Lanzarote 4 April 2006

Sad news on the BBC TV news channel about more people trying to reach the Canaries by boat from Africa. Four vessels carrying 164 people between them. The Canary Islands are the new ‘favourite’ destination for thousands of Africans hoping to make a new life in Europe. This year there has been a 200 per cent rise in the number of immigrants trying their luck in small boats from Mauritania. More than 3,500 have been detained, but who knows how many have perished at sea. Puts my sea sickness troubles in perspective.

Smooth sailing, thank goodness to Arrecife. F and I bolted off the ship and negotiated a taxi. The taxi driver insisted that he would take us on a 3 hour tour of the north of the island for 80 euros but I was able to explain in made up Spanish that we only had 2 hours before we had to be back on board for F’s next lecture on the history of garden design. We only wanted to go to El Jardin Cactus so he had to make do with 20 euro. Being a man of limited height he slide his car seat so close that he could just about turn the steering wheel. What he lacked in height he made up for with speed so that we got to the cactus garden 45 minutes before it opened. Please note fellow travellers it opens at 10am! There is a bus service but we did not see a single bus and the timetable was bleached by the sun. So all I can tell you is that there maybe a bus once an hour, once a day or month!

This panoramic image is of a field surrounding the cactus garden. Prickly pears are grown in vast quantitites on Lanzarote primarily for the encouragement of cochineal beetles which feast on the plant and produce red dye from their crushed bodies – yum.