Lanzarote Continued

As we headed back to the port city of Arrecife, we quickly came upon a camel stand with, I’m guessing, 100 camels outfitted with double side seats for their passengers. Historically, this was the only way to view the Timanfaya Park we’d just been through. Today, however, this is just a tourist attraction. Having once been on a camel in Egypt years ago, one really doesn’t need to revisit that experience, so we merely stopped for some photos and yes, the camels do need to be muzzled because they are still as ornery and fowl as we remembered them.

Now we were intent on discovering if the Canary Islands could produce decent wine. Our drive took us past many beautiful estates with remarkable surrounding topography.

The vineyards I touched on yesterday are simply the most unique in appearance that we have ever seen. After a two metre deep crater is dug in the volcanic ash, one grapevine is planted at the bottom. It is allowed to sprawl out over the surface of the crater, with no staking to raise them up. Then a crescent shaped wall, three stones high is built on the crater’s edge, with the centre of the wall facing the windward direction.

These vine craters fill the valleys and creep up the hillsides in this wine country. It is truly awesome to behold!

Now, one has to question what kind of grapes can be grown in these circumstances? As it turns out, the porous lava holds morning dew and therefore gives the plants adequate moisture. But the growing season is extremely hot, dry and sunny, so the grapes must end up with a lot of residual sugar. In fact, they have had very little rain in past couple of years.

Here’s where I think we made our mistake. We were looking for dry wines. How could that be possible? We should have assumed that this was more like Madeira which makes exceptional sweet wine and tried the sweet ones, but alas no. Therefore we were disappointed in the wines we tasted, the rose being the most loathed. The red was passable, but nothing to write home about.

I would love to be here during harvest time to see how they manage to climb in and out of the craters, since clearly these crops must be handpicked.

Our final stop of the day was the Monumento al Capesina, which is a little oasis designed once again by Cesar Manrique. The monument itself symbolizes something that now escapes me, but on this site are many artistic displays, handicrafts and a huge reception hall for weddings and parties.

We arrived back at Insignia moments before the gangplank was to be withdrawn and sailed from Lanzarote shortly after 1:00. We were disappointed that our stay on this island was so brief, but like they say, “C’est la Vie!” Tonight we met a couple who had cruised 99 times. Yikes! Addiction or no life – take your pick. We also sat beside a nice couple from Frankfurt and I got to try out my very rusty German.

The evening ended with a social gathering on deck 5, featuring some more games and live music. Having failed to acquire enjoyable wine today, I made my last wine acquisition at a final wine bazaar. Tomorrow we would finally set foot on African soil.