Incredible Terrain of Lanzarote

Though we mostly spent our days on the beach, we took one day for a bus tour to Timanfaya National Park to see  the volcanoes and a local winery.  On the tour we learned that the fertile land was decimated by numerous volcanic eruptions over a 6 year period.  Between 1730 and 1736, there were earthquakes and frequent volcanic eruptions and fissure eruptions.  The eruptions decimated the towns, but no people were killed.  The Priest of Yaiza recorded the incidents in his diary, describing the eruptions, the lava flows, the devastation, and the efforts to rebuild.  The last eruption in Lanzarote was in 1824, which technically means that the volcano that erupted is still active.   To be called inactive, a volcano is supposed to have been dormant for 300 years.  There are about 300 craters on the island of Lanzarote. 

There are many towns on the island.  There is a uniformity to the buildings, as they passed regulations that require buildings to be painted white with green, brown, or blue trim.  There are variations, and buildings that were built before the regulations, but for the most part, the buildings are white and I will say it is aesthetically pleasing. 

There is no manufacturing in Lanzarote, so pretty much everything has to be imported.  Though surrounded by the sea, drinking water is a limited resource.  They do have salt flats where they extract the salt from the sea water.  The island  generally has only 15 days of measurable rainfall in a year. 

They also have camels that are used  for tourist attraction but which were bred for being pack animals.  the are a bit shorter and stockier than the camels you would find in the desert.  We did not get to ride the camels,  but they carry two people at a time in seats that come down on either side of the camel.  On our bus tour we saw a huge line of camels carrying people up a winding trail.  It looked very touristy to me, and I felt kind of sorry for the camels...