicken ASAP.

A few well looking like holes in the ground, and a bucket of water is poured in...
Out shoots a geyser a la real life volcano eruption style.

You step into the hole and immediately qualify for the Handicap Triathlon.

We were then given some dirt off the ground and it was HOT. Painfully hot.

Lunch was at El Diablo, a restaurant at the peak of the mountain that cooks its food with the heat from the sleeping volcano.
We had chicken, meat on skewers and a pork steak.

* * *

After eating, we drove along the scenic coast and stopped to cam whore.
A lake that is green in colour due to the crystals in it.


The coast looking as good as it gets.

Of course, we lost a few precious hours due to the tyre puncture though we managed to finish almost everything we wanted to see. The roads were amazingly smooth and new; apparently they host the Ironman competition there yearly so everything is in tip top condition.

The next day came soon enough and this time...
I navigated. See ghost d still not scared meh.

Victoria drove and we went up to the north of the island this time in search of the famous Cesar Manrique Foundation (aka his house) which was found easily enough.
Cesar (the e with an apostrophe on top - sorry can't be bothered to find out how to insert it) is the architect of the island. He spent a good few years of his life creating models, pictures, murals etc, basically beautifying Lanzarote as he sees it as a budding tourist attraction.

And boy, was he right.

So, thanks to Mr. Manrique (in UK he would've been knighted), you see weird mobile like things on the many roundabouts that dominate the landscape of the island.


A few examples. There are much more.

So being D architect who built up the place, Cesar Manrique's house is the ultimate. In my personal opinion, all the million-dollar Beverly Hills mansions lose out. Flat. MTV Cribs should do an episode on his house instead of Snoop Dog's house or whoever.


Imagine walking into your driveway and being greeted with:
your private vineyard. Yes, all those curvy looking things are for cultivating grapes to make wine.

Then a few more steps brings you to your garden that looks like this:
Your individual fountain with your own hand drawn mural tastefully decorated with plants:
Next, you enter into the main hall of your house, of which leads out to a balcony that overlooks the most mind blowing scenery.That is real proper lava/magma/whatever you want to call it that was laid down and 'frozen' over time.

Then you look over the balcony at your pool down below .

Water feeds into the crystal blue water through a pipe that runs just below the balcony platform.

OH, HEAVENLY.

When you descend the stairs, you come across a series of passageways all leading to different living/dining rooms.

Of course, the living rooms cannot lose out. Not only are they all in individual caves of their own, they are in fact all colour coordinated:
White as snow with marble table tops;


Devil red with sculptures and trees towering into the ceiling.

And the dining table outside next to the pool with a barbecue set built into the wall next to it.

Even the plants are different from normal. They are all supersized.
Supersized flowers.
Supersized cactuses.

Supersized palm tree. Well, not quite, but that's the top of the palm tree peeking out of the ceiling where its roots run down into the ground below in the middle of one of the living rooms.



I really think I should write into MTV Cribs to ask them to feature this home. I mean, Cesar Manrique can pass as a celebrity here. Why not his home?