Arricife
Arricife is I think the spanish word for reef, and we are anchored at the entrance to a complex and shallow passage between several reefs that eventually leads into a lagoon in the middle of the town . There is an old castle , built on the breakwater on one of the reefs, which saw much action in the 16th century when pirates were in the habit of sacking the town ,and indeed the island.
For a place with such a colourful history there are very few old buildings ( I understand that most of these are well inland as that was the only place safe from attack ) but it is nevertheless a nice, rather understated town with some very tasteful buildings and none of the rampant development that I had expected .
It has one quite startling claim to fame – it has a 4 story shoe shop and it seems such a waste to be here without Bryony as she would be in seventh heaven. There is in fact only one building on the Island that is higher!
Its other claim to fame is the local speciality of potatoes in red Mojo sauce. We had to try it – and very tasty it was too – but so far no sign of any Austin Powers like effects .
The wind has dropped and we will probably leave in the morning to explore further down the coast before holing up for a few days as strong winds are on their way. Sounds like a good time to explore inland!
The crew of Impacable will be in Arricife by 17 December, but minus the boat. You will be long gone by then. We are naturally very jealous. The low rise nature of the development there (a planned strategy in Lanzarote) makes it quite different to the other bigger islands such as Tenerife and G. Canaria and really very pleasant. If you go up the volcanic mountains watch out for the Camels. You can do a lot of the Island by the local bus and it is cheap too – or it was a few years ago.