La Geria

Arrecife

The 16th-century Castillo de San Gabriel and the Puente de las Bolas, the bridge linking it to the town.

Early January on Lanzarote: mild air, clear skies, a breeze off the ocean and long sunsets in orange and pink. The island in the northeast of the Canary archipelago has a landscape shaped by volcanoes, and a large part of its southwest was buried under lava in the eruptions of 1730–1736. The whole island has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 1993.

Teguise

The island's former capital, with the bell tower of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and white houses around the square.

Arrieta

The northeast shore at sunset, with a red house by the sea.

The first days are spent in the north. In Arrecife, the capital, the 16th-century Castillo de San Gabriel sits on an islet linked to the town by the Puente de las Bolas, a bridge with two pillars topped by stone balls. Teguise, the former capital, has white houses around its square and the volcanic stone bell tower of the church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. On the coast at Haría, at sunset, a red house stands alone by the sea.

Las Grietas

Deep cracks in old lava on the slope of a volcanic cone, wide enough to walk through.

Archipiélago Chinijo

La Graciosa seen from the northern cliffs, and the dunes at the foot of the Famara cliffs at sunset.

From the cliffs in the north of the island, the view drops to the El Río strait and to La Graciosa with its volcanic cones; the island is part of the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park, together with several uninhabited islets. Farther south, old layers of volcanic ash, worn down by the wind, are split by narrow cracks, and at Yaiza a cove of golden sand hides between cliffs. On January 6, the dunes at the foot of the Famara cliffs turn pink and orange at sunset, with the cliff face catching the last light.

Playa de Papagayo

A cove of golden sand enclosed by cliffs in the south of the island.

Famara dunes

Dunes and a long beach below the Famara cliffs in the north of Lanzarote.

Pájara

The tidal lagoon and dunes of Fuerteventura's southeast coast, below bare hills.

On January 7 the route crosses to Fuerteventura, the second-largest island in the archipelago and also a biosphere reserve. In the municipality of Pájara, on the southeast coast, the sea floods a wide lagoon of pale sand at high tide, framed by tall dunes and bare hills.

La Geria

Vines planted in pits of black lapilli behind semicircular windbreak walls, and narrow cracks in old layers of volcanic ash.

Timanfaya

The volcanic cones and lava fields of the 1730–1736 eruptions, protected as a national park.

The last day returns to Lanzarote and the landscape the island is known for. In La Geria, vines grow in pits dug into the layer of black lapilli, each one sheltered from the wind by a semicircular stone wall. Next door, Timanfaya National Park, established in 1974, preserves the red and black cones and the lava fields of the 18th-century eruptions, still almost bare of vegetation. In the evening, at Tías, the sun sets over the ocean and the lava rocks of the shore under a blazing sky.

Tías

Sunset over the ocean and the lava rocks of the south coast.