This weekend, we began our trip to the Canary Islands of Spain--the island of Lanzarote (the islands are located far south of Spain close to the African coast). Most of the islands consist of volcanoes and it has made for some of the most fascinating sightings and we've only been here a day...below are some of these incredible sights that could only be described (attempted to be captured) by the photos below.
1. Olivine
When a volcano erupts, it often erupts giant pieces of lava rock or volcanic bombs that turn to rock in the air as they fall back down to ground and inside these rocks can be found the mineral Olivine which is often used for jewelry and such things as seen below from a vendor in the Volcanic national park here on Lanzarote Island.
2. Volcano Crater
One of the craters we saw from atop another volcano.
3. Crater Lake
A green lake filling what was once the crater of a volcano.
4. Volcanic Cliffs
These cliffs were once moving lava and now have cooled and look absolutely stunning.
5. Restaurant Built On a Volcano
This restaurant is built on a volcano surrounded by volcanoes in every window-side view and they dug down into the volcano a deep hole that they use to cook their food as they've placed a grill over the hole and the heat from below the volcano rises up to cook food.
6. A House Built In a Volcano
Cesar Manrique was the individual that basically designed the entire island from the architecture to the arts and the tourism industry here and his first home that we visited (he has 2) was built in a volcano...the rooms were once volcanic bubbles and all the walls and floors and ceilings are volcanic rock.
7. How do you grow grapes on a volcano?
The Spanish have figured out how grow grapes on volcanoes to make some of the best wine in the world. They protect the grapes making small semi-circular walls of volcanic rock and somehow through some technicalities I don't understand completely, it works and each wall is made by hand and everything harvested by hand (imagine hundreds of miles of these little walls protecting the grapes along the volcanoes).
