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| The view from the highest point in Lanzarote onto Famara Beach. Yes, the water really is that blue! |
“I've been on the planet for 40 years now, and I'm still none the wiser as to what it's all about really. I've never worried about life's big questions. People at my age sit about pondering about 'why are we here?' The only time I ever asked myself that is when Suzanne booked us a surprise holiday to Lanzarote." Karl Pilkington.
On the 4th, we started in the beautiful village of Haria, the village of 1000 palms(not really, but certainly lots of them) that we stayed in at the beginning of our Lanzarote adventure. On Saturdays, they have a market. It has artisans for jewelry, sand art, basket making and other lovely craft and art forms as well as vegetables, mojo sauces and other culinary delights. We spent about half an hour here before starting our journey to the highest point on Lanzarote.
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| The town square of Haria. They are about to host the Saturday market. |
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| Yummy veg in Haria |
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| The city of 1000 palms (sorta kinda) as seen from elevation. The onion fields on the foreground are representative of the rock wall technique in Lanzarote meant to keep wind off plants. |
Although it is only about 1565 feet, we still had to walk it. Thankfully, we took a very scenic path and it wasn't all that steep. We had actually been to the viewpoint above Haria before by car, but this time, by hoof.
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| Pirate contemplates the final push upward on the Lanzarote version of Everest. |
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| Trees tend to be somewhat smallish here on a desert island. This area, we were told, is a "forest." The Canarian pine is a welcome addition to the otherwise harsh landscape in areas. |
Although we might have huffed and puffed a bit on the way up, we got really spectacular vistas in all directions, including some in which we could see across the entire island and as far as La Graciosa.
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| No matter how you photograph it, it is spectacular viewing. Worth the walk. |
The highest point is occupied by a military base. It looks like an observatory, but nah! It's the Spanish armada...or at least a dozen bored guys hanging out in the wind.
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| Military base at the highest point on Lanzarote. One thing we don't worry about here is war or terrorist attacks. If they attack this base, they might wipe out three people. On the other hand, for all I know, aliens are here. |
From here we made our walk to the old capital city of Teguise. Along the way, we passed this lonely church on a hilltop, Ermita de los Nieves.It means "Virgin of the Snows," but I think there is little truth in that moniker. The churches here are often named after famous versions in Spain.
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| Sitting by herself on a hilltop, Ermita de Los Nieves is a beautiful little church. Unfortunately it was closed for visitation, but it made a nice lunch spot. |
Luckily from this point, it was all downhill to Teguise. Teguise was one of the first settlements established in the Canary Islands. Capital of Lanzarote until 1847, it maintains a significant number of buildings of great historical and artistic value. Most noteworthy are the Castillo de Santa Bárbara ( Saint Barbara’s castle)and the ancient church of Guadalupe. We didn't have time ( or enough energy left to muster the uphill climb) to Santa Barbara, but we did get a good gander at the beautiful old church, as well as time to walk around this old city.
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| Coming into Teguise and the Plaza. You can see the Church of Guadalupe in the distance. |
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| The bell tower |
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| Inside the church |
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| Streets of Teguise |
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| Although we couldn't muster the strength to walk uphill to Santa Barbara after 12 miles, we had no problems lifting this heavy glass of Dorada at the inevitable bar next to the church! |
We got back to Costa Teguise by bus and felt no guilt whatsoever that evening about enjoying a huge tray of seafood paella with our 10 hiking buddies from the EXPLORE group.
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| Even though we had about a dozen people enjoying this paella AND we walked twelve miles, we couldn't finish it. |
The following morning we were off again, but this time on our last organized trip with the EXPLORE group. This seems a good time to mention the British holiday companies EXPLORE and EXODUS which cater to middle class people from the UK (but have wormed their way into the US and Canadian markets of late.) The cost is generally about as low as you can get it and still provide a great hiking experience and the people we hike with are always lovely. The guides never disappoint either. We recommend these companies to everyone without reservation.
The last walk of the trip was a coastal path between Guatiza and Arriceta and spanned about 10 miles always on either beaches, lava cliffs or packed sand.
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| Our guide, Judith, surveys the path. |
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| Our hiking companions, Maria from Pittsburgh (living in Paris) and Antole and Irina living in New Jersey but originally from Ukraine, navigating the lava cliff. |
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| Ambassador to Lanzarote |
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| The saline fields of Guatiza still produce sea salt in season. There was some left and we gave it a taste. |
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| Paul at the end of a week of walking. Happy man! |
We ended up in a hippie bar at the end of the trek to Arrieta for a beer and then back to the hotel for goodbye dinner.
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| Such a great group pictured here: folks from England, USA, Spain, and Ireland and two Canadians we encountered on the way to the restaurant and said, WHAT THE HAY. COME ALONG. We so enjoyed this group of hikers and thank them for being the world's best travel companions. Not a bad egg in the crowd! Paul and I are at the far end of the table. |
Today we had a leisurely departure from our hotel, Club Santa Rosa Apartments and we were off to the docks in the south beaches of Lanzarote to catch the Fred Olson ferry for the 20 minute ride to Fuertaventura, our eighth and final Canary Island to visit. Fuerteventura, the second largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, sits in the Atlantic Ocean 100km off the north coast of Africa. It’s known primarily as a holiday destination due to its white-sand beaches and year-round warmth cooled by constant winds. The multitude of beaches that wrap around it are interrupted by cliffs and sheltered coves. It's popular for water sports, especially surfing, windsurfing and waterskiing. It was an easy and fast crossing to Corralejo, a touristy type town where we rented a car and drove about a half hour to our home for the next few days in El Cotillo. This is a small seaside village and most of it was shut down today as this part of Spain celebrates the epiphany. They give gifts on January 6th, the arrival of the three kings to see the Baby Jesus. But we were able to access our airbnb. In this case, the pirate has outdone himself and set a very high bar. Our home for the next five days is on the main drag, but it's beautiful inside and this town is reasonably quiet.
This town is none too shabby and we think we are going to enjoy travelling around and learning about Fuertaventura.
“TRAVEL MAKES ONE MODEST, YOU SEE WHAT A TINY PLACE YOU OCCUPY IN THE WORLD.” ~ GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Paul's Ponderings: We had a pretty incredible three days on Lanzarote to finish up our serious hiking and then the ferry over to Fuerteventura. We've now completed the "ocho-fecta" of visiting all Canary Islands....including (apparently) the newest official one of Isla Graciosa. All this from a hiking tour in Andorra with a Dutch guy who has lived in Spain for 30 years. As we keep discussing, "why isn't everyone here". It's an incredible place.
For what it's worth, we did get the pleasure of hiking through a nudist area on our last day of coastal walking. Hmmmm.....seemed to me mostly older folks who had perhaps been there a while.
Regardless, what a pleasure.....great hiking, great food, great scenery, low cost, and much more. Certainly we hope to be back for the long term.....lots of outstanding options for return visits.
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