The Moscatel vines in La Geria

La Geria is an extraordinary place, it’s the symbol of the humans’ fight in eagerness against nature in order to survive. I try to understand the anger of the people living in the areas affected by the volcano eruptions during 1730-1736; they used to live in the most fertile area of the island, now they see their land covered by lava and tiny volcanic rocks.

The vines situated in the cones, covered by the tiny volcanic rocks, called picón, and which are protected of the wind by the volcanic stone walls, must now replace in the population of La Geria, the anger of their ancestors, by the pride of the hard work of innovation and by the satisfaction of seeing so many visitants, who discover daily, each corner of this beautiful island, admiring their work.

La Geria

  The Malmsey, the black or white “Listán”, the “Breval”, all these varieties grow in these cones of picón. However, there is a well beloved variety here in Lanzarote, called the Muscatel, which by their specific characteristics of length and luxuriance of its raceme need to grow in trellised vines.

Wine Museum El Grifo

It was a big challenge, if the vines rose, the wind would destroy them, and increasing the height of the protecting walls was not very useful, so they opted to lower the ground and the solution they found was to put the vines in the volcanic bubbles which exist between the lava flows which cover the valley.

Muscatel vines in a  volcanic bubble  (Chaboco) 

In order to see these muscatel vines, there’s nothing better than to visit the Museum of Wine in Las Bodegas El Grifo, where they have recently prepared a small route through the property owned by the museum. Here they show us various volcanic bubbles or small holes (Chabocos) which used to be volcanoes and now contain centenary vines of large dimensions.

Inside of a Chaboco (volcanic bubble)

The spectacle is worth seeing, all of them are impressive, but my favourite are 2. In one of them you can access the inside of the hole of what used to be a volcano in order to see the large branches of the vines from the bottom. And according to the owners, years ago, family picnics used to take place here.

Chaboco (volcanic bubble) with door

The other vine which astonishes me is one in which the protective wall is very tall, more than 2 metres high and is totally closed, in exception to an opening where a door is missing. Following this, we are told by the same source, D. Fermín Rodríguez-Bethencourt, the old owner of the wine cellars, that here he used to have a lemon tree, to which he did not allow anyone to come near to, and even less to take that precious fruit. That’s why he had it locked with a door.

You can find all this and much more in our Rutas de Lanzarote.

Translation: Yaiza De Andrés and Hanna De Andrés

‘Playa del Paso’- Beach of ‘El Paso’

When we visit the national park of Timanfaya we normally feel the desire to walk through the lava fields, to lose ourselves in the black lava fields but, and it’s logical, a prohibition makes us forget about the idea, however, there is a solution for this.

Plano de Accese a La Playa del Paso

There is a path that crosses the park from north to south by the seaside which is permitted to access. It’s the path which goes from El Golfo to La Playa de la Madera, in the municipality of Tinajo, this takes a 5 hour walk, besides, you have to walk very carefully because the way is all surrounded by lava and you must continuously look at where you put your feet, this makes it difficult to appreciate the landscape, so we’ll recommend a more practical solution.

Islote (small barren island) in Timanfaya

Instead of entering El Golfo, if we drive down the road which joins Yaiza and El Golfo, right at the top of the hill which reaches the crossing with the road which joins Golfo with Los Hervideros, there is a lane which takes us to the north. If we take this road, after one Km, we will find the entry to the Natural Park (P.N) Timanfaya and if we continue 800 metres more, just after passing a beautiful house (jealousies aside) perfectly integrated in the landscape, we will find an area where we can leave the car without disturbing anyone.

vegetation

The path we must wander is wide and unpaved, nearly like a road, in fact, it’s not difficult to come across a SUV owned by the guards of the park. A gentle descent allows us to have a relaxing walk, so we are able to enjoy the view and the contrasts of the colours. Going through the south edge of the park, we can imagine how the explosions were.

El Paso Beach

We can see the volcanoes, the lava flows, the ‘malpais’ which is the eroded land covered by lava, the small holes in the ground which give out heat coming from the volcanoes called ‘islotes’ but also the ‘tabaibas’ (a type of cactus with green leaves) and the gorses, which timidly start to colonize the park.

If we continue our walk till the end, we will reach the beautiful beach called Playa del Paso where the black sand and the sea crashing against the rocks make this place unforgettable. Let’s relax and enjoy this marvel and even though the swimming is not recommended due to the strength with which the sea hits the coast and the lack of vigilance and services, we can always wet our feet.

cliffs

A few hundred metres before the beach, we will have encountered a deviation to the right with a sign which will take us to the beach of el Cochino. Here begins the route of the littoral, which leads us to the beach of La Madera in the limit north of the Park.

As we have said, this excursion is long and uncomfortable, therefore if we want to appreciate the marvellous views which result in the invasion of the lava in the sea, we could just tour the first part of this path which ends at the first cliffs, where if the sea hits the coast with strength, Sea and Lava represent a dreamy show of colours, sounds and splashes.

The Path

The way back to the car is uphill but the power which the fantastic spectacle of this wild nature has impregnated on us will make with comments, memories and exclamations, the journey extremely short.

El Golfo from Timanfaya

After the 2 – 2 ½  hours of excursion, we can lead towards the nearby town of El Golfo and it can be in either the Costa Azul, El Bogavante, Casa Torano or in any other restaurant that we will be able to taste fresh fish in an environment which isn`t worse than that from the excursion.

You can find all this and much more in our guides for IPhone, IPad and ITouch.

Traduction: Yaiza De Andrés and Hanna De Andrés