Northern part of Lanzarote is livelier. My second week I stayed in Costa Tequise – a relatively busy resort (if “busy” could be said about any of resorts on this little Canary island). To my very personal liking I prefer the South. The distances on the island are so insignificant that you can stay at any place and still reach all you wish within an hour. Staying in Costa Tequise I witnessed what “beach holidays” actually mean. Costa Tequise has more suitable beaches, less natural beauty, since the whole shoreline occupied by the pubs and restaurants, cafes and shops. It is easy to imagine people roaming between the beach and the pub all day long…and in the evening – going out to the…pub again. What a life, eh?! Well, whatever makes you happy, I guess…there were still places to go on the Northern shore and there were some evening’s live shows that weren’t that bad…the only my complain is that behind all this first class entertainment and attractive holiday destination features, there wasn’t anything authentically canarian. Somehow the face of the island faded away and my personal feeling was that I’m actually somewhere in England, Brighton or something, only the weatherman has been kind to it this time. There is nothing wrong with this of course and the “english authentic food” pubs and “irish pubs” and even Chinese restaurants were good in their business. It’s just me – when I go somewhere, I expect to see and feel something new, new culture, new experiences, new food, for god’s sake, athmosphere…I honestly cannot say this about Costa Tequise. But it is a fine and a good quality resort, so if you are into beach&night life kind of holidays, you won’t be disappointed.
Arecife.
While on the North, it was easy to visit the capital of the island – Arecife. Just 20 min and 1 euro on the bus. Arecife has a nice place by the harbour – a park or something and there was basically nothing more to see in Arecife. An old fortress looked pretty photogenic, but unfortunately there isn’t much left of her interiors – the fortress has been converted into art gallery for the exhibitions of the works of the young Lanzarote’s artists. And I’m not against art. I just thought preserving history is more appropriate purpose for the historical buildings. But that’s me, anyway… I’ve also found a beautiful church in the area – as usual – a very simple design, a spiritual place of peace and tranquillity.
The rest the capital is famous for was –shopping. And since this is the least I’m ever interested in, the exploration of Arecife took only half-day of my time. I did went there again some other day, but only to walk the beautiful promenade and to find the truly local restaurant with the honest local food, off the beaten tourist path…wherever you go, you get to appreciate places you visit for what they are and for what you can find in them for yourself.
Sinking to the bottom
On one of the days I had an adventure to the bottom of the ocean. Literally. Some times ago Lanzarote bought an old submarine from the British Navy. They re-designed it slightly, painted it in the bright colours and now it is a very popular submarine trip. After having been to the highest mountain of Europe, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go to another extreme, couldn’t I? Well, the extreme wasn’t too extremely, of course. But the experience was worth it. The submarine was “just like real” – we boarded it by the step ladder and there were all the fancy old equipment fitted by our windows… each passenger seat is next to a port hole allowing everyone to see the life underwater. We actually did sink to the bottom of the ocean, even if it was somewhere around the harbour area, still – 87.5 feet under the water and I was amazed how many fishes were there is there despite of the fact there are so many yachts and boats in the harbour as well. There were also few “Titanic” shipwrecks. I suppose these have been sunk for the purpose. This was in Puerto Calero – a “parking place” for the yachts of the millionaires. Well, they say it so anyway. We’ve been told that the King of Spain keeps his royal yachts here as well and even comes to Lanzarote every so often to participate in the Royal Regatta…whatever. I came to Puerto Calero to participate in the submarine safari and so I did. And it was cool. Just enough cool to forget about the commercialised part of the excursion and about karaoke singing of the Beatle’s yellow submarine as we were coming up the waters...because guess what – they painted the submarine in…yellow!
Cueva de los Verdes
The island’s biggest volcano named La Corona. When there was an eruption of La Corona around 3000 years ago, the lava streams flowed towards the ocean, creating in few places the hollow lava tube tunnels due to the explosions of the volcanic gases. Few of such tunnels have been used as a caves. Gueva de los Verdes is one of them. the name translates as “The Greens Caves”, which has nothing to do with the colour, just Greens was the name of the family that used to own the cave before handing it over to the municipality. Anyway, Cueva de los Verdes is formed from parts of the volcanic soils and has a colourful walls. They also built a…concert hall inside the cave (but nobody mentioned how good the acoustics is there). Overall walking in the lava tunnel didn’t felt any different from walking in the Wooky Hole caves in England. However, they do have a little secret inside the cave, which they guard carefully ;-) (Those who’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about, eh? ;-) )
more to come...
Arecife.
While on the North, it was easy to visit the capital of the island – Arecife. Just 20 min and 1 euro on the bus. Arecife has a nice place by the harbour – a park or something and there was basically nothing more to see in Arecife. An old fortress looked pretty photogenic, but unfortunately there isn’t much left of her interiors – the fortress has been converted into art gallery for the exhibitions of the works of the young Lanzarote’s artists. And I’m not against art. I just thought preserving history is more appropriate purpose for the historical buildings. But that’s me, anyway… I’ve also found a beautiful church in the area – as usual – a very simple design, a spiritual place of peace and tranquillity.
The rest the capital is famous for was –shopping. And since this is the least I’m ever interested in, the exploration of Arecife took only half-day of my time. I did went there again some other day, but only to walk the beautiful promenade and to find the truly local restaurant with the honest local food, off the beaten tourist path…wherever you go, you get to appreciate places you visit for what they are and for what you can find in them for yourself.
Sinking to the bottom
On one of the days I had an adventure to the bottom of the ocean. Literally. Some times ago Lanzarote bought an old submarine from the British Navy. They re-designed it slightly, painted it in the bright colours and now it is a very popular submarine trip. After having been to the highest mountain of Europe, I couldn’t miss the opportunity to go to another extreme, couldn’t I? Well, the extreme wasn’t too extremely, of course. But the experience was worth it. The submarine was “just like real” – we boarded it by the step ladder and there were all the fancy old equipment fitted by our windows… each passenger seat is next to a port hole allowing everyone to see the life underwater. We actually did sink to the bottom of the ocean, even if it was somewhere around the harbour area, still – 87.5 feet under the water and I was amazed how many fishes were there is there despite of the fact there are so many yachts and boats in the harbour as well. There were also few “Titanic” shipwrecks. I suppose these have been sunk for the purpose. This was in Puerto Calero – a “parking place” for the yachts of the millionaires. Well, they say it so anyway. We’ve been told that the King of Spain keeps his royal yachts here as well and even comes to Lanzarote every so often to participate in the Royal Regatta…whatever. I came to Puerto Calero to participate in the submarine safari and so I did. And it was cool. Just enough cool to forget about the commercialised part of the excursion and about karaoke singing of the Beatle’s yellow submarine as we were coming up the waters...because guess what – they painted the submarine in…yellow!
Cueva de los Verdes
The island’s biggest volcano named La Corona. When there was an eruption of La Corona around 3000 years ago, the lava streams flowed towards the ocean, creating in few places the hollow lava tube tunnels due to the explosions of the volcanic gases. Few of such tunnels have been used as a caves. Gueva de los Verdes is one of them. the name translates as “The Greens Caves”, which has nothing to do with the colour, just Greens was the name of the family that used to own the cave before handing it over to the municipality. Anyway, Cueva de los Verdes is formed from parts of the volcanic soils and has a colourful walls. They also built a…concert hall inside the cave (but nobody mentioned how good the acoustics is there). Overall walking in the lava tunnel didn’t felt any different from walking in the Wooky Hole caves in England. However, they do have a little secret inside the cave, which they guard carefully ;-) (Those who’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about, eh? ;-) )
more to come...