Arrecife on the East Coast of Lanzarote

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A glorious sunny day even for November in these parts. Arrecife is pretty in that all the houses are maximum 2 storey and they are all painted white or cream by law. The island has very little rain and is volcanic. Between 1730 and 1736, multiple eruptions from the volcanoes covered the island in volcanic ash and lava. The cereal crops were all destroyed and those of the population who were left decided to plant vines. A 3-metre hole is dug down to the original soil and a single vine planted. This is covered at the base by volcanic ash and a small lava wall built around. The ash absorbs any moisture there is from the air. There are fields of these vine holes around the bases of the volcanoes. We visited two of the vineries for a tasting. The wines have a distinct flavour which is not to my taste, but the lovely meat platter supplied with the wine was gorgeous! The vineries provide wine for local consumption, and none is exported. They were lucky in that the phylloxera which destroyed the grapes on the mainland did not reach here.

Because the rainfall is so small, there is a huge desalination plant which supplies water to the population. Any rainwater is collected in houses and passed through a pot filter which adds the minerals to make it drinkable. A small fort on the coast was there to protect against pirates who did invade the island up until the 18th century. What they hoped to find in this desolate landscape I cannot imagine. If you like volcanoes this is a great place to visit. The other thing of note is that the artist Cesar Manrique built a house here and the island is covered with many of his sculptures. We had seen the Foundation on a previous visit and is well worth seeing.

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