Glorious horizons

The magazine you’re holding has a marine flavour this month, reflecting the constant presence of the sea in Lanzarote’s life. This is the best season to enjoy everything our beaches and coasts have to offer, with shimmering, warm waters; glorious, mellow days of sunshine and endless horizons that offer promise and wonder.

It’s been great to see increasing amounts of tourists flocking to those beaches recently, and the school holidays mean that plenty of kids have been having some well-deserved fun, too. This month, many of them will go back to school, and hopefully it’ll be a more enjoyable experience than it has been over the last 18 months.

Young people have suffered a lot during this pandemic. For many small ones, it has been a genuinely frightening time, while older ones have seen their social lives destroyed, education disrupted, jobs lost and horizons shrink. They’ve also been unfairly blamed by the mainstream and social media, simply because they gather outdoors rather than behind locked doors like their parents. Footage of young people in Arrecife being lined up against a wall by armed police with dogs during the curfew earlier this year was one of the most disturbing things I saw during the pandemic.

During a summer of laughter and activity, I’ve been hugely impressed by the humour and optimism of the young people that I’ve met. As they return to their desks, their studies and their lives this month, lets wish them all the best, and offer our gratitude and respect.

I know that Lanzarote is a terrific place to raise your children, and I also know that the future of this young island depends on those kids. Let’s hope their horizons are as glorious as the ones all around us this autumn.

Enjoy the mag, Shaun.