Happy Campers

After a week of feeling particularly irritated by my students (someday I’ll blog about school), I was ready for some time off the grid. A few of the auxiliars had planned a trip to La Graciosa, a small and lightly populated island just north of Lanzarote which is only accessible by ferry. I use the word “planned” in the loosest sense, because our trip was an exercise in near misses from start to finish. I’ve made the mistake of going on a poorly planned camping trip once before—it’s how I ended up alone in the Indiana woods with nothing but a tent and two apples—but I still trust in the benevolence of the camping gods. This time it really paid off because despite our laissez-faire approach to camping, we ended up having a GREAT time!!

The madness started when I came back from work on Friday afternoon, the day we planned to depart for La Graciosa, and checked the bus schedule for the first time… only to discover that there was only ONE bus from Arrecife to Orzola (the town where the ferry leaves from) and it was leaving in ONE hour. I called my friend Sarah who called our friend Tyler and we started scrambling, just making it to the station in time for the bus to Orzola. In Orzola we missed the ferry by a few minutes, but it wasn’t such a tragedy because the ferries leave every hour. After scoring a residents’ discount on ferry tickets, we sat down to a nice dinner… where we ordered three grilled fish and had to scarf down our food when it finally came out, or risk missing another ferry.

Over the course of dinner we received some news from our friend Sebastian that really threw us for a loop. Sebastian is a second-year auxiliar, so he’s basically our guardian angel who teaches us about the island. Sebastian was also the owner of the bulk of the camping equipment, and we were really counting on his expertise. Sebastian and his co-teacher Pilar were planning to meet us on La Graciosa about an hour or two later, but on their way to meet up with us Sebastian’s roommate called and told him his cat seemed sick. Being the excellent cat dad that he is, Sebastian turned his car around and went home to take his sweet baby to the vet, promising Sarah, Tyler, and me that he would make it in time for the last ferry. As we scarfed down our grilled fish in preparation for a thirty-minute boat ride, the mood was grim. We felt in our souls that Sebastian would never make it in time. We were truly alone against the forces of nature.

Whiskey Biscuits

Nevertheless, we pressed on—we had made it too far against too many odds to turn back. Despite the uncertainty, I am incapable of being unhappy on a boat, and I was positively giddy as we made our way across the choppy waters. This was my first time seeing the northern side of Lanzarote, and I was in awe of the contrast between the white sandy beaches in the south and the towering cliffs in the north.

When we arrived in the tiny town that is the main population center of La Graciosa, it almost felt like we had entered a movie set. There are no paved roads anywhere on the island, and the local community is so close-knit that we almost felt like we were being watched. We later learned that the island is basically controlled by three families—I can’t say anything more without putting myself at great personal risk (cough mafia cough). Locals directed us to the market where we stocked up on an odd assortment of food before making our way to our beachfront campsite.

We set up our tent, spread out a blanket, and broke out our odd assortment of food. Our snack ended up being chocolate-covered biscuits and whiskey in a bowl because we didn’t think to bring cups or any type of normal food. These circumstances became the inspiration for our band Whiskey Biscuits—check out our EP Skinny Dippin’, available at a record store near you in Spring 2020.

As the sun dipped below the horizon and our true lack of appropriate camping gear began to set in, a miracle happened—Sebastian and Pilar had made the last ferry! Sure enough, in thirty minutes our saviors came through with three additional tents, coolers full of real food, musical instruments, and games. We settled in for a night of singing and laughter and gratitude to the benevolent camping gods.

Climb Every Mountain

On Saturday morning I was possessed by the spirit of Monet and painted a few masterpieces. I rarely do anything artsy because I don’t feel like I’m good at it, but this year I have plenty of time to cultivate hobbies and I want to focus on enjoyment over skill. Judge my paintings however you want, but I had FUN making them!

After some coffee and recovery from sleeping on sand with no padding (somehow that sand was harder than concrete), we were ready for the real adventure. We hiked all the way across the island to a secluded spot full of tidepools, then to the more famous Playa de Las Conchas. I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

After a delicious lunch at Playa de Las Conchas, all thanks to Sebastian and Pilar of course, Sarah and I were still craving more adventure. We decided to climb the volcano nearest the beach—a steep and gravelly trail that was pretty hard on my aging knees. The climb was well worth it because there was a beautiful view and a surprise at the top.

In a plastic box at the summit, there was a guest book with notes and signatures from visitors all over the world. Sometimes, it really hits me how far away from home I am. It’s almost like the Google Earth app in my brain (y’all know that technology is just around the corner) zooms out and I see myself on this tiny island off the coast of Africa, so tiny it barely registers on the map. I get a rush that’s almost like vertigo, and making it to the top of this volcano was one of those times. Looking out at the desolate landscape of La Graciosa, I really felt present. Unlike other famous volcanic archipelagos, there is no vegetation here to soften the edges of a landscape shaped by fiery volcanoes, crashing waves, and fierce winds. The book in my hands held years’ worth of memories, but the landscape holds a story that goes back countless millennia. To take it all in, to consider how long it took for the earth to shape this magical island, and to recognize how fragile it all is in the face of human activity truly took my breath away. Unfortunately, my spiraling thoughts about geology were interrupted by biology because I suddenly had to ~go~ worse than I ever had in my life. And because there is NOT A SINGLE TREE on the whole dang island my only choice was to power walk all the way back across the island, leaving my friends in the dust.

The Treasure at the End of the Rainbow is Friendship

We were promised a desert island, but on Sunday morning it began to pour rain. The storm caught us off guard, but we were also treated to a double rainbow. If you haven’t seen the classic “double rainbow” YouTube video, look it up now and you’ll get a sense of how excited we were. We took off running down the beach, seeking to catch the end of the rainbow. It turns out that there are some scientific reasons that you can’t actually reach the end of the rainbow, but we found something better than treasure—friendship!!

If you thought that rainbows only came after a storm, you’d be wrong, because the rain started pouring down even harder after our rainbow excursion. This is when the fun became “Type 2 fun,” the type of fun that entails suffering in the moment but makes for fun memories later. Also, we had again failed to check any bus or ferry schedules and realized that if we wanted to get back to Arrecife at a reasonable hour we had to rush to pack up all of our stuff in the pouring rain. Setbacks aside, we made it home in one piece. Wet, cold, and tired, but in one piece. I felt like I had been away from Arrecife for weeks. La Graciosa has an air of magic that took me outside the normal flow of time, and I already know my weekend there will be one of my favorite Canary Island memories.