Lanzarote, Canary Islands

I'm back in London now, took a week vacation...from my vacation? Anyway, Bruce and Ahman were kind enough to invite me to come along on their week long vacation down to the Canary Islands.

So cute, right!?

 After being collected by the taxi at 4:30am, we decided to make the best of it and enjoyed a breakfast pint at the airport.

Before this trip I knew nothing about the Islands, I had heard the name before but had no idea where they were located or which country with which they were associated.  For those of you who are as clueless as me, here are a few facts about the Canary Islands, Lanzarote specifically:
1) The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union.
2) Lanzarote is just 80 miles off the west coast of Morrocco.
3) Lanzarote is the easternmost island and one of the most ancient of the archipelago, and it has shown evidence of recent volcanic activity. It has a surface of 845.94 km², and a population of 139,506 inhabitants including the adjacent islets of the Chinijo Archipelago. The capital is Arrecife, with 56,834 inhabitants.


Thank you Wikipedia for providing that lesson! Anyway, the island was beautiful but not in the way you would think.  When I think of islands I think of Hawaii, lush, green, rain forest covered hills.  But Lanzarote is practically in Africa, it is a volcanic, desert island. The climate is extremely arid, trees can only be found in the super touristy areas where they have brought in palm trees and shrubs.  But it's beauty lies in its sparseness, the sandy desert gives way to the beach and sharp, volcanic stone cliffs.  Beautiful!! 

We booked the trip about two weeks in advance so we got an amazing deal!! For 6 nights accommodation, breakfast and dinner, and the flight from London to Lanzarote I paid only $300! So, all I had to pay for was lunch and drinks, amazing deal. 

Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the beach but the payoff was that we had a stunning view of the ocean and the mountains from our patio.  Most days we woke up around 9am, wandered down to breakfast, lounged around for about an hour then headed to the beach.  The water was great; clear and turquoise, cool and refreshing.  Fantastic water for a hot day after a walk around Puerto del Carmen.

The week was fantastic, great company, great drinks and some amazing food....including a Chinese meal that ended with a free shot in a glass with a naked "She-male" in the bottom.....that was one of the more memorable shots I've taken, perhaps that was the point?  I have a picture of that too but I don't think I will be posting it here...

Off to bed!

Love you all!!