The island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands

Like the other Canary Islands, Lanzarote is of volcanic origin, but it is Lanzarote the volcanic character is most apparent, firstly because part of its volcanism is more recent, secondly because scarcity of vegetation leaves exposed volcanic rocks that cover much of the island. The interior of the island appears in summer, like a lunar landscape, about three hundred volcanoes ocher rocks, brown or black, dotted with white spots isolated farms and villages. Some mountains such as Montaña Colorada or Montaña Roja, have an almost red color, by oxidation of the iron ore it contains. These are just the winter rains that bring some green spots on the mountain slopes and in valleys. The north of the island escape this aridity through its - relatively - high mountain ranges that stop clouds and cause precipitation.

The strange beauty of these landscapes has been preserved from the greed of developers by the action of a man, the artist and environmentalist César Manrique, who, supported by the President of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, has managed to adopt a restrictive legislation on construction. César Manrique has itself made ​​its public art by integrating perfectly into the natural sites they highlight. Symbolically it was in 1993, the year following the accidental death of Manrique, Unesco declared the entire island “Biosphere Reserve”. The island also includes thirteen protected natural areas to varying degrees, which represent about 40% of the area of Lanzarote; the most famous is the recent volcanic area of Timanfaya (volcanic eighteenth and nineteenth centuries), which has the status of National Park.

1 km northwest of Lanzarote are the secondary archipelago Chinijo and the island of La Graciosa. The southern tip of Lanzarote, the Punta del Papagayo is located 11 km northeast of the island of Fuerteventura, separated by the Straits of La Bocaina, and 170 km northeast of the island of Gran Canaria. The islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are the Province of Las Palmas.

• The island of La Graciosa : is accessed by taking the pedestrian ferry Órzola.
• The Point of view of the Rio (Mirador del Río) : designed by César Manrique, the viewpoint offers a magnificent view sue the archipelago Chinijo.
• The caves of Cuevas de las Verdes, furnished minimally volcanic hose to keep it in its natural state.
• The Jameos del Agua, volcanic pits constructed by César Manrique, with an underground auditorium.
• The town of Haría and the Valley of a Thousand Palms, a green oasis in the north of the island.
• La Caleta de Famara, a small fishing port with a beach renowned for windsurfing.
• La Ermita de las Nieves, a small chapel isolated in the grasslands of the Cordillera de Famara (Risco de Famara), with a beautiful view of the west coast of Lanzarote.
• The Cactus Garden in Guatiza, a volcanic crater landscaped botanical garden of cactus and euphorbia.
• The town of Teguise, historical city, former capital of the island.
• The castle of Saint Barbara (Castillo de Santa Bárbara), view of Teguise, the plain of sand El Jable and the center of the island; Museum of Piracy.
• The Agricultural Museum El Patio in Tiagua.
• The chapel Our Lady of Sorrows (Ermita de las Dolores) to Mancha Blanca.
• Lagomar, called “House of Omar Sharif”, a troglodyte house in Nazaret.
• The Visitors Centre of the National Park Timanfaya.
• The Monument to the peasant of Lanzarote (Monumiento al Campesino) in San Bartolomé.
• The House and the Foundation César Manrique in Tahíche.
• The Wine Museum in Masdache.
• The National Park Timanfaya, it preserves the volcanic eruptions of the eighteenth century.
• The International Contemporary Art Museum, a museum of abstract art created by César Manrique in the Fort St. Joseph (Castillo de San José) close to Arrecife.
• The vineyards of La Geria, a wine route lined with many wineries where you can enjoy wines from Lanzarote.
• The Lago Verde in El Golfo, a small volcanic lake at the bottom of half a crater on the edge of the ocean.
• The basalt cliffs of Los Hervideros in the Volcanoes Park.
• The salt-works of Janubio.
• The marina of Puerto Calero.
• The Balcony of Femés, viewpoint overlooking the plain of El Rubicón and Playa Blanca.
• The Castillo de las Coloradas in Playa Blanca, a Genoese watchtower type.
• The white sand beaches of Papagayo.
• The Punta del Papagayo, the southern tip of Lanzarote overlooking the island of Lobos and north of Fuerteventura.

