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17-01-2019, 01:34 AM
Tuesday 15th Jan 2019 – day 1 of the new visitor rules for Los Lobos.
From this date visitors must obtain a Cabildo permit to visit, either 10-2pm or 2-6pm.
I had duly obtained permits for the afternoon session for myself, MLA & Mrs MLA.
I knew a ferry had run previously leaving Corralejo at 1pm but as this would arrive at 1.30pm (too early) I supposed that the ferry company would have adjusted their times to match the permit times.
We arrived at the harbour at 1pm but with no parking available had to turn back and park elsewhere and then walk back to the ferry office. The ferry had just left, sailing at its normal time, no adjustment to match the permits! Next ferry would be 3.30pm and last ferry back would be 5pm, so 1.5 hours instead of the 4 hours offered by the permit! I was not a happy bunny. I knew the lady in the ferry office and she was up in arms about the whole permit business and the lack of collaboration between the Cabildo and the Ferry company. She suggested we made a complaint to the Cabildo in the hope they would take action to resolve the issue. So off we trooped up the Ayuntamiento/Cabildo building, found the right office and started to tell our tale. The lady here insisted that the complaint form be completed in Spanish, despite it being a tourism complaint (how many tourists speak Spanish well enough for that?). I said I would take the form home to complete and return it the next day.
Walking past the booths selling excursion tickets I spotted a Spanish guy in one, Jesus, who I had known for years. After 5 minutes of mutual greetings I told him we needed to get to Lobos, could he help? He whipped out his phone and called a mate who has a water taxi, within moments we had a return voyage booked at the same cost the ferry would have been. And just time to grab a quick coffee/loo stop before the off. We headed to La Loncha, sat down and ordered coffees only to be told we could only have a table if we were eating! At this point Jesus appeared again and suddenly we were welcome to have a table. Very promptly our skipper found us at La Loncha and took us to our taxi, a RIB. One bench seat, no belts, no life-jackets, no hand holds but at least our bags went in a locker. Gently out of the harbour and then he wound it up – great fun! We were there in about 10 minutes. The tide was pretty low so we had to watch our step disembarking. There was NO Checkpoint Charlie!! All the fuss about permits ……
We had about 2 hours to spend on the island so not enough time to walk to the lighthouse on this visit. Instead we had a gentle stroll around the nearby area: lovely little old port and beach, restaurant (needs booking, apparently good food but very limited menu, paella or fresh fish), visitor centre (amazing skeleton on display but no info board – is it a lobo/sea-wolf?), lime kiln, salt pans, amazing views and then the main beach. The sea looked so inviting we just had to go in for a swim, chilly but invigorating. A brisk walk back to the jetty soon warmed us up and we were back on the water in the RIB. The skipper took us around the side of the island to see the remaining half of the volcano, the crater was under the water where we idled looking up at where the birds nest. A quick trip back over to Corralejo bouncing over the waves. Was impressed with the skipper who spotted debris in the water and stopped the RIB to take it onboard.
All in all a fun, interesting and invigorating afternoon, hopefully soon to be repeated.
![[Image: SRyQ3Ja.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/SRyQ3Ja.jpg)
![[Image: kkKmrTu.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/kkKmrTu.jpg)
More photos will be posted in the gallery.
From this date visitors must obtain a Cabildo permit to visit, either 10-2pm or 2-6pm.
I had duly obtained permits for the afternoon session for myself, MLA & Mrs MLA.
I knew a ferry had run previously leaving Corralejo at 1pm but as this would arrive at 1.30pm (too early) I supposed that the ferry company would have adjusted their times to match the permit times.
We arrived at the harbour at 1pm but with no parking available had to turn back and park elsewhere and then walk back to the ferry office. The ferry had just left, sailing at its normal time, no adjustment to match the permits! Next ferry would be 3.30pm and last ferry back would be 5pm, so 1.5 hours instead of the 4 hours offered by the permit! I was not a happy bunny. I knew the lady in the ferry office and she was up in arms about the whole permit business and the lack of collaboration between the Cabildo and the Ferry company. She suggested we made a complaint to the Cabildo in the hope they would take action to resolve the issue. So off we trooped up the Ayuntamiento/Cabildo building, found the right office and started to tell our tale. The lady here insisted that the complaint form be completed in Spanish, despite it being a tourism complaint (how many tourists speak Spanish well enough for that?). I said I would take the form home to complete and return it the next day.
Walking past the booths selling excursion tickets I spotted a Spanish guy in one, Jesus, who I had known for years. After 5 minutes of mutual greetings I told him we needed to get to Lobos, could he help? He whipped out his phone and called a mate who has a water taxi, within moments we had a return voyage booked at the same cost the ferry would have been. And just time to grab a quick coffee/loo stop before the off. We headed to La Loncha, sat down and ordered coffees only to be told we could only have a table if we were eating! At this point Jesus appeared again and suddenly we were welcome to have a table. Very promptly our skipper found us at La Loncha and took us to our taxi, a RIB. One bench seat, no belts, no life-jackets, no hand holds but at least our bags went in a locker. Gently out of the harbour and then he wound it up – great fun! We were there in about 10 minutes. The tide was pretty low so we had to watch our step disembarking. There was NO Checkpoint Charlie!! All the fuss about permits ……
We had about 2 hours to spend on the island so not enough time to walk to the lighthouse on this visit. Instead we had a gentle stroll around the nearby area: lovely little old port and beach, restaurant (needs booking, apparently good food but very limited menu, paella or fresh fish), visitor centre (amazing skeleton on display but no info board – is it a lobo/sea-wolf?), lime kiln, salt pans, amazing views and then the main beach. The sea looked so inviting we just had to go in for a swim, chilly but invigorating. A brisk walk back to the jetty soon warmed us up and we were back on the water in the RIB. The skipper took us around the side of the island to see the remaining half of the volcano, the crater was under the water where we idled looking up at where the birds nest. A quick trip back over to Corralejo bouncing over the waves. Was impressed with the skipper who spotted debris in the water and stopped the RIB to take it onboard.
All in all a fun, interesting and invigorating afternoon, hopefully soon to be repeated.
More photos will be posted in the gallery.
