Iñaki Relanzón – Lanzarote, The Canary Islands, Spain

When I was a child, I grew up dreaming of exploring caves and becoming a speleologist. And once, I heard about a blind and white crab which only lived in an underground lake, on a remote island of the seven Canary Islands. 30 years later, I get the opportunity to see and photograph this endemic species, the Munidopsis polymorpha, during my second mission to Lanzarote for the Wild Wonders of Europe project. But this small animal was only an anecdote in my mission, because my Nikon caught many more images.

Lanzarote was a beautiful discovery to me. In fact, I like the volcanic landscapes very much. And after having worked on the others of the seven Canary Islands, like La Palma, which is evergreen and with patches of true rainforests, Lanzarote was completely different and exciting to me and my camera!!!

Timanfaya National Park is a stunning landscape. It is the most similar place to the moon to be in on earth. Craters everywhere, lava flows, black terrain with ochre, green and red colours from the different lava types… Not only the National Park but also the Volcanoes Natural Park and all over, Lanzarote is a volcanic landscape.

And in some areas, the coast is wild and beautiful. And of course, as we are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the sea is usually heavy, and the visual situations are enough to satisfy any wildlife photographer.

As an obsessive photographer, I was searching all the coastal areas where to photograph the waves at dusk, with the broken and abrupt coast. Finally I discovered a stone bridge with a sharp edge and broken waves, and I went back there three times, until I got the perfect light for this scenery.

The blind crabs of The Jameos del Agua Cave are not the only endemisms in Lanzarote. As all the six other Canary Islands, a lot of endemisms, animals and plants, are found in this beautiful place. And probably one of the main visual interest here in the archipielago is the variety of landscapes and life, from the volcano landscapes to the rainforests and sand beaches, and from the unique lizards to the whales in the sea.

Iñaki Relanzón

Please note that blogs reflect our photographers' opinions and not necessarily those of the directors of Wild Wonders of Europe.