Welcome to an island paradise
Trip Start
Jul 04, 2006
1
54
63
Trip End
Jan 16, 2007
Puerto del Carmen,
Morocco
Monday, December 11, 2006
Well we are definitely up early today, and Tony offers to drive us to the airport which is fabulous considering we have to leave at 3.30am. Our flight doesn't leave until 7am, but because it is international we were advised by the travel agent to be there 2 ½ hours before, so after a very quick check in and baggage inspection we find a place to sit and have breaky.
It is a 4 hour flight to the island of Lanzarote, which is to be our home for the next two weeks, with the flight going almost directly south from Manchester International, over southern England, Portugal and across the Atlantic Ocean. Lanzarote is just off the west coast of Africa and is part of the Canary Islands, and we have heard a little bit about it from Anthony & Geraldine who recently spent a week there
01 The main pool area of our resort.
. We are looking forward to spending some time in the sunshine after some very cold weather over the last few months. As we fly over Lanzarote we are stuck by an amazing sight. The land is volcanic so it is all black, and all the building we can see are completely painted white, even the roofs, so we are quite struck with the sharp contrast. We land in Lanzarote at just after 11am and meet our resort rep who shows us which bus to get on to take us to our resort. It is situated in the town of Puerto del Carmen, which we learn is the busiest resort on the island where shops, bars and restaurants line 4klm of coastal road and shelving sandy beaches. The sun is out and it feels like it is about 20degrees. The resort is lovely and has three swimming pools, and almost all the units overlook one of them. The rooms are quite spacious, and we have a two bedroom unit as it came part of the late booking special offer, so we use one room for storage. The unit has almost everything you need with the exception of a hairdryer, iron and washing machine, but we can rough it for a few weeks. There is a lovely balcony with a table and chairs so you can sit outside and enjoy the sun without leaving your room, and from here we can also see the ocean, and the blue Atlantic waters look stunning and inviting.
For the benefit of those back in Aussie, it cost ₤179 (pounds) per person for the two weeks that included all airfares, taxes and charges, airport transfers to resort and back, and for the two bedrooms serviced apartment
02 The view from our balcony.
. This is the equivalent to about $450 Aussie dollars each, so when you see some of the photos I think you will agree it represents fantastic value.We settle ourselves into our room and do a little shopping for some necessities while we are here, and we find the supermarket not far away. Our plan for the first week we are here is to not go too far from the resort, and just have a few nice meals out each evening. The first two days we are here are very pleasant and the weather is clear and warm, and we enjoy feeling the sunshine on our skin again. We laze around one of the resorts pools, and sip our drinks and Brian has the odd swim, but I have yet to get my feet wet!
The next few days are very ordinary weather-wise, and the wind has sprung up and is very strong. The skies have darkened, and it has become quite overcast, so we spend most of our time just relaxing in our unit, and we read our books and just chill out. Brian enjoys the Irish pubs in the area (and there must be a dozen of them), to sit and watch the soccer, and in the evening we enjoy listening to a local electric guitar duo who make the most incredible music. We sit and listen to them belt out some of Brian's favorite music and make conversation with another couple sitting at the same table. Brian has become quite the conversationalist since we left Australia, talking to almost anyone who will listen to him. At one point Brian went to the bar to buy a round of drinks and came back with a bloke who was sitting there on his own
03 Inside our unit from the balcony.
. He came from Limerick in Ireland (he said from the Fyans area?) and was here by himself, so after Brian had introduced himself he joined us for the evening.While Lanzarote is part of Spain, we find that the majority of visitors are either from the UK (and there are more Irish than English), or from the Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Finland and Norway. There are also plenty of German visitors, and we find that all menus have about five languages printed to cover for the various tourists.
We enjoy a different restaurant every night and savor the different tastes Lanzarote has to offer. On one afternoon when it was particularly wet and windy, during a lull in the weather, we walked down to the beach front and spent an enjoyable two hours at a Spanish/Mexican restaurant behind glass looking out over the Atlantic.
We have to take care when crossing the roads, as the traffic drives on the opposite side to that of Aussie, so we have been caught looking the wrong way and almost stepping in front of a car.
The first five days have been very relaxing and we have certainly enjoyed it, and for the next week we plan on doing a little more sightseeing, as the forecasts show the bad weather is over, and warm sunshine is predicted from here on.
