The weather was a bit cloudier today and a tad cooler so after breakfast and doing the boring chores like stacking the dishwasher and making the beds, we drove over to the Timanfaya National Park. The park contains over 30 volcanic cones within its boundaries and is completely devoid of any plant or animal life. There were a series of eruptions back in the 18th century and the lava fields from these eruptions are still barren to this day.
We drove into the park, passing through vast areas of malpais or badlands so called because of the lack of vegetation. The park is named after the village of Timanfaya which was obliterated when the volcanoes exploded. Nobody was killed as the villagers fled to the north of the island to escape the rivers of lava. The symbol of the national park was everywhere – a devil with a long tail holding his arms aloft. It’s a creepy place to be and away from the coast the cloud cover was quite heavy adding to the brooding atmosphere.
We tried to find out the entrance fee for the park – you drive in and then come to a restaurant which cooks its food with the heat of the volcano underneath! From here you can take a coach tour around the volcanoes which lasts about 40 minutes. You can’t drive and there’s no stopping to take photos so all pictures have to be taken from the coach. We couldn’t find out any prices but later discovered that it was a very reasonable 8 euros for adults and 4 euros for children under 12.
As well as visiting the volcanoes you can also take a short ride on a camel. We stopped at the camel station but it all looked a bit chaotic with lines of camels waiting patiently to be ridden. They looked really sweet but I wouldn’t have wanted to stroke one!
As it felt really quite chilly we headed back to Playa Blanca for lunch at the Wax bar and a chance to access the internet which pleased Mikey very much!
Our evening walk into Playa Blanca was accompanied by the most gorgeous sunset, with clouds forming a beautiful backdrop to the bay. I took lots of photos of the beach and the distant mountains of Fuerteventura as the sun slowly sank over the horizon. We had a drink again at the Galeria Bar and just watched the evening darken, in awe at how beautiful the scene was.
Our venue for our evening meal was Volcan de Timanfaya where we had another very delicious and good value meal. We all had a starter – mixed croquettes for Sophie and me, chicken soup for Mikey and onion rings for Keith. Our main courses consisted of chicken skewers with a mushroom sauce, lamb chops, pork ribs and a pizza for Sophie which was so big she had to take some back to the villa wrapped in foil! Keith and I each had a half bottle of wine, a Rioja for him and the Lanzarote white that I like for me. We had no room for dessert but we did have an ice-cream cone to walk home with.
Our waiter called the restaurant in the marina to cancel our booking for Christmas Day so that was very good of him.
I still can’t believe it’s only a couple of days until Christmas!
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