Out of all The Canary Islands Lanzarote has to be the most breathtaking experience. Steeped in history and culture. Although under Spanish rule the locals say they are Canarians first and Spanish second. The Timanfaya National Park has the most awesome scenery I have ever seen. Volcanoes everywhere and lava fields make you realise how vicious nature can be. Although new developments are taking place continuously they are trying to keep the landcape as original as nature left it as possible. Indeed, they have even made this destruction work in their favour as far as tourism goes. Take the El Diablo restaurant at the beginning of the tour. Cooking is done on a grill which is placed over a hole where thermal heat cooks the product. Geo-thermal experiments by locals show you how hot the earth is under the volcano. This is where all cars, cyclists and pedestrians have to stop. Only guided tours on coaches are allowed after this point. Then it looks like a lunar landscape. That's the only way I can describe it. Apparently, 5 villages were completely buried when the volcanoes struck. One village, Yaiza. is known as the miracle village because as folklore has it the villagers congregated in the church and prayed when the volcanoes erupted and the lava rivers were sweeping down on them and the lava stream forked around the village. Another version is the local priest stood at the outskirts of the village and prayed with the same result so both version are linked. The eastern side of the island is the main tourist and holiday makers destination. Puerto Del Carmen is the biggest and it's been made just like Blackpool or Skegness so I don't bother with it much but it still has attractins which I'll mention later. Costa Teguise is a custom made tourist and holiday resort with a very nice beach. Los Cucharis. This is a haven for windsurfers. All the usual bars and restaurants offer you very good food and hospitality. Playa Blanca, at the south of the island used to be just a quiet fishing village but now it's getting bigger and within a few years it will probably be bigger than Puerto Del Carmen as there's building work going on everywhere. Playa Blanca's nightlife is mainly for the over 30s at the moment but there's no way of telling how much they will start catering for youngsters with the discos and all that. Again, there are plenty of bars and restaurants that will fulfill all your eating and drinking needs. The beaches in most of Lanzarote are always clean and tidy but for some reason the deckchairs and loungers are crammed too close to each other, probably so they can get more on and get more money. Cesar Manrique, the hero of the island was an artist, sculptor, architect, designer and heaven knows what else. Lanzarote was his island and he decreed that it was'nt going to fall victim to excessive tourism amd commercail ventures so he decided that all buildings would be no more than 3 high. There is one 17 storey high building on the coast near Arricife the islands capital. A few years ago the building was gutted by fire and it nearly was demolished but the structure was strong enough to leave it standing to show what an eyesore it was, and still is. It has been redeveloped and is now open as The Grand Hotel and it looks awful. The developers have found another way round the 3 high limit. They renovate downwards and build, as long as they only have 3 storey's above ground height it seems ok. All buildngs are white and have green, blue or brown painted doors and window surrounds. Brown signifies the earth, green signifies vegetaion and plantlife and blue signifies the sea. Basic but effective. Costa Teguise and Playa Blanca don't have much in the way of stage shows. These can be found in Peurto Del Carmen. The wild west show. The aqua sports. Drag shows , discos. It's all here. Along with hundreds of bars and restaurants of all nationalities. What ever you want it'll be found in Puerto Del Carmen. From the Peurto Calero you can go out on a 4 hour trip on the catamarran on the atlantic to anchor up for 3 hours to swim, snorkel or just laze in the sun. Watch the seaguls literally feeding from a fork held in a crew members hand. Ot take a submarine trip from the same port. This yellow submarine(no joke) is one of only 5 commercials submarnes in the world and is an experience to behold. A word of warning though. All the resorts have lots of electrical and electronic shops. Avoid them like the plague unless you can afford to lose money. A lot of the products in these shops are fake copies. And the guarantees are worthless. If you buy a digi camera or cam-corder check the list of contents as they take the memory cards out and sell them as separates.The downside of all this is the same as anywhere that has the Euro It's getting more expensive every year. All in all though Lanzarote is a wonderful beautiful place and I will go back there soon.
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