This is the easternmost of the Canary Islands, about 73 miles off the coast of Africa and 700 miles from the Iberian Peninsula. It’s 327 square miles and has about 147,000 inhabitants (not including the tourists). Up until the 1960’s the main industries were fishing, agriculture, raising goats and harvesting salt. Now 80% of the jobs are tourist related. Our tour bus took us to the other side of this dry island, past small villages of white washed homes and barren areas of crops growing in lava fields. We entered the Timanfaya National Park (“Fire Mountains”), an area that saw the eruption of over 100 volcanoes just 300 years ago. The red and black landscape was eerie – rugged black lava that poured down the mountains over a six year period and buried everything in sight. We visited an area where we could touch the rocks that were still too hot to hold! Dry bushes would combust in just a few seconds, and geysers of hot water shot into the air. Camels were introduced by farmers as working animals and we saw them taking hundreds of tourists up the hills in convoys. We drove along the rugged coast and saw how the island had grown with the flow of lava. Wineries dot the landscape, even in these inhospitable conditions. Creatively, they have carved eerie bowl-shaped pits into the island’s lava-filled valleys to capture and retain water so the vines can grow. We had the chance to taste the wine. Back at the ship, we took a shuttle into town and walked through the markets and small narrow streets. The people of Lanzarote have been careful to preserve its beauty and not let tourism ‘get the upper hand”!
“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.
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