Tag Archives: Lanzarote

Rock Castles at Sunset

Carefully balanced piles of rocks line the rocky stretch of coastline by Av. Maritima around here in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.

Thanks Iga for nominating me to post an artistic photo a day for 5 days. I already had posts scheduled but I’ll post an extra one each day anyway! 🙂

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 6D
Focal length 17mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/80s

Los Jameos del Agua

This striking blue pool is part of Los Jameos del Agua built into the ground of Lanzarote using the same lava tunnel La Cueva de los Verdes that was formed by the eruption of La Corona Vulcano. Of course, César Manrique was responsible for this beautiful design.

This pool is called, “Jameo Grande”. There’s also an internal pool inside the tunnel that’s home “to over a dozen endemic species of great scientific interest” according to this site.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 6D
Focal length 17mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s

La Cueva de los Verdes

La Cueva de los Verdes is a seven kilometre long volcanic cave on the island of Lanzarote. One kilometre of it is open to the public and it’s amazing to visit. It was formed almost 5,000 years ago by lava that flowed from a volcano to the sea and it’s incredible to think of the forces and temperatures that formed the tunnel. This was my second visit to the cave. The first was with my wife, but this time my son went with me. He loved that he never had to duck down when walking through low passages! I looked forwards to taking this photo the whole day.

What’s really annoying however is tourists who don’t know how to use their cameras. A teenage girl with a DSLR stood next to me taking photos using the flash on her camera. I bet none of her photos captured the beautiful light show as the cavern was quite large and it was very dark. This photo was a 13 second exposure, at f/4.0, ISO 100. Luckily there was a particularly flat rock where I could rest my camera. Unfortunately for her she wasn’t speaking English but as I left I told another photographer to put his camera down in the same place and turn off the flash to get the best shot.

You can find more information on the cave here, here and of course on Wikipedia.

The Cueva de los Verdes stretches underground from the volcano known as “La Corona” through to the sea on the north east coast. The tunnel was blasted through the earth under the effect of exploding lava more than four millenia ago, rather like an enormous exhaust pipe.
Within recent years, the island government and the local authority of Haria have carried out extensive work on the cave, providing illumination, ambient music and safe pathways for the interested visitor. An hour–long guided tour covering more than two kilometres of underground exploration, includes an explanation of the legends of the cave, plus a sound and light show.

If you ever visit Lanzarote it’s definitely worth visiting!

PS. if you know the story behind this scene, keep it to yourself. Don’t spoil it for future visitors who might come by this post! 🙂

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 6D
Focal length 17mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 13s

Sunrise in Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca lies on the southern coast of the island of Lanzarote. It’s a beautiful town, built entirely with tourism in mind.

Sunrise wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. The sun is blocked by the new Rubicon Marina (it’s so new that Google Maps thought we were swimming in the sea when we were walking around the shops and stalls there!) until it rises a few degrees above the horizon but it did light up the clouds floating high above my head long before it rose in the distance.

In the other direction from where I stood is an extinct volcano. Unluckily for me I didn’t look at the “photos of nearby attractions” in Google Now until the last evening when I saw an amazing sunset over that volcano. Unfortunately the sun had already gone down which means I’ll have to go back there again. What I go through for my photography. The pain and suffering…

Hotel Los Fariones

Snow? Ice? Cold rain and biting wind? What are you talking about? Look at the sunshine streaming down through the palm trees! The swimming pool is nice and refreshing.

I can dream can’t I? This is the view from our room in Hotel Los Fariones in Puerto Del Carmen. Lovely hotel, and while we were there in May 2006 it was nice and quiet. Breakfast is great, although their sausages tasted strange and I still remember that almost 3 years later. Beds were *very* hard. My wife and I had to get a massage by the end of our stay to get rid of the aches and pains from lying on them.

By the last weekend it was busier and I swear, I know it’s an urban myth, but I heard German tourists rushing out to put their towels on the pool loungers first thing in the morning. Looks like I’m not the only one to experience this early morning rush:

  1. Sun lounger towel annexation declared illegal
  2. German sun lounger issue settled
  3. Sun lounger law rules towels illegal
  4. If I actually used the loungers much (I prefered to use them in the late afternoon when it was cooler) I should have followed the advice in the comments here.

    The trick to beating this tactic and not having to deal with the angry sunbather when they return is to leave the towel on the ground and move the entire chair somewhere else.

Camera dDP series

Puerto Del Carmen Boats

I could post a photo of the snow that fell this morning in Blarney but I think everyone is sick of the cold weather. Instead here’s a photo from my honeymoon in Lanzarote. This was taken in Puerto Del Carmen on a roasting hot day when even the ground was too hot to touch!

More sunny photos to follow! 🙂

Aperture ƒ/5
Camera DMC-FZ5
Focal length 6mm
ISO 80
Shutter speed 1/400s
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