Barb's Thoughts: Oct 11 – 31, 2018 Lanzarote, Canary Islands

We are now in Marina Rubicon located at the bottom end of Lanzarote Island, aka The Devil’s Island. The marina is surrounded by restaurants, cafes, bars, retail shops of every kind, markets, a good chandlery, a dive shop, a laundry, rental car kiosks and of course several ice cream shops (this thrills Frank to no end). There is a lovely resort-style pool that looks very appealing but which we have been told is so icy that only the brave will attempt to take a plunge. It is beautiful and could be paradise but…our berth here gets a disturbing amount of swell and thus we have positioned 8 fenders between Destiny and the finger pier. Our neighbor is a very friendly Hungarian guy who lent us even more fenders to place between his yacht (Kundalini) and Destiny. We have all become very close as friends and berth-mates. Not much helps alleviate the sound of rubbing fenders, stretching dock lines and screeching metal on the docks. It is hellish during daylight hours. At night it is unbearable. Trying to sleep through the night has become an absolute challenge due to the constant jerking and snapping of the dock lines even though some of ours have built-in springs. On several occasions one of us has been standing or walking through the boat when a sudden jerk causes us to lose our balance and fall down or into something. I’m covered in bruises and told Frank I’d better start wearing long pants and shirts with sleeves so people wont think my husband beats me – ha ha. Thankfully we have a lot of good restaurants to choose from so I’m not doing much cooking and look forward to meals off the boat. The positive side is that at least we no longer have to Med-moor…

View of Destiny in her berth from our favorite cafe

arrival dock at Marina Rubicon

cool apartments/townhomes

Our first several days were spent addressing boat issues and doing routine maintenance (always). We enjoyed dinner one evening with friends we had met while in Agadir, David and Marilyn on s/v Blue Yonder, whose yacht is moored up the coast at Puerto Calero. Thanks to their introduction and David’s sponsorship both of us are now members of the prestigious OCC, the Ocean Cruising Club.

We finally broke free the following week, renting a car to tour this fascinating and tragically beautiful island. The roads are surprisingly well kept and beautifully maintained as is evidenced by the numerous bicyclists we found ourselves dodging everywhere we drove. The landscape on the other hand is very uninviting; not just rocky but ominously jagged and dangerous and yet the island is full of hiking trails. We passed the strangest vineyards and farms cultivated out of the red and black rocky sand. Vines are burrowed down into the sandy ground as if they are being sucked down into a funnel in order to protect them from the high winds and harsh environment. Between the strange landscapes and interesting architecture it is a joy to drive around the island because each time we pass from one area to the next we are met with a new surprise that nature has wrought.

Our first destination on this jaunt was to Timanfaya National Park situated in the heart of The Montanas del Fuego where, in the year 1730, a massive volcanic eruption began spewing over 48 million cubic meters of lava that devastated over 200 sq kilometers of the island over a 6-year period. This shocking landscape reminds us of images of the moon’s surface. Frank said he thinks this is what the Earth will look like 100 years after Armageddon. Chilling. After completing the 14k bus tour through the park we enjoyed lunch at the Cesar Manrique designed “Restaurant del Diablo” where food is roasted on a grill built over a volcanic vented open pit. The panoramic views from the restaurant are fantastic!

Entrance to the park

Volcanic chicken!

Our next touristy day was another Cesar Manrique adventure that led us along his artistic footprint around the island, stopping first at the Monumento al Campesino, the “Peasants’ Monument” erected to honor the island’s laborers whose handcrafts are still taught today in the adjacent visitors center and museum. There also happens to be an impressive and beautifully designed restaurant in the complex that serves delicious local Canarian cuisine. Of course we stayed for lunch before moving on to the Fundacion Cesar Manrique. This was one of his two homes on the island built into the lava fields. This one is very literally built into the multi-level volcanic formations, incorporating large air pockets and lava tubes in such a way that the house flows along with the natural flow of the lava, forming lounge rooms, bedrooms, terraces and very cool tunneled passageways throughout, ending in a paradise that surrounds a pool. His architectural style accommodates the formations rather than the other way around. Within the home is a gallery of several of his works and information about his Foundation that strives to preserve the island.

at the Foundation

Cesar Manrique's home at Haria

Frank discovered that Lanzarote has a golf course about 15 miles from this marina, and quite close to Puerto Calero so we made a drive by one day on our way to visit David and Marilyn for dinner. It looked OK, rather rough and rugged but we wanted to be able to say we played golf in a lava field so we booked a tee time for a few days later. I had just begun golf lessons this past summer barely finishing before we returned to the boat, and had not yet played a full 18-hole round. The driving range is laid in volcanic stones, rather unappealing and weird. The course is bizarre! There is some grass, but strictly along the fairways with no out-of-bounds area, so a ball that doesn’t make the green goes into a pile of lava rocks and often completely out of site. We got hit with two gusty and very wet storms while playing but we persevered noticing other players bailing out completely, and in spite of not playing very well we both had a great time and laughed a whole lot!

a home on the golf course

the trees separate one fairway from another

view of the golf course from the entrance road

One of the tee boxes

Continuing the Cesar Marique theme, which is nearly impossible not to do here, we spent a day driving up to his home and studio in Haria. After I snapped a couple of pictures of the living room I was quickly approached from two sides by angry docents waving arms and telling me we were forbidden to take photos, OOPS! His studio is housed in a separate building and has been left as it was on the day that he was killed in an automobile accident on this very island. After visiting this home we headed over to Lago Mar, another absolutely marvelously designed home by Manrique. Omar Sharif owned it for one day before he lost it in a Bridge Game. What a terrible shame! This home is unbelievably beautiful, sexy, avant-garde and one that you can imagine a movie star owning and throwing lavish parties for all the beautiful people in his life.