Dear guests,
Thank you for finding your way to us at Los Cocoteros. We hope you will relax here, fall in love with our quiet village and this lovely little island, and perhaps not be here for the last time.
If you have any questions or if something is missing, please do not hesitate to contact us. In the meantime, we would like to share a few practical pieces of information that might interest you during your stay with us and on the island.
Parking
No problem 🙂
Internet
The first thing you'll likely look for upon arrival is internet connection. Many places on the island have no signal, and Los Cocoteros is one of them. However, each accommodation has wifi, with varying coverage.
Surf Garden Wifi: luky, password: surfgarden
Casa Los Cocos
El Pancho - wifi: Mercusys, no password
Caleta - Movistar_BA33, password: 3R97F83X2494A9f
Water
Please try to save water. Why, you ask?
Water is the most precious commodity on the island. There are no rivers, lakes, and almost no underground water (except for the galleries on Famara, which have never been used). In the past, people survived here thanks to ingenious techniques for collecting water from the few rains and from dew. Since 1964, drinking and utility water has ben sourced from a desalination plant near Arrecife. The energy source is diesel, imported to the island by tankers. A byproduct of both utility and drinking water is brine. For every liter of drinking water, 1.5 liters of this toxic saline solution is returned to the ocean. The water pipes are also old and damaged in many places, leading to losses of up to 48%. In other words, it’s a nightmare. Another reason to conserve water is the cost, which increases exponentially as the amount used grows.
Sometimes, the water supply on different parts of the island may be completely stopped, which can last from several hours to several days. At Casa Los Cocos, you won’t notice this, as water is automatically supplied from a reserve tank. However, at Surf Garden, you need to switch to one of the tanks, aljibe, where we store reserve water. Therefore, if the water stops, please let us know immediately.
Hot water
It takes about 10 minutes for the water to heat up, so it is a good idea to always wait those 10 minutes before you enter after another person has taken shower.
Drinking Water
The water coming from the tap is safe for cooking, making tea or coffee, and brushing your teeth. You can drink it, but it doesn’t taste great. Most island residents buy drinking water at supermarkets or have it delivered in reusable glass bottles. To minimize environmental impact, we have a special tap on the right side of the sink in the outdoor kitchen at Surf Garden. The water from this tap has gone through osmosis and tastes very good. If reducing plastic is important to you, we recommend buying only one large bottle of water for emergencies, and refilling in Surf Garden. One interesting fact is that osmosis creates a considerable amount of waste water, but we collect this water in another water tank where it rests and is later used for garden watering.
Gas
Our cookers are mostly gas-powered. There is no gas pipeline on the island, and all gas is delivered in gas bottles. If you notice the gas on the cooker is running low, please let us know as soon as possible, and we will quickly replace the bottle.
Kitchen
Feel free to use any food or spices you find in the kitchen. There will definitely be salt, sugar, oil, spices, tea, and coffee. We also kindly ask that you not to throw away any food when you leave, including old vegetables and fruit, as our lovely rabbits and chickens animals can enjoy them 🙂
Laundry
The washing machine is outdoors so all guests can access it. You may find some detergent, washing soap or powder by the washing machine, but if you have personal preferences, better to buy some small amount.
Waste
Under the kitchen sink, you’ll find two, but usually three, garbage bins. On the island, we recycle:
Plastics (yellow containers), which also include tetrapaks and cans.
Paper (blue containers)
General waste (black containers)
Glass (green containers)
As for organic waste, we currently don’t have a compost, but most organic leftovers are happily consumed by our chickens and rabbits. You can give the chickens almost anything except onion and banana peels. If you want to give them eggshells, please crush them into small pieces. If large pieces are given, the chickens may start breaking their own eggs. The rabbits love fresh vegetables and bread, but the bread must be dry and hard.
Important: please throw ALL hygienic paper into the trash, and it will be taken out with the general waste (black containers).
There are two sites with containers in Los Cocoteros, on the way out from the village. The first is on the right side, just before you turn left to go down direction of the sea and the second is also on the right side, when leaving Coco Chico, the small urbanizacion at the very beginning of the village.
Sports equipment
We have a variety of sports equipment available for our guests. We can usually provide wetsuits, surfboards, and bodyboards. We also have a few surfskates, tennis rackets, snorkels, fishing rods, and balls (those that survived our dogs playing with them 🙂), just ask. At Surf Garden, there’s a trampoline and swings, where both children and adults are welcome.
There should be yoga pads in each accommodation. If for some reason they are missing, just say so and we will bring you a couple. You can also find them in the Surf Garden
next to the grill in the shared kitchen. At Casa Los Cocos you can work out on one of the terraces in the accommodation or on the roof when it's not blowing too much. Surf Garden has a large terrace with beautiful views of the village and the ocean. You can practice there on wooden pads (you will find them all under the wooden stairs). We try to practice every morning (although it is not always possible), so if you would like to join, let us know the day before.
Nearest Swimming
In the village, there is a natural pool, La Charca. You can swim in it all day, but it’s best at high tide when there is the most water. The times for high and low tides change every day, so it’s best to google them each day.
About five minutes' walk south from La Charca is the cove La Caleta. There’s a small black beach, a wooden sunbathing platform, and a pier made of large stones, which are also good for sunbathing and jumping into the water.
If you head north along the coast, you’ll first come to Cueva del Agua, on a hill behind a lonely complex of houses right on the coast. You can swim here only when the sea is calm. It’s always a beautiful sight though. If you continue along the coast further north for 20 minutes, you’ll reach the nudist village Charco de Palo, where there are two small natural pools and one protected cove with steps into the water.
Arrieta – about an 8-minute drive north, is the town of Arrieta with a sandy beach.
Costa Teguise – about a 15-minute drive by car, is a pleasant tourist town with a variety of beaches. Las Cucharas is good for windsurfing and El Jablillo for snorkeling.
Shops
For bigger shopping, it’s best to go to Arrecife. We usually shop at the Mercadona supermarkets or Lidl. All other supermarkets are more expensive. If you’re looking for quality meat, fruit, and vegetables, we recommend one of the stores from the local chain El Chacon.
Shops in other parts of the island are significantly more expensive and offer limited selection. The nearest shop to Los Cocoteros is Coviran in the village of Guatiza (2.5 km). The only good feature of this shop is its opening hours, every day until at least 20:00, including weekends and holidays. You can also shop quite well at the Pcan gas station in Arrieta, where you’ll find everything from food, souvenirs, batteries, chargers, toiletries, to construction materials :). On the left-hand corner of the main street in Arrieta, there’s a fairly good food shop for local standards.
Restaurants close by
There is a teleclub, local bar, right in Los Cocoteros, in Calle Laurel. It is open from Thursday to Sunday and they serve both lunch and dinner. There are other restaurants in Guatiza, the closest village just 2.5 km away, and a whole variety of restaurants in Costa Teguise (12 min ride).
Arrieta is also a good place to eat, just check the opening times, as the restaurants there close on different days and usually quite early at night. Casa de la Playa is a great place with good selection of fish and seafood, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Very nice is Amanecer for evening dining, Casa Paco for churros on weekend morning and there is also a good takeaway, on the right side, just as you turn to Arrieta from the roundabout.
In Punta Mujeres, there is a nice pizzeria Mamma Grazia (a reservation is sometimes handy), and the bar Piscina is very popular among locals.
Massages
If you fancy a massage right in your accommodation, we cooperate with a great massagist Jana, who provides a great facial and body relaxing massages. You can contact her directly on her Instagram (lavabeautylanzarote) or her phone number 663 42 68 04.
Enjoy your stay!