While planning the trip to Lanzarote, one of the "must see" was the Timanfaya National Park. I read about it on the official site and several forums, and everyone seemed to agree that, eventhough the landscape of the mountains of fire is impresive, as it is a protected area, you are not allowed to walk on your own, and you have to take the official tour by bus, which you have to queue for and they dont let you get down the bus to take pictures. So, I looked for another alternative activity, that allow us to see the park from other perspective and I found the route to the volcanoes Caldereta and Caldera Blanca, just in the edge of the park, and open to the public.
Al pasar por el desvío al parque, la cola de entrada era ya considerable, y eso que eran apenas las 9 de la mañana. Después me alegraría de haber cambiado la visita. La carretera en sí, ya es todo un espectáculo, pues va entre rios de lava a un lado y otro, con los volcanes al fondo.
When we pass by the exit to the park, the car line was huge, and it was only 9 am. Im glad I changed the plans. The road trip is espectacular, because it is carved between rivers of lava, with the volcanos at the end of the road.
Llegamos a la zona de parking y apenas había unos cuantos coches, así que el camino sería tranquilo.
La ruta en sí, no es demasiado complicada, y eso que nuestro estado de forma es casi negativo, pero hubo algún tramo bastante duro, que superamos al más puro estilo "Dora la exploradora", ataviados con buen calzado, gorras y bebida y comida de sobra.
We got to the parking zone with a few cars, so the day seemed to be ok
The route itself is not very much complicated, and we have an almost negative physical form, but there was some sections a bit harder, that we accomplished like we were "Dora the explorer", with good shoes, caps and plenty of food and water.
Nuestro objetivo eran los volcanes monogénicos (formados por una sóla erupción volcánica) La Caldereta y Caldera Blanca. Éste último con un cráter de más de 1 km. de diámetro y el más grande de la isla.
Our goal was to reach La Caldereta and Caldera Blanca, 2 monogenics volcanoes (formed from an only volcanic explosion). This last one, has a crown over 1 km. diameter and the biggest of the island.
La primera parte del sendero está muy bien definida, avanzando entre coladas (o malpaís, como lo llaman en la isla) de lava sobre piedra suelta. Hay carteles informativos en la ruta de cómo se formaron los volcanes (hace 2 millones de años) y los rios de piedra fundida que vamos recorriendo, que fueron producto de la erupción de Timanfaya en el siglo XVIII.
The first part of the path is very well marked, going forward between lava streams (or malpaís, as it is called in the Canary Islands). There are informative signals in the path that tells how the volcanos were created (2 millions years ago) and the lava flows that were created from the eruption of Timanfaya back in the XVIII century.
