Lanzarote is not just another island. Here you experience the forces of nature very strongly. However, nature is now showing that there are serious problems. We now see the cocinilla fungus on palm trees or other plants, as well. The orange harvest was also much less due to this attack. Climate change could be the cause, but there is another side: our connection with nature. I can admire nature in Lanzarote as something outside of me. But the trick is to experience it as part of myself. When I lie on the Monkey Rock, it can be hard but I could also feel that the rocks carry or support me. That feeling of being carried is a connection that I then experience. The same with plants, I speak to them as if they were friends. Nature needs this to let its healing power flow again, which is also important to us. We humans can, as it were, bring nature back to life. Rudolf Steiner has written a lot about this: The Soul of Nature. In our time, as always, of vital importance. I wish everyone to experience this again and to allow the enormous power that is at our disposal again for 2025, TINEKE
December was a lot colder than November. A bit chilly at 21 degrees and changing weather conditions. There are a lot of tourists in Charco and we had a quiet, green Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The plants benefit greatly from the little rain we had. The landscape is wonderfully green again.
It appears that when people open the newsletter on their phone, the letters are sometimes white and illegible, with a turquoise background. I have tried to change this but have not succeeded yet. Let me know if this is the case for you and I will create a new group with a copy in black and white.
CHARCO NEWS
*Plastic bottles have been placed at the duckpool and the tidal pool. A lot of waste is collected in it, which is of course great, but it is even better to take all waste with you. Last year a text on stones urged people not to throw cigarette filters in nature. The beach is not an ashtray. But luckily there are persons who pick them up and help to keep Charco clean.
*That a new wind is blowing at Obona can be seen from the fountain that has been put back into operation and it is rumoured that their Tiramisu is a delicacy. I will try it soon.
*Juwel des Mééres has made 2 apartments available for permanent rental. Costs €1250 per month incl. energy and use of swimming pool. One is already occupied. Information: Ingeborg *31 618525178
LANZAROTE NEWS
*Haria had alternative decorations for the festive season.
*Arrecife had the largest Christmas tree on the island, they say. It is located on the promenade near the bandstand. As high as the bell tower of the church of San Gines, according to the mayor.
*In the supermarket in Guatiza they now sell delicious fresh cakes
*Playa Blanca will have a 10-metre high climbing wall next summer. The wall is located in the Parque Atlántico and offers climbs of different levels, suitable for free climbing, climbing with ropes and abseiling.The work is expected to be completed in spring or summer.
*Puerto del Carmen has opened an indoor golf course: ‘Crazy Mini Golf Lanzarote’.
*Just five years after opening, the Kamezí restaurant in Playa Blanca has been awarded at Lanzarote’s very first Michelin star and has become a household name on the island.
*Norwegian pianist Knut Erik Jensen will perform at The Camel House in Macher on January 3, 2025.
CONEJEROS
In the Canary Islands, each group of islanders has its own nickname. Gran Canaria’s are, rather unoriginally, called Canarios, while those on Tenerife are called chicharerros, after the cheap mackerel they used to eat.
On Lanzarote, the name for islanders is Conejeros, which means Rabbit Hunters. The nickname comes from a time when one of the island’s main exports was rabbit skins, and there were so many rabbits on the island that this became an important trade.
Rabbits have drastically changed the landscape of the islands. Their voracious appetite and prolific reproduction have long been a threat to several plant species, and along with goats, they are one of the introduced species that contribute most to soil erosion and the resulting desertification.
With the trade in rabbit skins or meat no longer existing, it is ironic that one of the main groups that ensure the survival of rabbits are the rabbit hunters. They are allowed to hunt between August and October.
Otherwise, rabbits have few natural enemies on the island. Some are killed by feral cats and dogs, and birds such as ravens and owls can carry off a handful, but the creatures generally live a relatively undisturbed life.
