La Vida es Mejor en Famara y en Espanol.

The weekend trip my friends and I have been talking about and looking forward to for months has finally come, and come to pass.  It hasn't even sunk in that I just spent 4 days in paradise with an incredible group of people. I'll start with a little background on how this trip came to be. Will, one of the many friends I've made here, is an avid surfer and was looking into places in Europe to surf, and discovered the island of Lanzarote, part of the Canary Islands that are a territory of Spain. He didn't have to ask me twice if I wanted to take a weekend trip to this little slice of heaven for a weekend of surfing, sun, & speaking Spanish. We ended up getting a group of seven people including Will and myself together.  Our journey began on Wenesday night in a way, because the seven of us split up between Jules' and Will's houses for the night (or what turned out to be a few hours after some drinks at the Old Oak) because the airport shuttle was picking us up at 4 A.M. Thursday morning for our 7 A.M. flight from Brussels to Lanzarote. After a delirious shuttle ride, making our way through the airport, and through a 3.5 hour plane ride, we finally arrived in Lanzarote in the early afternoon. As you might pick up throughout this post, we really had no sense of time this weekend, and no need for it. No watches, clocks, or cell phones needed, although it took us entire day to even figure out we thought it was an hour earlier than it actually was, and what time it was because our phones did not pick up the hour time difference when we switched time zones.
We were lucky enough to be staying in what the locals call the Bungalows in a sleepy little surf town by the name of Famara. We rented 2 neighboring 2 bedroom bungalows with absolutely INCREDIBLE views.

The bungalow Jules, Mary, Casey & I shared.

The view of the sunset from our bungalow.

As soon as we got to the airport, we were picked up by Sergio, who ended up being one of the coolest people I have run across in a long time.  He is the owner of the surf shop Zoopark Famara that we took an all day surf lesson from.  From the airport, Sergio took us to the bungalows to drop our stuff off, then straight to Zoopark to pick up our boards, wetsuits, and jump right into our 4 hour day lesson! I can tell you the last time I was on a surfboard was when I was in Jr High probably, so needless to say it was an adventure to begin with, but I ended up doing extremely well and catching a number of waves, and falling even more in love with the ocean than I already am.

Sergio & his incredible surfshop Zoopark

Surfin safari.

So after a day of traveling, surfing, and sun, running on 3 hours of sleep, we were EXHAUSTED, yet we went home, showered up, and went our to one of the local bars for some BBQ, drinks, and laughs with some of the locals.

Brendan, Laura, Mary, Jules, Will & Casey, after a day of surfing :)

Tropical: beer of the Canary Islands. & some drinking & relaxing on our patio before we went into town.

Gorgeous sunset from our patio.

After yet another night of a few hours of sleep, we awoke the next morning a little groggy from the fun the night before and our adventure on our trek home from the bar in town. We used Friday as our recovery day, lounging on the beach, swimming, and Casey, Jules, & Will rented surfboards for the day & did a little more surfing! It was just what we all needed, and gave us the chance to soak in the beauty of this amazing desert island paradise. 

Bikinis & beach hair.

Yet again, that night we went into town to the second of 2 bars in the town of Famara. After another loooong night of drinking and making tons of new friends, we headed back home around 5 a.m. At this point, I don't know how I was a functioning individual. Saturday, Isabel who worked for the company we rented the bungalows from, let us borrow her car to drive out to the volcanic national park on the island.  After accidentally driving past the "park" twice, and trying to find a gas station before we ran out of gas, we made it.  It was a beautiful place, that reminded me of a mix between Kona, Hawaii, and the volcanoes off of 395 on the way to Mammoth. The contrast of colors between the volcanic rocks, the lichen growing on them, and the blue of the sky was breathtaking.  Casey, Jules, Laura, Mary & I sat in the middle of a field of volcanic rocks for an hour and a half taking in the view and talking about life. 

Casey & Laura

Gorgeous.

After we made it back to Famara, we hit the beach till the sun went down. Then it was back to the bungalows to get ready and go out into town again for our last night in paradise. Needless to say, it was another long night, out till 4, and good times were had by all!
Waking up the next morning was surreal, I could not believe we had just spent 3 days in the most beautiful and relaxing place I have ever been.  I can easily say it was the first time I had lost myself completely in the beauty of the views, the ocean, the beach, the people, the language, the rugged terrain, and good company.  I have never been more sure of my love for the Spanish language, and find myself now thinking in Spanish again. The 7 of us who went on this trip have joked about dropping out of school here in Brussels, moving to Famara, buying a bungalow, opening  a bar, and a chain of ATMs, because oddly enough, there are ZERO ATMs in the town of Famara.

So I leave you with this:
La vida es mejor en las playas de Famara, y en Espanol.
Life is better in the beaches of Famara, and in Spanish.

After my trip to Spain & Portugal in a few weeks, I might never return to a non Spanish speaking country again...