A walk through Lanzarote's interior offers a host of surprises. The island of volcanoes, declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, has found an exquisite balance between human activity and the island's natural heritage. It is as if an unspoken agreement has been reached in order to create a unique place where man is no threat to the environment that houses him. Since times prior to the conquest, the islanders have had to confront a hostile environment, with typically scarce water supplies and a complex geography. In the 18th century, a series of volcanic eruptions covered the island's most arable land with a thick cap of ashes and lava. However, the local inhabitants have never been frightened by Nature's outbursts and far from admitting defeat, they put all hands to the task and created one of the most striking landscapes on the Canary Islands, in an area known as La Geria.
 
This unique agricultural plot extends over 5,255 hectares and is located in the geographical centre of the island. It makes for an unusual landscape where man has used all his inventiveness to reap benefit from the extensive fields of volcanic ash that cover this part of the island. The solution found to domesticate the area is a simple one. Instead of cultivating the surface, thousands of holes have been made in the earth creating a landscape of small pits that cover the whole area of cultivated land. The visual effect is completed by dry circular stone walls, built to protect the crops from strong winds, creating a kind of endless mosaic that almost seems like an optical illusion.  

The reason for this unusual agricultural practice is simple. Although the volcanic sands provide highly fertile land for cultivation, it is difficult to plant crops on the land. The black ashes that are in abundance throughout the island actually serve as magnificent moisture capsules that retain the light rainfall at night. Lanzarote, is close to the sea level and therefore outside the trade wind circle (the clouds carrying moisture do not break against its mountains), presenting a serious handicap to the island's farmers who have had to seek alternative ways of growing crops. The average rainfall on the island is only 150 millimetres a year, way below that necessary to sustain any real kind of agricultural activity. Finally, the stone walls that act as wind breakers also play a crucial role in the success of the whole unlikely process.

Although some fruit trees can be seen, the main crop in this part of the island is the grapevine. Each hole stores one of these mythical branches that are responsible for the famed Lanzarote Malvasia wine, the standard ingredient for creating stock on this island that has become one of the most unique produce bearing regions within Spanish territory.