Havachat Adventures: Lanzarote - 3rd to 11th October

Lanzarote - A volcanic Island

3^rd to 5^th of October

We arrived on the 3^rd at 10:30at Lanzarote at Puerto Calero. Geat Marina, great facilities and friendly people. We find other boats that also go in the ARC and also 3 other Aussie boats. The rest of the first day and second day we spend with catching up on sleep and cleaning the boat, washing etc...

On the 5^th we hired a car and explored the island. All black volcanic ash, no grass the only green are cacti and palm trees on the waterfront. Lanzarote is also a wine growing area. Each plant grows in a dug out hole with a rock wall around it. Looks like lots of work to set up.

By chance we came across a leaflet about a donkey race that day in the mountains in the wine growing area. It was so much fun! Not a touristy thing, but part of a festival from the local wine growers! And besides us and a couple of German people that live on the island, there were only local Spanish people; the whole event was very loud and lively. The races we didn’t quite understand, but the aim seemed to be to be able to stay on the donkeys! The local wine was handed around and some cooked pork belly pieces and in a raffle you could win a pony! The number that won was one after ours! We just missed out on travelling with a pony in the cockpit....

The next few days we spent having a look around the Island, having dinner with our new friends Barbara and Fritz from Germany which we met at the donkey races, more sightseeing and of course celebrating Lisa’s Birthday on the 10^th of the 10^th. Back home then on the 11^th.

Dinner at Fritz and Barbara's Place

8th of October: In the morning visit of National Park Timan Faya (The mountain of Fire)...

...followed by a fantastic seafood lunch...

...followed by visiting the residence and art gallery of Cesar Manrique. Cesar was a local artist born on Lanzarote, studied art in New York and came back to Lanzarote to practice his art there. He put through, that after the first high riser apartment block was build, no building was to be built higher than 3 storeys on Lanzarote. It is the only one of the Canary Islands where this was put into place. His house was amazing, it is built into a lava tube!