The tender for the endowment and management of the hostel for walkers of San Juan de la Rambla will take place once the review of the specifications by the municipal legal services is completed. This facility will be subject to a regulation of use and to what is established by the ordinance that will regulate the rates. The mayor, Ezequiel Domínguez, hopes that this entire process will be completed “as soon as possible.”
This hostel for hikers is the first in the north of the Island and arises from the reconversion of the old restaurant and viewpoint of the Mazapé. For this, the Rambler City Council invested around 200,000 euros in a work carried out in two phases. The first, consisting of a project drawn up by the Municipal Technical Office, had a budget of about 90,000 euros, which included the creation of four rooms for visitors and one for staff, with the idea of being able to house about 22 people. The second had a budget of around 120,000 euros and focused on the improvement and restoration of the kitchen, the warehouse, the facilities room, the reception and the dining room. Where the greatest change was made is in the space dedicated in the past to the dining room and restaurant, places in which four rooms were enabled, one of them with a glass wall. The property has a natural purification system, solar panels for hot water and a heat pump, as well as an alarm and surveillance system with cameras.
The work concluded in mid-2019 and the purpose announced by the municipal government of the moment (the current one, but with Fidela Velázquez as mayor) was to tender the management that same year, to put it into service in 2020. But the judicial decisions forced the change in the Mayor’s Office, which paused the file. Later, the pandemic forced a review of the use of the budget.
The mayor, Ezequiel Domínguez, defends the need for this resource as a «tool that helps to recover and maintain our heritage and that will help position San Juan de la Rambla in a growing tourist segment». He explains that the change in use of the space was due to the fact that the place “was not sustainable” only as a viewpoint. In fact, its location “at a crossroads that receives many visitors” favors the City Council’s purpose of turning this place into a tourist attraction resource.
The list of conditions under review includes the operation of the nearby Risco de las Pencas mill, “one of the infrastructures located around the hostel for hikers that will help generate recreational activities linked to nature.”
The recovery of the Mazapé viewpoint arises in the previous term, with Fidela Velázquez as mayor. Its construction began in the last years of the 20th century, it cost 725,000 euros and it was inaugurated in 2005. The panoramic view that can be seen from the place covers the North coast, from Buenavista to Punta del Hidalgo. The failure of three administrative concessions for the local restaurant led to the closure of this Cabildo facility in 2015. Vandalism depleted and destroyed the facilities.
