Lanzarote South

The Green Lagoon.

We went on the South Tour the next day, which was even more exciting than the Northern one from the day before. We passed the salt mines where the salt is extracted from the water and went to the Green Lagoon. This Lagoon was formed by an explosion when a nearby vulcano errupted and the lava mixed with the sea water. The green colour comes from Algae which started to grow in  the lagoon.

The area El Golfo, where you can find the Green Lagoon, is a very nice, peaceful place and if you wish, you can take a ferry to Fuerto Ventura from here.

On the way to the National Park, you can use the opportunity for a camel ride. We found it more interesting to watch the procedure of getting the people out of their shaking baskets, which had to be done very carefully, otherwise the whole camel with its riders could have collapsed.
The camels were brought in from Africa about 600 years ago and used for hard work to transport heavy stones, that's why their bodies changed , they got smaller, but stronger.

Now we were on the way into the Fire Mountains in the National Park.

Before we entered the National Park, we viewed two experiments,
the one on the right hand side was an experiment with water, which was poured into a hole, where the internal earth temperature  was over
400degrees C, that's why it needed only 2 seconds for the water to convert into damp.

They used only dry twigs for this experiment, which were thrown into a hole and it lit by itself within seconds, as the earth temperature in this hole reaches about 250 degrees C.

 Now we are finally driving through the  National
Park. You are not allowed to drive through with
your private car, you have to use a bus and you are
not allowed to get out of it at any stage, as long as
you are in the protected area. The roads are very narrow
and steep in places, sometimes  I thought "oh God, I hope the
driver knows what he is doing and brings us home safely!

We were totally amazed and overvelmed by this strange looking landscape, you nearly would get the impression you are on another planet. I bet if film directors would be allowed to make science fiction movies there, that Park would be very busy, but we were told that every foot step would stay for years or even decades, which means that this extraordinary landscape would be destroyed soon and so it is understandable, that it has to be protected to keeep its natural beauty.

Fotos by Margit Anna Binder