The Cabildo de Lanzarote offers packages to visit several public attractions with a reduction in the entry price, the “Bono 3 centros” (20 €), “Bono 4 centros” (26 €) and “Bono 6 centros” (30 €).

The first mountains of Lanzarote to emerge, there are about 11 million years ago, were the massif of Famara in the north of the island, and the massif Ajaches in the south. Subsequent magmatic emissions linked then these two massifs. The last volcanic eruptions took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Map of volcanoes Lanzarote: www.cabildodelanzarote.com/informacion/geografico/volcanes3.swf

Lanzarote has a relief of low mountains, the highest in the northeast, in the Cordillera de Famara, the Peñas del Chache to 671 m; south, the massif Ajaches culminates at Mount Hacha Grande to 561 m; southwest, the most recent volcanic peak at the Montaña de Timanfaya to 510 m altitude. Between these volcanic mountains lies the sandy plain El Jable; in the south of the island lies the plain El Rubicón.

• Around 500 BC, the first inhabitants settled in Lanzarote: the majos or mahos a population of Berber origin, from North Africa.
• In 1336 the Genoese navigator Lancelotto Malocello, sponsored by the Portuguese monarchy, “rediscovering” the island and built a watchtower on the Montaña de Guanapay, near present Teguise.
• In 1402 the Norman Jean IV de Béthencourt and its associated Gadifer de La Salle come to Lanzarote, after a stop in Cadiz during which they put at the service of King Henry III of Castile. These Norman merchants are looking for the dye orchil (orchilla) for their mills in Normandy. They settled on the southern coast of the island, in an area they call Rubicon because of the reddish color of the rocks, and they build a fortress with a church dedicated to Saint Martial de Limoges. Castile Crown granted the lordship of Lanzarote to Jean de Béthencourt.
• In 1404 Pope Benedict XIII is the church seat of the Diocese of San Marcial del Rubicón; the church was destroyed in the sixteenth century by English pirates.
• In 1406 Jean de Béthencourt transmits the manor to his nephew Maciot de Béthencourt, who married the princess Teguise, daughter of the last king majo of Lanzarote, Guadarfia. Lanzarote then passes noble Castilian who participated in the conquest of the other Canary Islands.
• In 1477, the island is devoted to Herreras who retained their stronghold until the late eighteenth century.
• From 1550 Lanzarote is the subject of attacks by Barbary pirates and European.
• In 1586 the Ottoman admiral Murat Rais (captain Mourad) seized the island with 500 men; the population is captured and enslavement; mother, wife and daughter of the Marquis Agustín Herrera y Rojas are released against a ransom.
• In the seventeenth century, pirate attacks and privateers are amplified until 1618 with the attack Jaban and Soliman. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, the population was reduced to 300 inhabitants by misery, murder, imprisonment and emigration.
• From 1730 to 1736, powerful volcanic eruptions devastated the southwest quarter of the island, destroying a dozen villages and among the best farmland where cereal culture had developed since the sixteenth century; the Montañas del Fuego that were born at that time are now the National Park Timanfaya.
• 1770, 30 years later, the inhabitants of Lanzarote introduced on volcanic ash a new culture, that of the vine. By the late eighteenth century were also introduced the culture of soda used in the manufacture of soap, and the breeding of cochineal on prickly pear to produce red dye cochineal.
• In 1812, the Constituent Assembly of Cortes de Cádiz ended the feudal power in Lanzarote and in the rest of Spain. The island is directly subordinate to the Spanish Crown.
• In 1824 new volcanic eruptions occur in the southwest of the island; they were less violent than those of the eighteenth century, but provoked famine.
• In 1852 the port of Teguise, Arrecife, gets the free port status and becomes the capital of the island instead of Teguise.
• In the twentieth century, from the 1960s, tourism grows and takes a leading role in the economy of Lanzarote.

