Twenty years ago, my husband and I ventured into the territory of holidays with a baby and all the associated paraphernalia. Two years on, this morphed into holidays with varying combinations of any two from the list; babies, toddlers and children, involving yet more possessions. This was a wonderful, magical and intense time that was beyond precious. A time of my life during which, even though I was stretched to my limit in all respects, my heart was truly satisfied in my daily quest to do the absolute best for my little family.
All good things come to an end, but every ending yields a new beginning, so now that our children have grown into adults we are moving into pastures new and finding a different way to be. One of our different ways to be, we’ve decided, will involve travel. Exploring, walking around, marvelling at and being fascinated by new places encumbered by as few material possessions as possible. With this in aim, we set off one July day, with no more than 5.6kg of hand luggage each, for a trip to Lanzarote.
For a more authentic experience we decided to stay in Arrecife in a self catering apartment so that we could see real Lanzarote life as much as possible. We also knew that there were excellent and inexpensive bus links from Arrecife to many areas of potential interest around the island.
The Charco de San Ginés in Arrecife. In the evening, with warmth in the air and a pleasant breeze – sounds of laughter, talking and light music can be heard from the many restaurants in that area.
Another beautiful place to go in Arrecife for places to eat or for a lovely walk at any time of the day is Puerto de Naos, the marina.
I got the impression that street art is tolerated In Arrecife, so it became a bit of a challenge of mine to find some of the best examples in the city.
The picture below is sadly not a brilliant photo in terms of quality because it was taken through the window of the top floor of the Arrecife Gran Hotel, which is the tallest building in the city. It perfectly shows the mixture of mountain views, beach and buildings available in the city. The staff at the hotel are very friendly and welcome non-guests to go up to the top floor to have a coffee and admire the views.
There are regular buses that run from the bus station to the three main resorts in the island. We weren’t drawn to the resorts themselves but were interested in the challenge of getting there and exploring to find things that interested us.
Down the coast from Arrecife is Puerto Del Carmen, the biggest holiday resort on Lanzarote. After a short walk out of Puerto Del Carmen we came across more natural scenery. Great views of the mountains were to be had and we gazed in wonder at them.
Up the coast from Arrecife, a short bus journey away, was Costa Teguise another resort. At this point the mountains became just too tempting.
After a bit of googling, I discovered that the mountain above was called Montaña Corona and that there was a reasonable walking route to it from Costa Teguise.
Our chance to engage with the amazing mountains!
The following day we set off….
It was like walking in a desert when we started trekking inland away from proper roads.
Sadly this was the closest that we got to Montaña Corona because we had to be sensible and admit that we hadn’t prepared well enough to get to the top. As first time hikers in the Canary Islands it was difficult to imagine what to expect when you get out into the wilds of the country. We would certainly like to embark on many similar hikes in the future but there would be some serious research before we set off next time. I highly suspect the desire to better this experience will form the nucleus of one of our next travels. There is unfinished business here!
