What you can see on the Pozo Izquierdo webcam
The camera looks over the village promenade, with its palms and chequered paving, to the bay and the low, stony point that closes it on the right. It is a live video, and it is mostly a wind gauge: bent palms and rows of whitecaps mean a strong breeze, and on the right days you can pick out windsurfers' sails crossing the bay. On calm days the same view shows how big the waves are, which is what the local surfers want to know.
How hard is it blowing in Pozo Izquierdo?
PozoWinds, the water-sports centre beside the beach, mounts this camera on the top of its building, and stamps the date and time on the picture. It looks over the promenade, with its chequered paving, lamp posts and a few tall palms, to the bay. The shore curves away to the right as a bank of grey boulders and ends in a low point of brown, stony ground; beyond it is open Atlantic.
Check the palms first: when their fronds stream out sideways, the trade wind is up. Then the water: lines of whitecaps across the bay mean a day for sailors, and the centre reckons that 20 to 22 knots or more is enough to windsurf. On those days you may see sails racing across the picture, while on calm days the white lines along the boulders show the size of the waves.
A village built around the wind
The name means "left-hand well", after a freshwater well that once stood by the beach. What made it famous came later: the north-east trade wind speeds up as it squeezes past the east side of Gran Canaria, and here it blows hard and side-onshore, from the left as you face the sea. The bay has long been a stop on the professional windsurfing world tour, and it is where Björn Dunkerbeck and the twin sisters Daida and Iballa Moreno, all multiple world champions, learned to sail. The wind turbines on the hills around the village are there for the same reason.
When to watch Pozo Izquierdo
Gran Canaria keeps UK and Irish time, so the scene on the camera is happening at the same hour as at home. Summer brings the strongest wind, usually building through the day; winter brings lighter wind but bigger waves. If you are only coming to watch the sailors, a breezy afternoon in July is the time.
Around Pozo Izquierdo
The beaches of Arinaga and Vargas are a few miles to the north, and the resorts of Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas about half an hour's drive south-west.
Visiting Pozo Izquierdo
Gran Canaria airport is about 8 miles (12 km) to the north. The shore is rocky and the water often rough, so this is a place for experienced sailors rather than swimmers; spectators can watch from the promenade, which runs right along the bay.
