The Oasis of Lanzarote

As we haven’t seen much of Lanzarote, we went on a little trip together with Markus and Hille. We explored the island in the rental car and were amazed by the beauty of the harsh volcanic landscape. The whole island is quite dry and when sailing past it’s coast we were astonished that someone would even want to live there. But during winter when a little rain falls, the volcanoes are covered with flowers and grass and everything is green. I would so much like to see that. But by then we’ll probably be on our way to the (green) carribean. ;-) There’s also wineyards on the slopes of that volcanoes and they don’t even need to be watered artificially, they live on the moisture of the evening damp.

So we were driving with the car around the island and I have to say: it’s really one of the best things to happen to this island that the architect Cesar Manrique persuaded the government to disallow the construction of high buildings and the ban of billboards. So you only see nice little villages with white, cubic buildings. And I guess – hundreds – of roundabouts with flowers and cacti.

The destination of our cruise was Puerto del Carmen, where we were invited by Heidi und Udo – friends of Markus. And so it happened that when the sun set we found ourselves in a beautiful green oasis in the midst of black volcano slopes. The garden – which consists of hundreds of plants, a playground, small guesthouses, a pool and much more is setup like a labyrinth with little caves and walls made of volcanic stone. One is surprised that it took (only) 16 years of work to build that wonderful place with it’s many little details and I won’t even start about the house itself or the music-cave or the appartments. It’s just amazing. So after an extended tour through the garden of eden we’ve had barbequeue, endless chats – and for the kids a box of Lego. Truly a perfect last evening on Lanzarote !