New complaint about the absence of taxis in Arrecife when cruise ships arrive

Asks that the authorities "get out of their official car and take a walk when a cruise ship arrives. I challenge you to live in our rabbit capital one of these days"

May 1 2024 (09:40 WEST)
Updated in May 1 2024 (10:44 WEST)
Arrival of a cruise ship in the Port of Arrecife this week. Photo: Tailiana Flores
Arrival of a cruise ship in the Port of Arrecife this week. Photo: Tailiana Flores

Lanzarote resident Tailiana Flores has publicly denounced that with the arrival of cruise ships to Arrecife and "while the tourist who visits the island is delighted with its landscapes" taking taxi routes, the local population has to live "the bitter part of the matter" by being left without a service to travel with.

"There are about a hundred taxis in the fleet, only from Arrecife," she began, however, when a cruise ship arrives on the island, taxi drivers "prefer to wait in the port for the crowded guests" and thus "satisfy their curiosity to explore an island full of volcanoes, natural areas protected by the Biosphere, trails, wineries, virgin or not so virgin beaches already".

Meanwhile, the rabbit neighbors wait in "empty stops and cross their fingers" for Radiotaxi to respond and send a vehicle. "We resign ourselves to queuing or walking to Social Security, the SEPE, the bank branch because in each and every one of the places, to be attended you have to have a prior appointment and arrive on time," she added.

In this line, Flores has asked herself: "What happens in Lanzarote? Are we losing the north? We already know very well that we belong to that select group of islands that live at the expense of tourism. Visitors lulled by the de-stressing atmosphere of retirement or the routine morning cava that serves as an impulse to get off the cruise ship and start touring in our taxis an almost science fiction island. But what about us ordinary citizens? What happens in Arrecife, when a cruise ship arrives?"

This citizen has narrated her ordeal through the streets of Arrecife during a morning to go to work due to the lack of taxis. To begin with, she has denounced the conditions in which citizens wait to have an analysis done at the Valterra health center and has proposed to the authorities to put "some of those little benches from Calle Fajardo" so that patients, including the elderly and children, can sit while they wait to be attended.

On the way to find transportation, she waited for a taxi driver to appear in the capital and came across two vehicles, one from Tinajo and the other from San Bartolomé. "Yesterday I also discovered that taxis from other locations are not authorized to transport passengers from other locations," she warned and at the same time highlighted: "Who is in charge of organizing this American-style mess? Why are no measures taken in this regard to favor both?"

To conclude, she has asked the island's authorities to "get out of their official car and take a walk through our capital when a cruise ship arrives. I challenge you to live in our wonderful rabbit capital, as a real rabbit, for just one of these days".

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