This morning began with a bit of good news. We heard that the strike was over and all of the major tourist attractions are open again. This news changes our day because now we get to visit a couple of the more famous attractions.
Breakfast was served at the hotel around 8:30 and I told myself the entire twenty minute walk that I was only going to eat a piece of fruit and nothing else because I was still full from last night. That lasted about five seconds when we walked into this eating area and the entire room was covered with a buffet. This breakfast buffet wasn’t quite Shoney’s but it was a sight to see. There was every kind of fruit from the islands, a bread station, a cereal station, a hot food station, some homemade jelly (that is not quite as good as Kay Fulton’s blackberry jelly but still very good), some smoked salmon, etc etc etc. We all ate more food than we needed. Towards the end of the meal, Marcos came in and gave us our registration materials and told us that we didn’t need to go to any of the conference sessions today and that we were free until 1:30 pm when we would be heading out for our excursion. With the weather outside overcast, we decided to hang around the hotel and enjoy some of the luxuries that are afforded at a 5 star hotel. We did some shopping and caught up on emails and found a newspaper that had written an article about our visit to the Cabildo from yesterday.
Before we knew it, it was 1:30 and we were supposed to be out front of the hotel for our guagua to take us to the different sights of the city. While we were standing out front, Catherine turned to me and said that she thought the man standing beside her was Michael Dukakis of failed presidential candidacy fame. We looked at the man closely and mentioned this to the receptionist and she said it was him. Apparently, there is some sort of economic development activity that the US is planning to do with the Canaries/Morocco and we think that he might be the representative handling these issues. We never spoke to him because the receptionist said that he did not want to be bothered but it was neat to see someone from the states that we recognized.
Soon after, we loaded the bus and headed out to see some sites. We went straight to El Campo, a local restaurant where about 350 Rotarians were to eat lunch. We had a tabled reserved for us and sat down to more food. The wine started flowing and our stomachs filled up with octopus, tuna, mojo sauce, little whole fish (again) and much more. Tong really liked the fish.
After lunch, we loaded the buses again and most of us took advantage of the trip up the mountain to catch a little shut eye as we were up late the night before (as well as every night since we left Greenville). Most of us woke up to our arrival at Mirador del Rio. This is a site that we had visited earlier this week but did not get to see the entire place because of the strike. We walked inside a building designed by Manrique and were amazed by the view. 
This is the place that overlooks a smaller island called La Graciosa and the view was spectacular. 
We took a view pictures and were herded like cats back onto the bus. Again, we all closed our eyes and awoke at Jameo del Agua. This place was extra special. The process by which this place was created is very hard to comprehend but I will try to explain. When lava flows from the volcano over a period of time, the part on the top solidifies…once that is done, the river of lava below it continues to flow until it all runs out typically into the ocean. Sometime in the history of the island, a volcano erupted in this part of the islands and this process occurred. The area where the river of lava was flowing eventually became open space and over a period of time, the upper area became weakened and caved in. This open space was discovered by Cesar Manrique and he turned it into a piece of art/modern gathering place. The area under the surface is home to a small lake type body of water that is supplied water by the ocean. It is also home to a rare form of small albino crab that can be only seen here in Lanzarote because in this area, they have never been exposed to light…Our guide told us that they exist elsewhere in the world but can only be seen here. We walked around this beautiful area all the rest of the afternoon. The amazing part about this place was that most of it was created by nature…Manrique just did a little cleaning up and created a wonderful place within Mother Nature. 
The pictures that we all took do not do the place any justice but you will just have to take my word for it that it was magnificent. 
By the time we had finished walking around this place, the time was around 8 pm and we were supposed to be at the Pirate Party at 9. The guide made a few changes and we were told as we were dropped off at the hotel that we needed to be back at 9:45 for a great adventure…
Breakfast was served at the hotel around 8:30 and I told myself the entire twenty minute walk that I was only going to eat a piece of fruit and nothing else because I was still full from last night. That lasted about five seconds when we walked into this eating area and the entire room was covered with a buffet. This breakfast buffet wasn’t quite Shoney’s but it was a sight to see. There was every kind of fruit from the islands, a bread station, a cereal station, a hot food station, some homemade jelly (that is not quite as good as Kay Fulton’s blackberry jelly but still very good), some smoked salmon, etc etc etc. We all ate more food than we needed. Towards the end of the meal, Marcos came in and gave us our registration materials and told us that we didn’t need to go to any of the conference sessions today and that we were free until 1:30 pm when we would be heading out for our excursion. With the weather outside overcast, we decided to hang around the hotel and enjoy some of the luxuries that are afforded at a 5 star hotel. We did some shopping and caught up on emails and found a newspaper that had written an article about our visit to the Cabildo from yesterday.
Before we knew it, it was 1:30 and we were supposed to be out front of the hotel for our guagua to take us to the different sights of the city. While we were standing out front, Catherine turned to me and said that she thought the man standing beside her was Michael Dukakis of failed presidential candidacy fame. We looked at the man closely and mentioned this to the receptionist and she said it was him. Apparently, there is some sort of economic development activity that the US is planning to do with the Canaries/Morocco and we think that he might be the representative handling these issues. We never spoke to him because the receptionist said that he did not want to be bothered but it was neat to see someone from the states that we recognized.
Soon after, we loaded the bus and headed out to see some sites. We went straight to El Campo, a local restaurant where about 350 Rotarians were to eat lunch. We had a tabled reserved for us and sat down to more food. The wine started flowing and our stomachs filled up with octopus, tuna, mojo sauce, little whole fish (again) and much more. Tong really liked the fish.
After lunch, we loaded the buses again and most of us took advantage of the trip up the mountain to catch a little shut eye as we were up late the night before (as well as every night since we left Greenville). Most of us woke up to our arrival at Mirador del Rio. This is a site that we had visited earlier this week but did not get to see the entire place because of the strike. We walked inside a building designed by Manrique and were amazed by the view. This is the place that overlooks a smaller island called La Graciosa and the view was spectacular. We took a view pictures and were herded like cats back onto the bus. Again, we all closed our eyes and awoke at Jameo del Agua. This place was extra special. The process by which this place was created is very hard to comprehend but I will try to explain. When lava flows from the volcano over a period of time, the part on the top solidifies…once that is done, the river of lava below it continues to flow until it all runs out typically into the ocean. Sometime in the history of the island, a volcano erupted in this part of the islands and this process occurred. The area where the river of lava was flowing eventually became open space and over a period of time, the upper area became weakened and caved in. This open space was discovered by Cesar Manrique and he turned it into a piece of art/modern gathering place. The area under the surface is home to a small lake type body of water that is supplied water by the ocean. It is also home to a rare form of small albino crab that can be only seen here in Lanzarote because in this area, they have never been exposed to light…Our guide told us that they exist elsewhere in the world but can only be seen here. We walked around this beautiful area all the rest of the afternoon. The amazing part about this place was that most of it was created by nature…Manrique just did a little cleaning up and created a wonderful place within Mother Nature. The pictures that we all took do not do the place any justice but you will just have to take my word for it that it was magnificent. By the time we had finished walking around this place, the time was around 8 pm and we were supposed to be at the Pirate Party at 9. The guide made a few changes and we were told as we were dropped off at the hotel that we needed to be back at 9:45 for a great adventure…
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