ahh. holiday in October.

We went to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands last week. Never heard of it before, hasnt been on my "places to visit" list or anything, but the travel agent said it would be warm and sunny in October. SIGN ME UP. we finally felt the sun and warmth. wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed lazing by the pool and on the beach for a week. We finally have a tan - fleeting as it is. Lanzarote is basically a lava covered volcano off the coast of Morrocco, but it is a part of Spain which is 600 miles away!!!???!!!. The island is very simple, somewhat primative and literally covered in lava rock. The beaches are very nice and beautiful. The last major volcanic activity was in the 1800's, but the developement since then has been limited. I didn't see any dirt - everything is varying degrees of whole to crushed lava rock. The sand is brought in on the beaches. The landscape is said to be like the moon. We drove up to the top of a volcano on Fire Mountain where they had demonstrations of holes in the ground that were so hot they would catch a tree branch on fire within seconds. The pebble rocks we were standing on were too hot to hold due to the heat underneath the ground. There is a restuarant on the volcano too and the food is cooked over a hole in the ground. Our meals were baked by lava heat. cool, huh? There doesnt seem to be much natural vegitation, but somehow they grow grape vines on the island and produce wine. I have included a photo of the wine vineyards. There are rock walls around each vine to protect them from the hot winds blowing off the Sahara Desert.
The driving was dangerous - for everyone else - we rented a little car and DA took off driving a stick shift for the 1st time in years, back on the RIGHT side of the road, driving up the steep side of a volcano. It was too much to handle at one time. Roundabouts going in the opposite direction. He turned into the wrong lane so many times. I laugh at our total "PITIFULNESS" on the driving front. And we realized that his US license had expired so they wouldnt rent him the car. I had to rent it and agree be the only driver, except I can't drive a stick shift and I wasnt willing to learn on volcano mountains.
The receptionist at the hotel told me they NEVER had Americans there. In fact, I didnt see or hear any one that appeared to be American for 8 days. very strange feeling.
I got to celebrate my birthday while there and we rode on this crazy flying fish thing out in the ocean that day. Interesting way to turn 43! DA and L loved it, B and I held on for dear life not wanting to get thrown off. After the fact I can say it was fun. oh, did I mention the water was FREEZING! another reason not to get thrown off. Arrived home at 1:30am and made the kids attend school the next morning. They were tired even after a relaxing holiday. Now we are moving onto the next thing - Halloween in England. photos: vineyards, lava fields, Papagayo Beach