Tenerife Magazine’s round up of some of the most interesting news stories of the week in Tenerife
Flowers in the Rain ““ Corpus Christi in La Orotava 2010
The unthinkable happened. After a blisteringly hot day previously, the weather turned fickle and rained incessantly on La Orotava’s Corpus Christi parade. The only water the flower carpets are normally drenched in during the day of the flower carpets is the spray from alfombrista’s watering cans. That changed this year as the heavens opened for the first time since 1942 and even prayers to the local saint, San Isidro Labrador couldn’t work miracles and stop the rain.
However, you’ll notice from the picture of this year’s main flower tapestry in full sunshine, that here at Tenerife Magazine we can.
The Sweet Smell of Santa Cruz
It was good news, bad news time this week for visitors to the capital Santa Cruz. The good news came as a representative of the Dirección General de Calidad del Aire del Gobierno de Canarias announced that the oil refinery CEPSA was going to implement plans to eliminate up to 90 percent of the sulphuric odours emanating from their refinery. The bad news was that we’ll no longer be able to blame that unpleasant smell in the car as we drive into Santa Cruz on CEPSA for much longer.
The Demolition of Tenerife’s Coastline
Anyone living near the coast on Tenerife must be going through very nervy times at the moment. Thirty houses on the coast in Arafo and GüÃmar are due to feel the wrecking crew not so much knocking on their doors as knocking down their doors to make way for improvements to the seafront at Playa de La Viuda and Play de Lima. Apparently part of the improvements will include a nice new promenade for people to stroll along. How lovely for them and much more important than having a house to return to at the end of their stroll.
Double Park to Your Heart’s Content on Tenerife
A slip up of banana skin proportions was revealed this week when a draft for a new traffic law had the complete opposite of the effect it was supposed to have. The law was intended to make it easier for police to tow away cars that violated parking regulations, but instead was worded in such a way that meant that only town mayors and not the local police had the power to authorise gruas to tow cars away.
Apparently if the police tow away your car at the moment, you can insist it’s returned and be reimbursed for any cost ““ yeah right, I’m not going to rush out and test that little claim.
And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…
The person in the Cabildo responsible for coming up with a bright plan to make the volume of traffic between the north of Tenerife and Santa Cruz flow easier during morning rush hour. Anyone with half a brain could see what the outcome was going to be when it was announced that one of the lanes heading north from Santa Cruz was going to be reversed and turned into a lane heading into the capital Santa Cruz between 6 and 10am on Thursday 10th June.
There were no surprises the following day to read reports that there was absolute chaos on the road between Tacoronte and Los Rodeos (the area where the trial was taking place) with queues stretching back for miles.
Bemused commuters reported that a journey which normally took fifteen minutes took an hour and twenty five minutes during the trial. A big success then.
Why don’t the Cabildo consult someone who actually possesses a modicum of common sense before they proceed with plans that even the residents of Loro Parque could tell them were doomed to failure?
