Driving around Lanzarote it’s easy to imagine how the island nearly fell into the hands of greedy property developers, hell bent on throwing up as many concrete apartment buildings as they could, all of which would have obscured the landscape and dreamy panoramas out across the Atlantic. There are still some sizeable apartment buildings at some of the coastal locations, but they’re not all sharp lines and concrete and seem to blend in. The houses, as I mentioned before are all white and look individually crafted, as a posed to manufactured. And against the black backdrop of the volcanic landscape, with date palms and cacti scattered around, look very dramatic. With Rachel feeling better and not working we’ve been out exploring this week. We’ve taken some long walks up and down our local beach “Caleta de Famara”, we’ve also taken a look at Playa Honda & Playa Blanca both of which have wide long sandy beaches and we’ve even found a nice place to swim in Teguise. We took a trip to the volcanic park and a private tour through the volcanic terrain, with around 25 volcanoes in the park. After the tour we had lunch in “El Diablo” a restaurant designed by Cesar Manrique, that sits at one of the high points in the park. The restaurant uses the heat from the volcano below (600 degrees Celsius a few metres below) to cook the food, which was tasty indeed and the views across the landscape only accentuated the experience. I’ve become a little obsessed with Manrique & not just for his wonderful creations, but also for his contribution to the Island. With that said we went to see the home that he had carved into the volcano, well more specifically the lava tunnels. Not only is it incredible to see how he’s blended the 3000 metre home perfectly with the beautiful plants and trees that run through the 30,000 metre plot, with its entertaining areas inside and out, it’s a hedonists paradise.
Dream Chasers 