The train has arrived in Arrecife! A new shuttle bus service in the guise of a train made by Dotto in Italy (Castelfranco Veneto) is now running from the parking area of Charco de San Ginés around the capital of Lanzarote. The locomotive has three passenger carriages which can accommodate up to sixty people and travel at speeds up to 50km per hour, there's also a TV on board which gives tourist information during the journey.  read more »

I was intrigued to read recently that there has just been a 3 day International conference on the Phoenix Canariensis Palm tree in Santa Lucia, Gran Canaria. Who would attend one of these conferences and what would they discuss for three days?

The conference was held from the 18th to 21st November and had speakers from all over the world as well as local specialists from Spain and The Canary Islands such as Scott Zona from the Florida International University, Sarah Sallon from The Louis L Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in Jerusalem, Donald Hodel from the University of California, Gabriel Alziar from the Natural History Museum in Nice, Victoria Soroker from the Agricultural Research Organization in Jerusalem and Didier Rochat from INRA Centre de Versailles in France.

Topics included the biology, ecology and cultivation of the Phoenix Canariensis and advice on how to control the dreaded red weevil pest (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus). Apart from the 25 hours of lectures, the delegates did get out from the hotel on the last day to stretch their legs and enjoy a walk to see some local palm trees followed by a meal in a restaurant before flying home.

Red Weevil

The Red Weevil is a destructive palm tree pest, a female weevil will lay about 300 eggs in separate holes on a palm tree, these eggs hatch within 2-5 days and the grubs bore into the interior of the palm feeding on the soft tissue. The larvae stage lasts from 1-3 months and then the grub pupates into a cocoon for 14-21 days when the adult weevil emerges.  read more »

Sunday 29th November 2009 was the annual Ciudad de Arrecife Lanzarote Marathon event, a course of 42.19km along the seafront of Arrecife. The weather was perfect, the day dawned warm and sunny with some cloud cover so the athletes weren’t in full sun for the entire race.

The Lanzarote Marathon is a fun event, attracting not just locals but runners from around the world, there were clubs from Germany, Norway, UK who all fancied participating in a run in the sun. The morning started with two children’s events at 9.30. They ran along the promenade and finished back at the Recinto Ferial, some of them were just tots running with mum or dad and all of them received a special medal for taking part.

At 10am it was time for the main start, there were 6 wheelchair athletes competing who started on the first gun and then the crowd emerged on the second gun.  read more »

As customary it was another scorching hot day as the Rojillos (reds) found themselves two goals down before the half hour mark. At 1-4 down and with only 10 men Lanzarote made an extraordinary fight of it and were only a whisker away from stealing a point. It wasn’t an ideal start for the Rojillos with central defender Francis being carried off in the opening two minutes with an ankle injury. Manager Carmelo Hernández had the unenviable job of restructuring his already fragile defence with the game in its infancy. Seconds later and a swift move from the youth of Real Madrid saw the ball thunder off the underside of the bar and the defence of Lanzarote desperately scrambled the ball away to safety giving Lanzarote ample warning of things to come. The future superstars of Real Madrid looked impressive with their fast, accurate passing and off the ball movement that had the Conejeros (locals) chasing shadows and it looked inevitable the breakthrough for the all whites would come soon.  read more »

The weather during November has generally been beautiful, temperatures in the afternoons have still be reaching 28 degrees and lots of blue skies, sunshine and not much wind but we did have two yellow alerts issued.

The beginning of the month saw not enough wind for the WQS Islas Canarias Santa Pro Surfing event in Famara, the competitors spent two days waiting for the swell to arrive at San Juan and then started the event from La Santa before resuming in San Juan. At the end of that week Aemet (La Agencia Estatal de Meteorología) issued a yellow alert for winds gusting up to 70km an hour (6th Nov), which was extended over the weekend, just in time for the surfing finals!  read more »

Guillermo García the 23 year old representing Zaragoza was crowned Mister España 2009 at the Gala Night held at the hotel Princesa Yaiza in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote last night.

The 52 contestants for Mister España arrived in Lanzarote on Monday and have been visiting some of Lanzarote’s attractions before the Gala night on Saturday 28th November 2009. The fellas have been posing for photos at Timanfaya National Park where they had the full demonstrations of the water, fire and chicken cooked on the volcanic BBQ, they enjoyed a days cruise along the coast of Lanzarote with Karolines Cruceros and visited the Jameos del Agua, the La Geria region including Bodega Stratvs, Marina Rubicón and the Monumento al Campesino.

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The Dublin Irish pub situated in Calle Portugal, Arrecife in true Spanish style are starting their New Year’s Eve celebrations (Fiesta Fin de Año) at five to midnight! If you’ve ever gone into Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote to celebrate New Year’s Eve, the party doesn’t start until after twelve as the families have a meal at home first and pour on to the streets in their best after greeting the New Year where they will party until daylight.  read more »

The programme of events hasn’t yet been released for the Puerto del Carmen Carnaval in February 2010, but we do know the dates if you’re waiting to book flights for this really popular event. The main parade will be on Saturday 20th February 2010 if you haven’t seen one of our Lanzarote carnavals yet then you don’t know what you’re missing – they’re fabulous!

Why not book a half term holiday break with the kids for next February, Puerto del Carmen is a huge carnaval parade, floats start from Los Pocillos and work their way right down “The Strip” with hours of live music, dancing and the most incredible outfits – anything goes with carnaval and the skimpier or louder the outfit the better. Have a look at Monso’s video compiled from a mixture of the different Lanzarote carnavals to get you in the mood….  read more »