sailing - Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands

---

In Grasiosa, I switched to another boat. It was a 1992 Crowther Catamaran 12.8m fractional rigged. There were three of us on the boat: the skipper, one crew (me) and a guest. On Nov 1, 2011, we sailed from Grasiosa to Puerto de Naos (Arrecife), Lanzarote, and saw big dolphins on the way. In the centre of town, at the Plaza de las Palmas where you’ll find the little church (iglesia de) San Ginés, there is a Saturday market for fresh produce, baked goods, cheeses, etc. On the same day, vendors of all types line the pedestrian streets from San Ginés square to Leon y Castillo. Banks and a supermarket (HyperDino) can also be found on Leon y Castillo. The HyperDino on calle Perez Galdos at calle de Cáceres seems to have the largest selection of alcoholic beverages. I like dark beers and found the Mahou Negra quite excellent and much cheaper than Guinness. I haven’t seen it anywhere else so better enjoy it while you’re in Spain.

Swimming at the community pool (la piscina municipal de Arrecife) is €8 per visit (cheaper for residents) and you must wear a cap or they won’t let you in. The pool is located at Rambla de Medular and Leon y Castillo in the Parque Deportivo Puerto de Arrecife (sports complex). For internet access or long distance calls, google “locutorio” in Arrecife and you’ll find that they are everywhere. The one at 80, calle de Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera is big and always have computers available. If you need to repair your cell phone or buy one, I suggest the small store on calle la Inés where I bought a brand new cell phone for €19. It came with an Orange SIM card, €10 credit, headphones and a charger. I can’t remember but I think it was €0.09 per minute or however much Orange charges. (I don’t normally use a cellphone but the skipper required me to have one in order leave the boat to go into the city as he had to be able to call me back to the boat any time should he need his crew.) To set up voicemail, I gave the phone to a local who spoke English so he can listen to the prompts and tell me what to do as everything was in Spanish. I discovered eventually that the cell phone has a built-in flashlight and camera.

A chandlery near the anchorage had waders for €49 and really awesome steel-toed boots for €30. The Centro Comercial Arrecife on Rambla Medular, near the main bus station in town, has fresh meat, fish, produce, etc., as well as cooked food. The seafood store had pretty good prices for frozen prawns.

I love the fact that there were no Starbucks, American franchises, or any of those multi-national corporations. Everything was local (Spanish) with a few European franchises. I found it very puzzling why the media was talking about the European economic crisis and how the Spanish economy was going the way of the Greeks because everywhere I went in the Canary Islands, the stores were packed, there was so much hustling and bustling at all hours of the day, one would never think that there was anything wrong with the economy. I asked a businessman who was the former CEO of a corporation listed on all major Stock Exchanges, and he told me that there is nothing wrong with real economy, it’s virtual economy that has done itself in and is now making real economy pay for it. Well, I hope everything stays the way it is in the Canaries, it’s so lovely here.

Radka and I walked from Arrecife along the shore all the way to Playa Honda and had beer at a restaurant on the beach. It was quite beautiful. A bunch of us rented a car and went to Timanfaya Park where I saw the most inhospitable land in the world, but only deceptively so. The lava rocks were all in a jumble everywhere and very jagged, how they would be right after cooling from an eruption, but because it was all lava, the soil formed from it would be extremely fertile which is why there are so many vineyards and wine produced here. I can’t imagine the first people that had to walk through the lava field, though, it just looks impossible.

We then went to El Golfo, Hervideros, the wine region and tasted a few wines. Apparently, only white wines in the Canaries are any good. For some reason, the grapes for red wine grown in the lava soil here make the wine quite astringent. I liked the rosé. I found the flavour of the red wine really strong.

The cactus garden was by far the most awesome place I visited in the Canaries. A MUST for anyone visiting Lanzarote. The most incredible, unimaginable cacti were found there. There were cacti that looked like a brain, another that looked like snakes, and another that was huge with huge flowers. The gigantic agave in perfect condition was amazing. My favourite was the purple cacti with heart-shaped blades--what a perfect valentine present (for that prickly lover). I learned a lot about plants such as the fact that Spurge (Euphorbiaceae) can be full of thorns and therefore look like cactus. I saw Plumeric acuminata (Apocynaceae) which has my favourite flowers that smell the best. I saw on a street somewhere in Arrecife, a cactus or tree that was a cactus from the ground up but had leaves on top, and I learned from the cactus garden that it was a Spurge. There was another tree or cactus that had a regular tree trunk from the ground up but cactus branches on top.

With the rented car, we also stopped at a panoramic viewpoint on top of a series of “switchbacks.” I saw a plant with silver leaves and yellow daisy-like flowers.

One last note about Arrecife. We went to get cash from the ATM at Barclays Bank on Fajardo street. My friend’s card got sucked into the machine which then prompted stopped working. It was after hours so the bank was closed but there was a girl inside who told us that unfortunately, she has to call the repair service which she can only do first thing tomorrow morning. We went back the next day when they opened and she gave my friend back her bank card and everything was fine. However, we both decided that one should never use the ATM of a bank unless the bank is open.

---