Lanzarote retreat, sleeps up to 20, Canary Islands
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
Our commitment to sustain our environment includes:
Large organic gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, Aloe Vera
Composting of organic waste
Happy chickens in free range habitat
Ecology:
Solar panels to generate hot water on the roof for the main house of Amatista, so we need less electricity for heating up the water, water-recycling of all waste water for watering the garden and capture of rain water for domestic use.
As part of our commitment to the environment to reduce packaging waste, we offer our customers free filtered drinking water. We explain to all our customers how they can recycle the glass, paper, tins etc in the official recycling places.
We also have a volunteer program with young people of all over the world who work in our organic gardens and the guest house in exchange for food and lodgings. In this way they learn the organic approach to gardening in the special conditions of the Lanzarote climate, which needs to maintain the humidity of the ground with the use of “picon”, which is volcanic gravel which keeps the moisture in the ground but lets the dew come trough.
We also support the spiritual aspect of environmentalism with hosting shamanic events to deepen our connection with nature and the mystical force which is behind nature.
Community
We encourage our guests to shop at the Mancha Blanca market, which is only 5 minutes away and has local produce from the farmers of the area, a lot of them are organic. You can find home made cheese, wine, jam, fruit, vegetables, bread. We provide our guests with a list of local restaurants and shops, where the typical Canarian produce can be found and also give directions for interesting walks in virgin volcanoes and untouched beaches.
We send those clients we can’t accommodate to our colleagues with similar rural guest houses.
During the time of the festivities of the Island Patroness “Virgen de los Dolores” in September many of our guests take part in it, because we explain to them how to dress in the traditional way with a black hat for men, white shirt and dark trousers and the women with skirts and white blouses with a shawl. We also tell them that they have to make the 45 minutes walk from Amatista to the main Island church in Mancha Blanca. We have often found that people dressed up in the right way can integrate much more with the festivities and enjoy the many folkloric dances and the procession of the Virgin with the other 40.000 people who take part in this event.
We also like to tell our guests about the different Bodegas on this island and the possibility to sample the wines and get to know the process of making it, including pointing out those of our neighbours who in our opinion make the best wine.
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