What you can see on the Isla Canela webcam
The camera looks out from a beach bar at the edge of the dunes, through tufts of grass, over a very wide beach to the open ocean. It shows how far the tide has gone out, how big the waves are as they break in long lines along the shore and how many people are walking on the sand, which outside the summer holidays is rarely many. It is a time-lapse rather than live video, built from pictures taken through the day.
Isla Canela beach and the Atlantic surf
The camera of a beach bar on Isla Canela looks south from the edge of the dunes, through tall feathery grass, across one of the widest beaches on this coast to the Atlantic. Footprints and tyre tracks cross the sand in the foreground; further out, a shallow channel of seawater sometimes lies along the shore, and the waves break in long white lines beyond it.
Few people walk here outside the summer holidays, and the camera shows that at a glance. It is a time-lapse, not live video: run through the day to watch the tide come and go and the sea calm down or build. The light is best early in the morning, as around midday the glare off the water can wash out the left of the picture.
One river, two clocks
Isla Canela keeps Spanish time, one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. Portugal, across the river, keeps the same time as London and Dublin, so a trip over the border puts your watch back an hour. The crossing is easy: the Guadiana International Bridge, opened in 1991, carries the road just north of Ayamonte, and a small ferry crosses the river between Ayamonte and Vila Real de Santo António. The towns on both banks even work together as a cross-border "Eurocity".
When to watch Isla Canela
The beach faces south, so the sun is in front of the camera through the middle of the day; the light is softest early in the morning and towards sunset. This is the Atlantic, with tides that change the width of the beach through the day and water noticeably cooler than the Mediterranean. Summers are hot and dry, and the easterly levante can blow for days at a time.
Around Isla Canela
At the eastern end of the island lies the fishing village of Punta del Moral, and behind the beach the salt marshes are full of wading birds. Ayamonte, about 4 miles (6 km) away, has an old town of whitewashed streets along the river, and over the bridge the beaches of the eastern Algarve begin.
Visiting Isla Canela
Most British and Irish visitors fly to Faro, about 48 miles (77 km) away by road; Seville airport is about 95 miles (155 km) to the east. The island has an 18-hole golf course, a marina and hotels along the beach.
