Grand Africa Cruise - Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

Cruise Day 10

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – J.A. Shedd

Today we are visiting Arrecife on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. 

The Canary Islands is a Spanish autonomous community located 62 miles west of Morocco at its closest point.  It is an archipelago consisting of seven main islands and many more smaller islands and islets.  Its population of 2.2 million makes it the most populous of the European Union special territories.  Most of the islands have a hot and arid climate.  The Canary Islands were inhabited by an indigenous people at least 2000 years ago and they may have been there 1000 years earlier.  The islands were discovered by the Romans between 29 BC and 20 AD, but gained prominence and were settled in the 15th century.

The Canary Islands are located 62 miles west of Morocco at their closest point.

We are docked in Arrecife, about half way down the east coast.

Flag of the Canary Islands.

We didn’t dock until 11:00 AM today and our tour didn’t start until 11:30 so we were able to sleep in this morning and catch up on our sleep; it was nice not to lose an hour last night.  After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we got our things together for our tour today and then watched our arrival into Arrecife.  Lanzarote looks very arid, especially when compared to the lush Madeira we visited yesterday.  The good thing was that there were no clouds in the sky and the temperature was very moderate.  As is often the case, we docked in an industrial area with our main view being a huge asphalt area with the town off in the distance.

Arriving in Arrecife

Today we are doing a ship excursion called Hidden Lanzarote that will take us to various spots around the island.  We went to the World Stage to wait for our tour to be called and were soon on the bus and on our way.  As we drove though Arrecife and some other small towns along the way it was very noticeable that all the buildings are white and built in the style of what I’m going to call Colonial European; whether that’s the actual style or not, I don’t know, but it is very similar to the Azores, Madeira and now here.

Our first stop was the town of Teguise, the former capital of Lanzarote.  We got off the bus in the center of town and after our guide talked about the history and other interesting information of the area, we had time to walk around on our own.  Val and I explored a bit visiting a few of the shops where I found my obligatory t-shirt for the Canary Islands and Val found a nice pair of earrings she liked.

Val talking to our guide.

From Tequise we drove to the highest point of the island that was only 2500 feet.  It was apparent that Lanzarote is a volcanic island as there is volcanic rock and stone everywhere.  Because of the poor soil and arid climate there isn’t much agriculture on the island and we saw very few trees.  When driving over the highest point on the island, our guide pointed out what was considered a forest on the island, but it really was only a few trees.

These are a few views from the bus.

As you can see, all of the buildings on the island are white.

Our next stop was an aloe vera farm in the town of Punta Mujeres that turned out to be very interesting.  Val knew about it, but I had no idea where aloe came from and found it quite interesting especially learning the various uses of aloe.  When Val’s sister, Vicki, heard we were going to an aloe farm, she asked Val to bring her back some hand cream so we went into the store and bought some for her.

Our last stop of the day was the Cesar Manrique’s Jardin de Cactus which is home to more than 1500 cacti and at least 100 species from Lanzerote, Madagascar and the Americas.  To be honest, I didn’t expect much here, but this was very interesting and the cacti were amazing, I had no idea there were so many shapes and sizes.  We spent quite a while looking around before returning to the bus.

We did have some bad news before we left; Val found that one of her brand new earrings had fallen off sometime during the afternoon.  When we got back on the bus, I found the inner part of it on the seat, but we looked all over and could not find the most important part.  It was pretty disappointing for Val as they were very nice and unique, but hopefully she’ll find another, more interesting pair as we travel further on this trip.

From the Cactus garden, it was a 15 minute drive back to Arrecife and the ship.  After getting back on the ship, the first order of business was getting something to eat as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast.  We headed to the Neptune Lounge for some snacks to hold us until dinner and then returned to our room.  You never know what you’re going to get from a tour after reading the description, but often, as was the case today, it turns out to be much more than expected.  Today we had low expectations, but really enjoyed the tour and are glad we did it.

Tomorrow we will be in Agadir, Morocco and Val and I booked a ship excursion that will take us for an overnight stay in Marrakech and then return to the ship the next day in Casablanca.  We started our packing and also had to fill out some paperwork for Moroccan customs.  We also found out that we have a face to face meeting with the customs officials tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM with our passports and paperwork.  Then we have to wait around while they go ashore, process our clearance and then return to the ship to return our now stamped passports.  Oh well, our favorite thing, another early rising.

Having taken care of all of our immigration stuff and packing, we decided to go out on the Lido deck for sail away.  We were surprised that there weren’t many people out there, but we got our unleaded margaritas and headed over to the railing to watch the ship leave Arrecife.  We quickly found out why no one was out there; it was VERY windy and even a bit chilly.  We stuck it out long enough to finish our drinks and then headed back to the shelter of our cabin.

We relaxed until it was time for dinner and then completed the evening with our usual routine of dinner in the dining room and then the casino.  It was early to bed as we have a very early morning tomorrow.