Costa Teguise; Friday, 26 November, 2021

I had a late breakfast and then headed out of the hotel to the bus stop to catch the bus out to the village of Tahiche and the home that César Manrique built for himself in the lava flows including using some of the volcanic lava bubbles to create rooms below the earths surface.

Today the home is owned by the Fundación César Manrique who carry on his work in protecting the built and natural environment of Lanzarote. It’s thanks to their work that the island doesn’t have the strips of high rise hotels that are more familiar on the other Canary Islands and mainland Spain. The house and studio have been turned into an exhibition on the life of the artist as well as giving an opportunity to wander around the traditional surface level house and the bizarre world carved out from the lava below, it really does look like the evil masterminds underground volcano lair

I spent quite some time looking around the house and museum, and managed to time my exit just at the point where there were no buses down into Arrecife – my next destination - for some considerable time, so instead I hopped on a bus heading up into Teguise to have a quick wander round there before picking up the southbound bus back down to Arrecife.

I had a long walk through Arrecife from the bus station down to the sea front and the Castillo de San Gabriel.

This small fortification on the sea front was one of the first places I’d visited when I came to Lanzarote in 2020, but even then it had already been closed because of Covid, so I’d come back to have a look round.

Thankfully it was open, though there was a bit of a queue as it’s a little cramped inside and they need to limit numbers, and due to the weather it wasn’t possible to go up onto the roof of the fort, but I was still able to look round the inside of the building, which is actually the city’s historical museum.

After looking round the museum and castle in general I wandered back along the coast, past the Gran hotel and spa which had been my lockdown prison for my last trip and onto the Intercambriador – the small bus station located nearby, to pick up the bus back into Costa Teguise and my hotel.

I appear to have timed it all quite well as a very heavy shower passed over whilst I was sat on the bus and it was just down to a mild drizzle when I made it back to Costa Teguise, but I was still slightly damp by the time I made it back to the hotel, so rather than head back out again into the rain I just relaxed in my room until it was time to head down for dinner.