Timanfaya National Park

Have you ever been in Mars? Would you like to discover a place full of volcanoes named “Land of Fire” in an island with true charm and closer than you would imagine?

If you are attracted to the idea then the only thing you have to do is get to the marvelous island of Lanzarote. There you will find really incredible surroundings inside the Timanfaya National Park.

It is located southeast of the island, in the municipality of Yaiza, and we find there a surface that leaves you speechless. As you walk towards the park, you discover how the earth becomes blacker and redder, in a land of porous rocks, where nobody would be capable of walking.

The volcano route is a route I did, in summer, going from Hilario, which is included in the price that the visitor pays at the entrance of the touristic center in the Timanfaya National Park.

At the entrance of the park we can see de symbol of a small devil, a piece by the local sculptor, César Manrige. Once you have your ticket, we park the car in a place where there is a restaurant and where they do the “fire test” and “geyser”, throwing a bucket of cold water into a volcanic tube, from where a jet of hot water instantly comes out.

Next, the buses are the only ones that can take you to the volcano route, which is about 14 kilometers, in a beautiful landscape where we admire different types of lavas, volcanic tubes, etc. More than beautiful, I would say its “Martian”, since you feel as if you are in a different planet.

Timanfaya defies expectations. As soon as you enter the park, you're sent down a long, solitary road which cuts a striking line through the massive black field of jagged volcanic rock formations. You get the distinct feeling of being very, very small.

The visitors center is basically a restaurant and gift shop, but they put on some pretty entertaining shows. Temperatures reach hundreds of degrees only a few feet below the surface, a fact that park workers gleefully demonstrate by creating man-made geysers (the audience's reaction to the loud "pop" is always fun) and even cooking food on grills over volcanic vents.