Noonsite Port of the Month: Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

Created by doina. Last modified on 2006-11-01 11:19:43
Topic: Noonsite
Countries: Canary Islands

The Canarian island of Lanzarote is now one of the best known tourist destinations in the world, but until quite recently it was still regarded as a quiet backwater. Tourism development had proceeded at a more sedate pace than in the larger islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, and for a long time the island did not even have a marina. This was finally put right in the late 1980s when a local entrepreneur, José Calero (known among his many friends as Pepe Calero) decided to put this right. With great courage and dedication, Pepe Calero started work close to the south of Puerto Carmen and, without the advantage of any natural features, managed to create here what was to become the most attractive marina complex in the Canaries. By the mid-1990s the marina had become so popular that Pepe Calero decided to double its capacity by extending the breakwater thus creating additional space for more berths as well as a large hard-standing area and travelift pen. In recent years the marina has taken off on all fronts, with a large hotel now operating close to it, and a golf course and other amenities to follow. Puerto Calero now hosts an annual deep sea fishing tournament and various yacht races.

Facilities at Puerto Calero are of the highest standard and many North European yacht owners are now using the marina as a permanent base. Repair facilities are also first class with a full service yard and a range of workshops providing a whole range of services: electronics, engine and sail repair, metal work and fibreglass repair. The marina has its own supermarket, ATM, laundry, dive centre as well as a large number of restaurants and cafés. A whale and dolphin museum was opened recently in the old boatyard.

The marina is still surrounded by bleak lava fields that are a legacy of the island’s volcanic origin. Nowhere is this more obvious than at the nearby Montana del Fuego, now a nature reserve, where volcanic magma still bubbles close to the surface and the temperature at a depth of only thirty feet is 600 degrees. The chief attraction of the local restaurant is the grilled meats cooked over a hole in the ground. All around the earth is so hot that it can scorch the soles of your shoes if you stand still. All this is the result of a catastrophic volcanic eruption in 1730 that lasted six years and completely devastated nearly half the island covering it in a thick gnarled crust of black lava aptly called “malpais” (badlands). This moonscape quality has been brought to full effect in Stanley Kubrik’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” which was filmed here.

A local artist whose work was greatly influenced by these surroundings and whose mark is evident everywhere on the island is Cesar Manrique. Having achieved international fame as a painter and sculptor he returned home and set about to apply his vision to his native land. By the late 1960s the island’s tourist potential had started a development boom that threatened to scar forever the island’s unique environment. Manrique somewhat managed to persuade the local authorities to let him draw up a range of restrictions, such as a strict control on the height and style of buildings, a ban on roadside advertising, and the highly effective edict, probably inspired by Henry Ford, that houses and hotels can be of any colour as long as it’s white. The eye-catching white houses, dotted about the black landscape, have a definite charm, and as a result, Lanzarote is architecturally the most attractive island of the entire archipelago.

But Cesar Manrique, who died in 1992, had done a lot more than this by applying his wide talents to a number of highly original projects such as an auditorium with excellent acoustics in an underground cave, a exquisite cactus garden, a modern art gallery inside a medieval fort, to name just a few. Nowhere is his unique style and exquisite taste more enjoyable than in his own home and studio, built in a series of volcanic bubbles, and now open to the public.

Lanzarote is normally the first stop in the Canaries for boats finishing the 750 mile passage from the Med, or twice that distance from Northern Europe. Due to its great success, Puerto Calero is usually full to capacity so advance bookings are essential.

reservas@puertocalero.com

www.puertocalero.com

Tel. 0034 928 511 285, Fax 0034 928 514 568