Lancelot 1 2 Lancelot Lancelot 3 4 Lancelot EDITORIAL CONTENTS Editorial ....................................................................... 5 “Treat the Earth well. It was not a gift to Letters ..................................................................... 6-11 you from your parents, it is on loan to you Ambassador support for Brits ................................ 12-14 from your children.” Paul Preston Honoured ......................................... 16-17 Kenyan proverb Fiscal Advice latest tax regulations ............................ 18 Property Guide ........................................................... 19 Round the Island by Car ........................................ 20-24 Why is Lanzarote Birth of the Tourist Industry .................................. 26-29 Lanzarote Breed of Camel .................................... 30-32 Health – dealing with loneliness ................................ 38 Different? Tourist Centres ...................................................... 40-41 Dear Holidaymakers Hotels and Sustainability ...................................... 42-48 Welcome back to Lanzarote or welcome to your Eating out and dining well ......................................... 49 first visit to Lanzarote – we are grateful that you Holiday on Lanzarote in 1967 ............................... 50-51 have chosen our resort for your holiday after all the Local and regional news round-up ........................ 52-69 unbelievable turmoil we have all suffered. But es- Canarian Government Promotur ........................... 52-53 pecially you our visitors having had to go through Cabildo Island Authority ....................................... 54-59 all the procedures involved in booking the holiday, Tias – Puerto del Carmen ...................................... 60-61 driving to the airport and flying here. Yaiza - Playa Blanca .............................................. 62-63 You might ask yourselves, why is Lanzarote di- fferent to all other vacation spots? The answer is San Bartolomé - Playa Honda ............................... 64-65 two words. César Manrique (1919-1992) the 100th Arrecife Tourism and Culture ................................ 66-67 anniversary of whose death was celebrated this Teguise - Costa Teguise ......................................... 68-69 year. His approach to nature was to create works of Ildefonso Aguilar Documentary ............................ 70-71 art which were, and remain, in total harmony with General Photo News .............................................. 72-73 their natural surroundings. Music Biography 1958-1979 ...................................... 74 In creating the island’s Tourist Centres on behalf Tourist Information .................................................... 75 of the Cabildo Island Government, Manrique placed Bridge ........................................................................ 76 a frame around nature enabling us to appreciate General Crossword Local Organisations ..................... 77 their true beauty without the addition of man-made enhancements. His creations benefited from the vi- Exhibitions – Concerts .....................................................78 sion of an artist who left the environment as he found Welcome to the Canary Islands .................................. 80 it without forcing his own imprint upon it. Thanks to Manrique the island is celebrating over 25 years as a United Nations-declared World Biosphere Reserve for having developed a thriving tourist destination in tandem with conservation of the environment, in tandem with sustainability. Manrique has been hailed by experts from all over the world for having pio- neered “Art in Public Spaces,” well before the phrase President: Antonio Coll became part of our everyday vocabulary. Lancelot Medios General Manager: Javier Betancort Having enjoyed your holiday you may wish to Director Lancelot TV: Jorge Coll buy a holiday-cum-retirement home on an island Honorary Editor: Larry Yaskiel with 12 months sunshine a year only a few hours Advertising and Layout: Liz Yaskiel Graphic Design: Betty Romero from the UK, Ireland and most European capitals. Photography: Jesús Betancort Have a great and holiday and arrive home safely Avda. Mancomunidad s/n (Arrecife Gran Hotel) and in good health. See you next time. 35500 Arrecife - Lanzarote Tel: 928 51 20 26 e-mail: [email protected] Merry Xmas and Happy New Year Published quarterly: 1 March, 1 June, 1 September, 1 December. