“Wherever he saw a hole he always wanted to know the depth of it. To him this was important.” – Jules Verne – ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’
After the drive to the west of the island to Timanfaya we had the knackered old jeep at our disposal for another day and this time travelled north along the eastern coast to visit the volcanic caves just north of Arrecife.
It is a rather odd thing but people seem to like to go below the surface of the earth and go down caves and caverns, grottoes and mines and I have to say that I am no exception. I used to live near the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire (UK) and would go down the Blue John mines near Buxton pretty much every year. Well, the guide book pointed out some caves in Lanzarote so that is where we made for today.
La Cueva de los Verdes is what is known as a lava tube and was created around three-thousand years ago by lava flows from the nearby volcano Monte Corona, flowing across the Malpaís de la Corona toward the sea. The lava streams cooled on top, developing a solid crust, before the lava drained away leaving the top part as the roof of a cave. In a number of places along the tube the roof of the cave collapsed, forming a cavern known locally as a jameo.
The cave system at Cueva de los Verdes is around six kilometres long and claimed to be the longest lava tube in the World but I am willing to wager that somewhere else in the World will be making exactly the same claim!
Visitors can take a tour along about a kilometre of illuminated path and so we handed over our money and prepared to leave the sunshine and like Otto Lidenbrock in ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ * descend below the surface.
We followed our guide through an intriguing maze of gigantic caves, carved by lava and gnawed by erosion, through a succession of caverns and galleries with lighting displays arranged to illuminate the colours of the rocks and the eerie shadows that they cast. As usual in underground caves he kept pointing out natural sculptures that, with a lot of imagination, had a resemblance to familiar icons – the Madonna and Child (several times), Bulls, Matadors and famous Spanish Kings and Queens.
After an hour or so we returned blinking to the surface and drove the short distance to nearby Jameos del Agua and prepared to go straight underground again.
This time we descended steeply down a flight of steps and arrived in a rather gloomy café area where we stopped for a drink and an overpriced bocadillo before continuing into the cave. There was a walk now along a narrow path on one side of a flooded cavern where in the water the main attraction were hundreds of blind albino crabs, apparently the only ones like it in the World, which is another claim that I am unable to confirm.
We didn’t spend nearly as much time underground at this cave because it opened out quite quickly into the collapsed cavern where the afternoon sunshine was pouring into a luxurious tropical garden with exotic plants and scarlet flowers, fish ponds with turtles posing obligingly for photographs and a brilliant turquoise swimming pool and recreational area.
At the end of the day we drove back to Puerto del Carmen and as we were running low on fuel we were forced to find a garage so we pulled into a filling station where the smiling attendant approached probably in expectation of filling the tank and a big sale:
‘Si Seňor?’ he beamed,
‘two hundred por favor’ , we said calculating that this would be enough to see us through until we returned the vehicle to the car hire office.
‘two hondred?’ ‘two hondred?’ the man pushed his black beret up over his forehead scratched his head in that puzzled sort of way, twisted his face into a squint, wrinkled his walnut sunburned face and looked thoroughly confused as he searched for clarification, finally he just said – ‘not enough room in tank!’
We looked confused and then we realised what he meant and were more specific, ‘no, not litres – pesetas!’
Now, this was the equivalent of about seventy-five pence so this required great precision on his part to deliver only just the required miniscule amount into the tank. We handed him two one hundred peseta notes and he walked away shaking his head and repeating over and over to himself ‘two hondred, two hondred…’
This had been my first time visiting the Canary Islands and I liked Lanzarote even though I have never been back but for the next few years I did make it an annual event to visit some of the others.
Do you like going underground? Which is your favourite cave?
* Rather interestingly in the book the Professor and his assistant search for the Centre of the Earth by entering a lava tube at Snæfellsjökull glacier in Iceland and eventually comes back to the surface through another one on the slopes of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily.
Click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
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Other Cave Stories:
Drogarati Cave and Blue Lagoon, Kephalonia
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How amazing!
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Blind albino crabs? They must be easy to catch. Make you a lovely sea food meal…..or is that cave food?
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You would need a few net fulls to make a decent meal.
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We got as far as the entrance to the caves at Jameos, tagged along behind a tour group and were suddenly sprung just before we got in. Figured we weren’t destined to enter. Nearly didn’t get there at all as my first-time Spanish resulted in me asking for two bus tickets to Jamey-oss del Agua. Needed a German woman to interpret to the bus driver.
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You didn’t miss a great deal I have to say. Probably a massive tourist honey trap these days!
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I would have enjoyed this little hidden bistro!
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It was expected so be as I remember!
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Can’t resist a trip underground either! These look great, amongst our favourites are the Caves of Drach in Majorca but we have been down Bluejohn a couple of times too.
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Never been to Majorca but Blue John several times.
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Can’t say that I’ve visited many caves but this looks and sounds really interesting.
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Like most caves I would have to say!
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All the caves I’ve been in had bats flying out. These caves look beautifully decorated and relatively full of light. Worth visiting, no doubt!
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Absolutely so be sure to drop by if you are in Lanzarote.
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Andrew I have always loved small spaces and definitely no claustrophobia here. In Slovenia we went into the Skocjan caves which were spectacular.You may recall our caving experience last year here in the Rockies. that was a more full on , no light, crawling kind of caving which I thought was spectacular.
As to the blind albino crabs how did the poor things end up in the cave? Or I suppose they may be very happy there. Seems like an odd find.
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I can live without the crawling sort of experience Sue. I believe they are blindly d because they live permanently in the dark!
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Well that makes sense of course being in the darkness.
I don’t suppose I showed up in your Reader by any miracle today? I think I shall have to pay you a consulting fee for your help with this. Beer on me at our next meeting. 🙂
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Sorry to report no sign of a post in my reader!
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If you see an eyeball come flying by it’s mine. Thanks. 🙂
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I love caves as long as I don’t have to crawl through a narrow tunnel with people pushing behind me. If I can’t see a way out I won’t go.
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I draw the line at crowds and pushing!
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Awesome! Very informative and makes me want to go there!!!!
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I could never have been a miner, Andrew. I really don’t like being underground. We did Jameos but as you say, you’re not underground for long. And I was very taken with the contrasting blue agua. We had the place pretty much to ourselves so a good memory for me.
I remember we did the Caves of Drach on Majorca even more years ago, and more recently I enjoyed those right up at the top of Gibraltar- which was rather unexpected in itself. 🙂
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I confess that I like to go underground Jo but nothing too claustrophobic thank you.
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I forgot the salt mines at Wieliczka 🙂
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I am a bit claustrophobic, Andrew, but not enough to keep me out of caves. I’ve been in several. But I will pass on spelunking as a hobby. 🙂 I’ve been a few lava tubes but prefer the lime based caves because of the incredible stalagmites and stalactites. –Curt
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I would never choose caving as a pastime but I do like to go underground when there is an opportunity!
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