A Day on Lanzarote

[Keith Kellett]

I never really considered Lanzarote as a holiday destination. From seeing various advertisements, and hearsay, I’d formed the impression that it’s a tacky haunt for the package holiday sun-seeker, and not my thing at all.

But, a recent cruise stop caused me to change my views, and realise there’s a lot more to the island when you get away from the sun, sea, sand, sangria and … what’s the other S? I’ve forgotten!

Two excursions which appealed were on offer. I wanted to see the volcanos and lava fields; my wife wanted a more general view of the island. So, we played a few games of ‘rock: paper. scissors’. I won … but still didn’t get to see the volcanos.

On the tour, we kept coming across the work of local artist and architect César Manrique. His creations can be seen all over the island, the most conspicuous of which are the ‘mobiles’ on the grass reserve of some roundabouts on the road.

Our first call was at another of his works, the Jameos del Agua.

A jameo, a word that comes from the language the islanders spoke before the Spanish arrived, is formed when part of the roof of a tunnel formed by an underground lava stream from an erupting volcano collapses, and that, simplified, is how the Jameos del Agua came about.

‘Agua’ means ‘water’, and the name comes from the underground lake between two of the jameos, within which, among other wildlife, live blind albino crabs, which are found nowhere else. However, they’re difficult, if not impossible to see, as they’re only a centimetre long. But, it’s been adopted as the icon of the site, so there are plenty of models of it around the place.

It might be thought that it’s not very interesting apart from the crabs, for there are no stalactites or other formations which you’d find in limestone caves; it’s just a hole in the ground, really.

When he started, the jameos were becoming rather dilapidated and overgrown. What Manrique did, in association with artist Jesús Soto was to create a sort of underground garden; one of the few examples of Man co-ordinating with Nature, and improving on it, but still retaining the feel of the volcanic tunnel.

The idea was to use the natural acoustics for a concert hall; in addition, a restaurant, a pool and a dance floor were installed. There’s also a pool, but it’s said that only the King of Spain is allowed to bathe in it. These blend in sympathetically, adding great interest to what would otherwise be, to most people, a rather anonymous hole in the ground.

We didn’t get to visit it, but Manrique’s own home, now the home of the Fundacion César Manrique was similarly adapted from a volcanic cave. But, there’s more of Manriqué’s work at the next stop at the Mirador del Rio. A lot of coach tours on the Canary Islands seem to consist of visits to a succession of miradores, but this one’s different.

It’s actually built into the towering 500-metre-high cliffs, with the Cyclopean glassy eye of the window of the café and souvenir shop, staring unblinkingly out to sea. There’s a balcony on the outside, too, and, from either, you get superb views of the small island of La Graciosa, and its outlying volcanic islets. And, of course, there are the close-up views of the cliff itself.

If you were wondering about the Rio, when there are no rivers on Lanzarote … that’s the name of the strait far below, between La Graciosa and the main island.

It wasn’t originally built for visitors to look out to sea, though. Early settlers took advantage of its lofty eminence to look out for pirates. In later years, it later became a gun emplacement called the Bateria del Rio.

It was only in 1974, that it came out of use as such, and Manrique and his associates converted it to become so much more than a ‘car park with a nice view’. And, if you think you’ve seen it before, the BBC once used it as a location on an ‘alien planet’ in the popular ‘Doctor Who’ programme.

On our way to our last call, we passed through the 'Valley of the Palm Trees'. The dates those palm trees produced, explained the guide, were no good for eating, due to the lack of water on the island. They were usually used for feeding the goats, of which there were many.

Another way they're used is to position their beehives close to the palms, and the bees produce a local specialty, date honey. That honey isn't just used for spreading on bread or drizzling on your porridge, though. The guide told us of a drink the islanders liked to make. Ron Miel, or 'honey rum'

Eventually, we stopped at a high mountain 'mirador', where there was a restaurant which sold Ron Miel. And, in the spirit of 'don't knock it till you've tried it', we bought one each.

Take a glass, pour in some honey, add a measure of rum, top with whipped cream, dust with cinnamon and that's it !

I'm not sure we can try this at home, though. You really need the date honey of Lanzarote, and the only rum we have in the house is Bacardi. It's going to be fun experimenting, though.