Tenerife Magazine’s round up of the most interesting news stories of the week ending 30th May in Tenerife
Start Spreading the News…the Theme for Carnaval 2011 is Announced
It hardly seems as though the last cross-dresser has had time to hang up their laddered fishnets for another year when Carnaval raises its wild, unruly head again. The theme for 2011 was announced last week and it’s…wait for it…drum roll…Enrique González.
It’s not a name I was familiar with until now, but Enrique, who sadly passed away this month aged 86, is considered the father of the modern Santa Cruz Carnaval. The theme is by way of homage to him; although it”ll be interesting to see how they design a theme around a person.
Back From the Dead ““ The Yellow-eared Parrot; Not Quite as Dead as a Dodo
Raise a glass of cava to Puerto de la Cruz’ Loro Parque Foundation whose efforts in Colombia saw a breed of parrot, thought to be extinct only twelve years ago, moved from the ‘critically endangered’ list of species to being only ‘endangered’. Not quite out of the woods, but a remarkable achievement nonetheless. Who’s a clever boy then?
Facelift for an Old Dame ““ Hotel Mencey Shuts
The bad news is that one of Tenerife’s grandest and most historic hotels, The Mencey in Santa Cruz, shut its doors to guests this week. The good news is that it’s only closed while it receives a bit of a ‘nip and tuck’ so that it can reclaim its position as a shining example of the sort of elegant and stylish 5 star hotel they don’t make anymore, but with 21st century mod cons. The plan is to have the old dame spruced up in time for Christmas with the doors re-opening to guests around 30th November. That’s the plan, this is Tenerife…we shall see.
Under shark Attack ““ Tenerife’s Fish Farms
Tenerife’s fish farms came under attack this week with environment and ecology professor, Angel Luque saying they were the marine equivalent of pig and chicken farms. More worrying was Ashotel president, Fernando Cabrera’s claim that to increase the number of cages in tourist areas would not only add an eyesore to visitors” vistas (actually I’ve heard that the dolphin community bitches a lot about the effect of high-rise hotels on their view of the land), but that they’d attract dolphins (good) and…sharks (not so good).
As many are placed near to Tenerife’s most popular tourist beaches, the warning that it can be a bit ‘nippy’ in the sea might take on a whole new meaning.
Sunbathing in Santa Cruz ““ Parque MarÃtimo Opens for Summer
It came as a bit of a shock to the people at the Works and Municipal services department in Santa Cruz when the director of Parque MarÃtimo confirmed that it would reopen its doors this summer. Work on the swimming pool complex is nowhere near completion. Santa Cruceros, who have been without their city centre sunbathing shrine for more than a year, will be able to cool down in two of the pools in the complex whilst work continues to complete the refurbishment ““ and the workmen won’t be hampered at all by the site of chicas parading past them in micro bikinis. When asked when the park would re-open for summer a Santa Cruz council spokesperson replied with assured certainty that the park would open in June, before adding in typical Tenerife style …‘or maybe in the two months after that.”
And finally the TIT (This Is Tenerife) of the week award goes to…
Thanks to Colin Kirby for pointing out that screening films such as Dante’s Peak, The Day the World Ended and Pompeii ““ The Last Day in Puerto de la Cruz to coincide with COV6-Tenerife might not actually help the cause of a conference partly designed to ease people’s worries about the threat from volcanoes.
But the winner of this week’s TIT (this is Tenerife) award goes to Tenerife’s Medio Ambiente who, following their announcement last week about demolishing the terraces at the Hotel El Médano, now want to demolish the whole row of buildings adjacent to the hotel including the wonderful little tapas restaurants overlooking the sea. In a time when Spain has voted for austerity measures, these jobsworths want to waste money destroying an important aspect of one of the most attractive coastal towns in the south of Tenerife. Anyone got a big box of common sense we can pass on to them?
