The Board of Directors of the Tourist Centers approved this Wednesday a proposal to improve the visit to Montañas del Fuego, in the Timanfaya National Park. One of the main points was to approve the installation of a parking lot for vehicles in the El Chinero area. The mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, has already expressed his opposition to the proposal, which he neither accepts nor will "ever" accept.
Machín is "not convinced" by the proposal of the Cabildo and the CEO, José Juan Lorenzo, and prefers that of National Parks, which proposed the installation of two parking lots, one in the municipality of Yaiza, in the area of the mill, and another in Tinajo, in Los Dolores. "Although my request was that Tinajo have 100 percent of the parking, given the discussion I agreed to share it with Yaiza," he said on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero.
Even, the mayor has pointed out that Natural Parks were willing to carry out a pilot experience in Tinajo during the summer, but the Cabildo "did not want to". This body has a study, which states that if two parking lots were placed in Tinajo and Yaiza, the increase in the entrance to Montañas del Fuego would be 1.30 euros. "I don't think tourists will stop entering for that money," said Machín, who has continued to defend this proposal because "nothing would be deteriorated, because everything is done."
However, it seems difficult for Machín to get away with it, since the Board of Directors gave its approval to the installation of the parking lot in El Chinero. "The Cabildo believes that it would lose tourism revenue with the parking lots in Tinajo and Yaiza and that the cost would be higher than what the study says," said the mayor.
"Lest we be tempting the devil"
Machín explained that the first thing he told the CEO of the Centers, José Juan Lorenzo, about the El Chinero proposal was the need to commission a load or geotechnical study of the area. "We have a very superficial active volcano underneath. We need to know if it supports the weight of more than 300 vehicles parked in a specific point. For safety, lest we be tempting the devil," he said.
In addition, the mayor would like to know what formulas the Cabildo has thought of to "compensate" Tinajo, because the parking lot in Los Dolores to get from there to Timanfaya through shuttle buses "would reactivate the municipality's economy."
"First, let a volcanologist come, let him say what there is or not, lest we complicate things further. All the cars fit in Los Dolores," insisted Machín, who "will begin the defense of his proposal."
The mayor of Tinajo wanted to make it clear that the queues to enter the Timanfaya National Park give a "shameful" image, but it is also a "painful and dangerous" situation. "Until one day a misfortune occurs and then we will regret it."
