July 2013 - 2 weeks in Lanzarote

Weather-wise: we arrived and departed to perfect blue still skies. In between, however, we saw wind, clouds and even a little rain, but the afternoons always seems to be the best part with mostly sunshine (albeit quite windy). (We had access to the BBC and saw that the UK was basking in sunshine for most of the time we were there! Grrrr....) Visit-wise: in our little Renault Twingo we travelled the length and breadth of the island a few times, enjoying the genius of Cesar Manrique, visiting such places as: his amazing houses with their lava cave rooms at Jameos Del Aqua (Punta Mujeres) and Fundacion Cesar Manrique (Costa Teguise), the inspired Jardin de Cactus, and the Museo de Arte Contemporneo housed in the Castillo de San Jos at Arrecife. More underground lava caves at Cueva de los Verdes and continuing the volcanic theme (you can't really get away from it on Lanza), saw the vine-growing in the black volcanic soil cones protected by the black dry-stone walls at La Geria, visited El Lago Verde at El Golfo (where Raquel Welch once ran from dinosaurs in a prehistoric bikini), Timanfaya National Park where we took a Dromedary ride, climbed Montana Roja (Playa Blanca). We visited the perfect Lanzarote village of Yaiza, saw the views over Famara, "enjoyed" the hair-raising drive from Los Valles to Haria where we could then relax midst the palm trees. Beach-wise (aka nude-wise): staying at Playa Blanca, our preferred beach was the second sandy beach (moving N to S) on the West of the Papagayo peninsula; although mostly textiles, the north corner of this beach had a few naturists which we joined (we noticed the beach became more nude as the day got longer). We tended to go there later in the day after doing the tourist bits and it was cooler then. We also ventured to the East of the peninsula (thanks to the suggestion of lanz_paul on Truenudists), where we enjoyed some nude time in the (fairly hard to get to) coves; we were quite alone here and could do whatever we pleased. Took some great photos here and watch out for some videos of Jo fishing in the rock pools. We visited Famara beach (in the North) on a somewhat cloudy day; despite that there were a few people on the beach but we only saw 2 other nude people along the whole stretch of this expansive beach... not great. But we pitched our towels in a dry-stone wall curve in the dunes and relaxed nude for a while, and we finally took a nude swim although it was fairly rough. We did visit the "nude village" Charco de Paulo which was quite disappointing: we did not see anyone wandering about nude in the village, and the cove part, although with some nudes, looked a little run-down and uninviting. The final beach we visited was Caleto Blanco in the north near Orzola; here the brilliant white sands contrast with the black volcanic rocks and pebbles; again no nudity here, but we located in a remote black dry-stone wall curve and got nude regardless (well, no-one complained despite some seeing). Overall, Lanzarote was fun and lovely place to spend a couple of weeks... we would not mind a couple more...