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or Whilst every attempt is made to ensure that articles and broadcast without the written consent of the Publisher. advertisements are factually correct, the publishers and Copyright LANCELOT. Depósito Legal GC 846-2014 printers cannot be held responsible for any errors or Distibution: Totaldis - Printed by Minerva, Lanzarote omissions. Intending purchasers must satisfy themselves No. 153, 2021 by inspection or otherwise of each of their statements. http://www.lancelot.es/prensa.php e-mail:[email protected] Lancelot 5 LETTERS TO LANCELOT Memorable Holiday loved. In the years that followed we according to a preview of a docu- Dear Sir, met many local people and I’m still mentary being produced for the His- My wife and I first visited Lanza- in touch with some of them to this tory Channel, German U boats used rote in the year 1968. When a good day, among them the family of José to regularly stock up with supplies friend contacted a few weeks ago Juan Romero to whom I gave an ex- as well as refuel in Canarian waters. to tell me about the refurbishment tensive interview about our life here. There was supposedly a secret refu- and upgrading of the Hotel Fario- Yours sincerely, ge at Cofete on the coast of the isle of nes, it awakened a feeling of nos- Manfred Welling Fuerteventura owned by a German talgia in me as we had been among botanist by the name of Winter who the first Britons to stay there only a GUINEVERE Elsewhere in this issue, had leased a large amount of land short time after it had first opened. page 50-51, is the entire interview on the island several years before The coach which picked us up at the journalist José Juan Romero conduc- the war specifically for this purpose. airport drove us along a dirt track, ted with Manfred Welling. It is fas- Freddy Simpson, now the Avenida Las Playas to the cinating to read about the birth of a Portsmouth, UK hotel in Puerto del Carmen village. tourist resort some fifty-two years ago We came here because our travel which has become one of the most po- GUINEVERE According to most agent told us about a “wonderful pular in Europe, particularly among military historians, including Paul hotel in a desert landscape in the British and Irish holidaymakers. Preston and John Keegan, Spain’s middle of nowhere.” The streets wartime neutrality was a myth con- weren’t asphalted, electricity was The Canary Islands in cocted by the Nationalist and their just beginning to be installed, and World War 2 supporters after the event. They say life was quiet and peaceful, without Dear Sir, that that the Franco regime was an any traffic, no tourists of course or What happened in the Canary Is- enthusiastic supporter of Germany, signs of what we call “civilization.” lands during the Second World War? without whose assistance in 1936 It was exactly the sort of place we Spain was supposedly neutral but - in providing air transport for the 6 Lancelot LETTERS TO LANCELOT Army of Africa to cross the Straits Stern magazine, published the only zine that the island was discovered of Gibraltar from Spanish Moroc- interview Gustav Winter gave du- by an expedition from Normandy in co to mainland Spain – the Natio- ring his lifetime in which he denied 1402 led by a French nobleman ca- nalist coup would have stalled and everything about the rumours of a lled Juan de Bethencourt. If this was possibly failed. The leader of the submarine base on his land. Howe- the case, why do the Canary Islands rebellion, Franco had originally ver, other sources were quoted sa- belong to Spain and not France? flown to Morocco from the island ying that after the war a large amou- Colette Leclerc of Tenerife where he was stationed nt of German army uniforms were Lyon, France as Captain General of the Canary found in one of the rooms of the Islands. In return for their help, house and that Winter had also built GUINEVERE To answer your ques- Spain supplied materials to Ger- an airfield and road using prisoners. tion in one word, “money.” Befo- many during World War 2 as well as As early as June 1940, only re embarking on his journey, the submarine refueling facilities on the eight months after the outbreak of French nobleman had sought the mainland as well as the Canaries. WW2, Winston Churchill’s War Ca- financial assistance of his monarch An article published by Der Spie- binet discussed plans to occupy the Philip III of France, but was turned gel in 2006, reports that a German aerodromes and ports of the Spa- down. He then submitted a request engineer Gustav Winter (posing as a nish and Portuguese Atlantic Is- to Henry III of Castile who agreed botanist involved in environmental lands should Spain allow Germany to subsidise the expedition on the research) who was very close to the to enter its territory to attack Gi- condition that should the mission Nazi hierarchy, built a two-storey braltar. But this never transpired. succeed, the Canary Islands would house near the coast on Fuerteven- become part of the Spanish Crown. tura, with a lookout tower