Rabbits are most often seen early in the morning or at night, in rural areas of the island.Their grey/brown colour makes them even better camouflaged against the local terrain than in green fields, and if you see one, it will probably give itself away by the movement of its bushy tail.
Source: LaGazette.
In the footsteps of CESAR MANRIQUE
Apart from beautiful buildings, Cesar also designed many objects and decorations. You can find them everywhere. These include lamps, iron or wooden doors. Images on toilets, etc.
PHOTOS OF FIGURES
If you look closely there is so much to see in the nature around us. In Charco there are many rock formations where you can see all sorts of things. A face of a giant, a child but also a flying dolphin in a tree. It all depends from which angle you look.
WALKS
The dunes remain a beautiful walking area where you can walk for miles naked. There was also a spiral north of Charco towards Arrieta. We often added a number of stones or circles to it. However, a while ago when we walked there again, the entire spiral had disappeared. Whether it was caused by large waves or by human hands will never be known. But when we went there again, there appeared to be a whole new spiral. Expertly made with even stones. Here we did not feel the need to extend it, it is completely finished. Only we do not understand why salt has been sprinkled over it. As if it has become luminous now. Maybe it can now be seen from an airplane?
How do you get there?
Take the path north from Charco along the coast past the fisherman’s hut. Before you reach many black picón, the spiral is on your left. Duration one and a half hours for the run return walk.
DAILY LIFE
While in the rest of Europe coffee is almost unaffordable, here the price remains low. In many non-touristy places you can still get a cup of coffee for €1.20. At vending machines it is even cheaper, sixty cents. My partner and I drove to Arrieta and I walked back from Arrieta. We did some shopping and then had a cup of coffee from the machine. First put money in for a credit then choose a coffee, press the button and a small cup of delicious coffee appears. That tastes fine: one more. Now however my coins disappear without the credit building up. Just a few more coins but it doesn’t work again. A few come back but in the end I spend more than a euro and no coffee. Bad luck. Not that cheap after all!
Bruno thanks for the photo.
AGENDA
*La Plazitais open Mon – Sat Fri life music
*Lili’s Paradise closed Wed – Thu, Sat 5 – 8 pm music with DJ A. Escorial, Sun Gian Luka 1.30 – 4.30 pm reservations: 0034 629257645
*Tropical restaurant opens 6 pm
*Obona restaurant open Mon-Sat 3 pm
*Supermarket opens 8.30 am – 6.30 pm, Sun to 3 pm
*Don Quijote every second Saturday live music from 8.30 pm, restaurant opens Mon – Sat 1 – 3.30 / 6 – 8.30 pm
*Cantina de Mala opens Wed-Sun 1 pm
*Arepera Mala /Jojoto y millo opens Teu- Sun 1- 11 pm
Recommended:
*la Cueva Paloma (Obona restaurant)
*Massages:Fran: Whatsapp: *34 667259760 Centró commercial
*Rental apartments: Ingeborg en Elske: 0031 618525178
*supermarket Guitiza various delicios fresh cakes.
MARKETS
Puerto Calero – Tue – Fri 9 am – 1 pm
Haria Artisanal – Sat 10 am – 2 pm at Plaza de Haría,
Arrecife – Sat at Plaza de San Ginés, 9 – 12 am
Costa Teguise –Wed and Fri at Pueblo Marinero 5 – 8 pm
Teguise Sun in the city centre 9 am – 2 pm
PALS Flea market – Sun at Lanzarote A Caballo (fourth roundabout past Tias) from 9 – 12 am
Mancha Blanca – Sun at Mancha Blanca, 10 am
Marina Rubicon – Wed – Sat, Playa Blanca, 10 am – 2 pm
Playa Honda – every third Saturday, Calle Mayor, 10 am – 2pm
Puerto Calero – Teu – Fri 9 am – 1pm
Markus, thanks for the last two beautiful photos.
From Charco‘ un abrazo ‘You hear from me next month.
Tineke.
