THE WILD BEAUTY OF CLIMBING AN EXTINCT VOLCANO

It is hard to imagine what Lanzarote would be like now without César Manrique’s determination to preserve the wild beauty of his beloved island’s past from the ravages of mass tourism (“Hail César! The Artist who shaped Lanzarote”, Feb 2).

An excellent reminder of this is a walk up the Volcan de la Corona, starting at the San Francisco Javier church in the village of Ye and going to the edge of the volcanic crater, with views across the northern part of the island. This places Manrique’s spectacular Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua in a geological context, as under the cone lies the beginning of a three mile (six km) volcanic tube, whose giant chambers so inspired him. It’s humbling to climb the volcano, drive the route of the tunnel to the coast and then visit what this visionary artist and architect created from nature’s violent work.

SUSAN WIGMORE WINS A £250 RAILBOOKERS VOUCHER discovered a reliable, comfortable and inexpensive local bus network, covering almost all of the island, which allowed us to formulate our own “César Manrique tour”, discovering thus for ourselves the delights of this volcanic island and the imprint left by Lanzarote’s most famous son. The only noteworthy place on the island where local buses do not enter is the Timanfaya National Park. However, this can be easily visited by booking a coach tour or guided walk.

Basing ourselves in the island’s sleepy and slightly sleazy capital Arrecife, we were away from the main tourist hotspots, which added to an already hedonistic experience. RACHEL BROWN