The Lanzarote Story

This is a travel book with a difference. Lanzarote is unlike anywhere else on earth, with its beautiful climate, jaw-dropping scenery and dramatic volcanic history. Three hundred years ago, the island suffered the longest and most brutal volcanic eruption the planet has ever seen - it was a raging cauldron for six years - and yet today Lanzarote is a holiday paradise. This book takes a close look at the 1730-36 eruptions, seeing them through the eyes of the parish priest at Yaiza, who kept a diary as the sky rained fire and molten rock. We also meet Lancelotto Malocello, the man after whom the island is named, and examine the bizarre events that led him here. Without giving the plot away, he was searching for two Genoese businessmen who had gone missing twenty years earlier, shortly after they had set sail to find India. They had no sea captain and no navigator - just a couple of monks whose job it was to pray them to their destination. Coming up to date, we take a tour of the island as it is today, driving a full circle through the tourist centres of Playa Blanca, Costa Teguise and Puerto del Carmen, up to Orzola in the north, and working our way back down through the vineyards and lava fields of the west, where the temperature below the earth's surface still bubbles away at a toasty 600 degrees. Whether you are visiting Lanzarote for a holiday, or have an interest in the geology and history of the island, you will find something here to delight you.