What you can see on the Arrecife webcam
The camera looks from the marina across a sheltered basin to the long cruise quay, lined with lamp posts, with the open Atlantic beyond the harbour wall. When the dock is empty, it is a calm study of water and sky; when a ship is alongside, its hull fills the background. For cruise passengers' families at home, it is a simple way to see whether the ship has arrived, and for everyone else a quick check on the swell running outside the wall.
The cruise ship dock in Arrecife
This camera looks from the marina in Arrecife across a sheltered basin to the long cruise quay of Lanzarote's port, lined with tall lamp posts, with the open Atlantic beyond the harbour wall. When the berth is empty, the picture is all water, concrete and sky; when a cruise ship is alongside, it towers over the quay.
It streams live around the clock, with the date and time in the corner. It is the one to watch to see a ship arrive or sail, to find out whether a cruise has docked, or simply to check the state of the sea outside the port.
A capital that grew behind a reef
The city takes its name from the black volcanic reefs off its shore, behind which boats could hide from pirates; arrecife is the Spanish word for reef. The protection was not complete: in 1571 a pirate named Dogan sacked the little port almost entirely. Two fortresses still guard it. The Castillo de San Gabriel sits on an islet reached by the Puente de las Bolas, and the 18th-century Castillo de San José, on the shore north of the centre, now houses a museum of modern art. On an island with almost no fresh water, Arrecife was also where Lanzarote's first seawater desalination plant opened, in 1964.
When to watch Arrecife
Lanzarote keeps the same time as the UK and Ireland. Most cruise ships call in the cooler half of the year, from autumn to spring, when they follow the sun south from northern Europe, so that is when the dock is busiest on camera. The view looks out to sea from the shore, and in the morning the sun comes up over the water ahead.
Around Arrecife
Playa del Reducto is the town beach, a curve of pale sand sheltered by reefs. In the centre, the Charco de San Ginés is a tidal lagoon lined with fishermen's houses and small boats. Costa Teguise is a few miles to the north-east and Puerto del Carmen a little further to the south-west.
Visiting Arrecife
Lanzarote airport is only about 4 miles (7 km) away as the crow flies. A seafront promenade links the port with the city centre, the lagoon and the beach.
