For tourists looking for accommodations that rank in the category of 5-star, Lanzarote hotels will surely provide stunning answers.  The island, one of the Canaries, has a population of more than 170,000 people, which give this natural paradise a very lively urban scene as well.  Visitors are struck by the beauty of its sandy beaches almost as much as the surreal gorgeousness of its volcanic areas.  There, it is possible to stroll along the rocky edges of the water and find fantastic emerald green pieces of rock, take in the sheer magnitude of the strange natural formations, as well as enjoy a meal cooked by volcanic heat.  Add to this the sleepy fishing villages, and there is more than enough to keep a whole family enjoying a vacation that they will remember for some time to come.

Lanzarote also has its roll call of fascinating residents, and one of these is the illustrious Jose Saramago.  This nobel-prize winning author was born in Portugal in 1922.  He joined the Communist party in 1969, and has been active in a number of political causes, and has been an outspoken supporter of Chiapas’ Zapatista movement, all of which have made him both a controversial and popular figure in Europe and Latin America.  One of his novels, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, caused sufficient controversy that he left Portugal to live permanently in Lanzarote.  Author of over two dozen works, and over a dozen novels, most of which are translated into Spanish and English, he was finally awarded the Nobel in 1998.

In many interviews and public talks, Saramago maintains that, although now over 80 years old, it would be foolish to claim one knows anything about life.  This combination of absolute humility and conscience show themselves freely in his novels, and add a very hearty dose of the fantastic.  His brilliant work from 1997, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, or Blindness, takes place in an unnamed city, where a faction of the population is taken over by a sudden and inexplicable blindness.  They are rounded up and placed into concentration camps, and the novel is told from the inside of these camps.  It is simultaneously a comment on oppression and power, and an incredibly bold and optimistic vision of human society organizing itself in the worst of circumstances.  His voice is profound and resounding, and it is no coincidence, perhaps, that he would live in a profound place.