The gofio is a cereal flour (wheat or maize) previously roasted before being ground; the gofio was already known of the aborigines of the island. Potatoes are proposed as “papas arrugadas”, small wrinkled potatoes, boiled in their skins, and served in a salt crust, accompanied by “mojo” (green or red hot sauce, to the oil, vinegar, salt and spices). Lanzarote has also developed a production of lenses (lentejas de Lanzarote), onions, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. A feature of Lanzarote is a fungus that grows in the sands of the plain of El Jable and is named Sandy truffle (Terfezia arenaria); this fungus has a slight scent of truffle; it is found in markets - in the rainy season - under the name of “papas crías” because it has the appearance of a potato.

The ocean provides excellent fish and seafood; fish are cooked or grilled “a la espalda” be boiled in “sancocho” (bouillabaisse).

Lanzarote has a large goat farm; the goats are consumed in various ways, including baifo, fried kid with garlic.

Goats also provide excellent cheeses (queso de cabra), sweet or dry, at different levels of maturity: queso blanco (3 to 4 days), semi tierno (7 to 8 days), semi seco (up 20 days) or queso durado (over two months). The people of Lanzarote sometimes eat with quince jelly (dulce de membrillo).

Traditional island dishes are accompanied by wines from Lanzarote; it’s La Geria that produced most of the Appellation wine Lanzarote, including sweet wines distinguished from malvasia grape.

Address: Triana, 38 - 35500 Arrecife

Phone: 00 34 928 811 762

Site on the Web: www.turismolanzarote.com

Hours: Monday to Friday, 8 am to 14 pm (15 pm in winter).

The capital of the island is Arrecife.

The island of Lanzarote is divided into seven municipalities: Arrecife (the capital), Haría, San Bartolomé, Teguise, Tías, Tinajo and Yaiza.

The rainfall ranges from 250 mm in Famara and only 50 mm in the area of the Costa del Rubicón, south of the island; the average rainfall is 200 mm annual. The little rainfall is concentrated in the winter and rain in summer is a rare phenomenon.

Two climatic elements involved in this atmospheric softness: the trade winds and the cold Canary Current. The wind is almost permanently present on the island. During the summer months, storms can stand, loaded with sand from the Sahara desert, the sirocco (also called calima the Canary), with temperatures up to 46 ºC (2004) and very poor visibility.

The airport of Lanzarote-Guasimeta is managed by the company AENA.

Phone: 00 34 928 846 000

Site on the Web: www.aena.es

The airport has two terminals:

• Terminal 1 is dedicated to traffic with mainland Spain and other airports in Europe and the British Isles.
• Terminal 2 is dedicated to traffic with the other Canary Islands, Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Two airlines provide the inter-island traffic: Binter Canarias (phone: 00 34902391392; site on the Web: www.binternet.com) and CanaryFly (phone: 00 34902808065; site on the Web: www.canaryfly. es).

The capital Arrecife is connected to the airport every half hour from 6 am to 22 h 30, the bus line No. 22, from the exchanger; once an hour between 7 am and 21 pm, with the bus line No. 23, from the bus station.

Lines No. 161 and No. 261 connects Playa Blanca to the airport, via Puerto del Carmen; every hour from 7 am to 22 pm 30.

Detailed schedule at: www.arrecifebus.com.

• the port of Arrecife, the Puerto de los Mármoles, is also the merchandise port through which passes most of the products that fuel the island; it also hosts cruise ships. From Arrecife ferry allow to join Cadiz and Huelva in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Tenerife.
• the port of Playa Blanca, in the south of the island, offers connections with the port of Corralejo in the north of Fuerteventura.
• the port of Órzola north of the island ensures pedestrian passage to the island of La Graciosa.

The company Naviera Armas offers connections from Arrecife to Huelva in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and from Playa Blanca to Corralejo (phone: 00 34 902 456 500; site on the canvas: www.navieraarmas.com).

The company Fred Olsen connects Playa Blanca to Corralejo by fast ships (crossing 15 minutes) (phone: 00 34 902 100 107; site on the Web: www.fredolsen.es).

The island has a bus network, but is adapted to the needs of villagers who go to work in town, early morning and returning home in the afternoon. Some tourist sites such as the National Park of Timanfaya or the Mirador del Río are not accessible by bus.

Bus schedules at: www.arrecifebus.com.