LANZAROTE, CANARY ISLANDS – 29/9/26 – 2/10/26
It didn’t start out well, luggage not arriving, hire car without Sat Nav that couldn’t be used, no luggage on day 2, getting lost on day 2, 1 bag still missing on day 3. Unsuccessfully trying Sat Nav again on day 3, and finally deciding to get rid of the car and then get a Spanish speaking person to track down the missing bag. It’s day 4 and we’re back on track.
DAY 1 – at the airport.
Christine eventually gets her turn with the “luggage didn’t arrive” person, in the meantime Rhonda and I battled to get out of the luggage area with someone arguing with us about something that sounded more like “you’ll get arrested if you leave!!!” After many “no puedes volver a entrar si sales” Rhonda and I just left. She wasn’t pleased.
A frustrated Christine trying to sort out the paperwork.
7pm and Christine and Ray finally escaped – tried to take a photo of that officious woman but she hid behind Ray LOL.
We’re finally on the road at 7.15pm with Matthew our driver and, bless his heart, he stops at a supermarket so we could get wine (we’re seriously in need of a drink).
Finally checked in at 7.30 – the apartment is very nice. 8.00 – we get notification that our luggage would arrive at 3pm the next day. No clothes, no toothbrush for me. Rhonda, Ray and Christine are better off they had spare gear in their carry-on.
With no clothes or swimmers, Rhonda and I, after a glass of wine, decide that skinny dipping in the pool is a good idea😊.
DAY 2 – A few minor issues, flooded laundry room when washing machine did the spin cycle. Phone didn’t work needed staff to fix it. Christine and Ray pick up car, get lost, and return after 3 hours – not a good start. By 4.30pm Ray’s technically deaf, his hearing aid’s batteries are flat! Charger is in his luggage. At 6pm 3 bags turn up, Christine’s is missing in action. Some of us are happy! It’s been a stressful day, we all go to bed and hope tomorrow will be better.
DAY 3 – Eventually after much stuffing around, we decide to do a bit of sightseeing, to a place that’s only 15k away. How hard can it be?
We manage to find our way to Caldera de Los Cuervos with both Sat Nav and me navigating using a dodgy tourist map. We find the caldera but too many people and we’re not up for a long walk around the base.
Restart the car to take us to our next destination La Geria (for a winery) … Sat Nav not working. I manage to navigate us to a winery and then, through an English speaking waitress, found the Bodega we’re looking for.
The wineries grow their grapes the same as in the Azores – only much tidier. I figure that many years after Azores started growing grapes, the Spanish went there, found out how they did it and decided that they could do it better.
Later I discovered more about these wineries. The Azores ones were actually built on lava plains (where the lava had moved down from volcano and flown across the land below the volcano), you could easily see the lava where the vines were growing. For the vineyards in Lazarote, the fields were created on large plains of volcanic ash (very fertile) and the rocks were brought to the fields by the farmers (and donkeys or camels), and that’s how they built these wind breaks. And, that’s why they look nice and tiny. I asked about the volcanic ash, they have quarries that are supplying the ash these days, but they would have just used the dirt/ash that was available at the time.
Their vineyards go way up the hills and mountains.
Then we decide to return to the apartment to see if luggage has turned up. All the road signs are in Spanish (what a surprise) and the map I’m using doesn’t have all the side streets etc shown, only the highways, so we get lost. After driving around for 15 minutes, miraculously we spot our units, thankfully.
It’s 4pm now and Christine’s bag still hasn’t turned up. Christine then gets the concierge for our unit to try to find out where it is. Low ‘n’ behold the luggage turns up at 8pm, should have got the concierge onto it sooner LOL.
DAY 5 – Christine and Ray decide to get Spanish Sims for their phones – Christine’s Optus not performing as expected. Once all set up we get in the car to do a bigger tour. That doesn’t work out as planned, find the way back to the house and decide that the car is just not doing the job, so park it, tell the hire company to pick it up and sign up for some commercial tours. Walk down to the supermarket and pick up more wine!
Christine takes herself down to the concierge and books a few tourist trips for us. That car is going to sit there for the next four days!
Watch this space LOL.