My annual trip to escape the depths of winter by heading to the Canary Islands and for me the ‘new’ island of Lanzarote.
Having been to quite a few of the islands now it’s interesting to see how they differ, Tenerife and Gran Canary in many ways very lush and green while the southern end of Lanzarote and it’s close neighbour Fuerteventura have a stark volcanic environment. This does mean there is some good trekking though and armed with the new Cicerone guide, I set off from the resort of Playa Blanca where I was staying, out into the surrounding countryside.
One route took me along the promenade of Playa, clearly it had once been little more than a small fishing village but the seaboard was now line after line of upmarket hotels catering for Northern Europeans. Behind them are huge estates of cookie cutter houses to cater for those how want to make a more permanent home here. The route goes out to the most southern point of the island where there is now a new lighthouse before turning north again. This is a wild coastline; where the black basalt of ancient lava flows meets the full swell of the Atlantic. As the town is left behind there are a few isolated houses then just a rough path that makes its way through the thin vegetation. A low rock wall, built for no apparent reason crosses the plain.
Soon there comes into view a large blot on the landscape, something that says alot about the way the Spanish economy was running out of control before the financial crash. The blot is ‘Atlante del Sol’ a huge derelict hotel, which for some reason somebody decided it would a good idea to build – here. A more desolate spot you couldn’t imagine, there is nothing here, no beach, no water, no other buildings or houses; it is quite literally the middle of nowhere but with a howling wind straight off the sea. I’d seen hotels like this before just a short distance away across the sea in Fuerteventura; where there are alot of developments like this that just ran out of money. I’ve never seen one in such an isolated spot though, how anyone with any commercial sense could have thought that this was a worthwhile investment is beyond me.
Amazingly, some people have moved into the concrete cubicles that would have been hotel rooms and blocked the entrances with cardboard and rocks to provide shelter and some privacy. With no sanitation or water, and the nearest shop or facilities miles of walking away this really can only be the choice of the really desperate. I turn at this point and head back to the comforts of Playa Blanca leaving this huge folly to the wind and its sad inhabitants.
Having been to quite a few of the islands now it’s interesting to see how they differ, Tenerife and Gran Canary in many ways very lush and green while the southern end of Lanzarote and it’s close neighbour Fuerteventura have a stark volcanic environment. This does mean there is some good trekking though and armed with the new Cicerone guide, I set off from the resort of Playa Blanca where I was staying, out into the surrounding countryside.
One route took me along the promenade of Playa, clearly it had once been little more than a small fishing village but the seaboard was now line after line of upmarket hotels catering for Northern Europeans. Behind them are huge estates of cookie cutter houses to cater for those how want to make a more permanent home here. The route goes out to the most southern point of the island where there is now a new lighthouse before turning north again. This is a wild coastline; where the black basalt of ancient lava flows meets the full swell of the Atlantic. As the town is left behind there are a few isolated houses then just a rough path that makes its way through the thin vegetation. A low rock wall, built for no apparent reason crosses the plain.
Soon there comes into view a large blot on the landscape, something that says alot about the way the Spanish economy was running out of control before the financial crash. The blot is ‘Atlante del Sol’ a huge derelict hotel, which for some reason somebody decided it would a good idea to build – here. A more desolate spot you couldn’t imagine, there is nothing here, no beach, no water, no other buildings or houses; it is quite literally the middle of nowhere but with a howling wind straight off the sea. I’d seen hotels like this before just a short distance away across the sea in Fuerteventura; where there are alot of developments like this that just ran out of money. I’ve never seen one in such an isolated spot though, how anyone with any commercial sense could have thought that this was a worthwhile investment is beyond me.
Amazingly, some people have moved into the concrete cubicles that would have been hotel rooms and blocked the entrances with cardboard and rocks to provide shelter and some privacy. With no sanitation or water, and the nearest shop or facilities miles of walking away this really can only be the choice of the really desperate. I turn at this point and head back to the comforts of Playa Blanca leaving this huge folly to the wind and its sad inhabitants.
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