Lanzarote 2023

We landed at ACE (Lanzarote Airport) from Seville, the afternoon of Halloween and collected our VW Polo at Budget. Wedrove out onto the divided LZ-2 highway  to the nearby outskirts of the main city of Arrecife. We were travelling with carry-on bags only and we stopped at Decathlon to pick up a pair of trekking poles (not allowed as carry-on, though not strictly enforced either) and I bought a pair of flip-flops. From Decathlon, we walked across the road to a Mercadona supermarket and bought groceries for the start of our 5 night stay. Then we drove past the airport to Puerto del Carmen and our rental accommodation. Lanzarote is small enough to stay in one place, so we chose the central beach community as our base. "Apartamento Acogedor" (75 Euros/night) turned out to be an excellent choice. It was on the western edge of the main tourist area so access was easy, but we had a LIDL supermarket  a short walk away and it was 1 km down to the malecón (promenade) and beach. It was surprisingly pleasant and the water temperature was 23.5C. It seemed to cater to British tourists, with a family orientation rather than  lager louts.

The forecast was for increasing NW winds, so we opted to start our walking program in the Northwest before the winds really kicked in.  It was about a 45 minute drive through Yé  to the trailhead of the La Corona Volcano. The road quality was impressive and the bleak barren scenery was captivating.

The La Corona hike was just 3km return but it did put us on the rim of the extinct 600m volcano. The last eruption was some 4,000 years ago. It was a good start to our walking itinerary.  

We then drove over to the Mirador del Porrito for a view of  La Graciosa island, but it turned out to be redundant as the views from our second walk out of the nearby Guinate hamlet were just as good. The Guinate walk was 4km long but led us up along the top of cliffs. The hike is normally done as a loop, but we thought the ridge line views were so good that we did it as an out-and-back hike.

We drove the LZ-10 to Haria, over a pass and onto Tequise. Most of the village buildings on the island are painted white. We found the villages of moderate interest and we returned home for an afternoon swim.

On our second full day, we headed west. We started out from home in the dark and it took a little while to figure out how to turn the VW headlights on. The lights were in an off position, and the German car engineers had put the controls below the steering wheel at my left knee. Although the day time temperatures were in the high 20's C, the sun had a punch to it, so we opted for early starts.  We were on the Montaña Blanca trail before 7:30am and encountered a couple of other people who must have gone out for the sunrise. 

The 10km walk was our favourite Lanzarote hike. After the approach section, the trail  follows  the crater rim to the high point at about 500m. The crater is largely intact and the views, particularly to the southwest are impressive. When we left, there were a lot more cars parked at the trail head. We continued south on the LZ-67 through the Timanfaya National Park for  a walk around the village of Yaiza and then home  and another afternoon swim.

We had seen a huge queue of cars from Montaña Blanca and read the reviews of Timanfaya National Park so it looked like either an early start or take a chance and show up at the end of the day. Early starts weren't anything new to us, so lined up at the entrance gate the next morning. The core of the park can only be visited by a guided bus tour. Clearly, the park infrastructure and road system was not designed for its popularity. There was a fair amount of maneuvering our vehicle, but ultimately we were seated on the first coach of the day.  The once fertile lands were covered in lava about 300 years ago. Sure, it was comfortable to see the intriguing volcanic section, but we had mixed feelings of the whole affair. Later, we had a look around the park visitor's centre and then drove to the west coast.

We reached El Golfo around mid-day and snagged a parking spot. The west coast water is rough and the entire area surrounding the small settlements is covered in 300 year old lava. We followed a trail through the lava fields that paralleled the coast. The 5km out-and-back walk was quite unique.

On our last full day, we drove down to the south east corner of the island. When we reached the Playa Mujeres parking lot, the "this van life" people were stirring. The "aparatmentos' people (us) hit the trail around 8:00 am and we made our way along the desolate but oddly beautiful SE coastline including Papagayo Beach. We continued a ways north, past a nudist beach and then looped back to the car (5 km).

We added to our coastal walking credits, by walking a section of the Puerto del Carmen - Puerto Calero trail for 3km though we found it less inspiring and somewhat busy. We had a last swim at Puerto del Carmen. Our last morning was a drive to the airport, car drop-off and onto Gran Canaria.